Stay up to date on Morgan Plus Four stories from top car industry writers - Hagerty Media https://www.hagerty.com/media/tags/morgan-plus-four/ Get the automotive stories and videos you love from Hagerty Media. Find up-to-the-minute car news, reviews, and market trends when you need it most. Fri, 07 Jun 2024 10:14:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 Morgan Plus Six: Timeless Looks, State-of-the-Art Drive https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/morgan-plus-six-timeless-looks-state-of-the-art-drive/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/morgan-plus-six-timeless-looks-state-of-the-art-drive/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2024 13:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=404104

Overtaking opportunities are rare on the B-roads that wend their way through the Wye Valley. Here on the border between England and Wales, a region that literally prompted the very first use of the word “picturesque,” finding a straight with sufficient visibility and length to safely pass a car ahead requires patience.

Since collecting this Morgan Plus Six from the factory, its BMW TwinPower engine has barely been tempted above tickover. The eight-speed automatic upshifts to the highest gear appropriate to road speed as I meander through the country lanes. Even so, I find myself catching up to a couple of cars that are nowhere near troubling the speed limit.

A press of the Sport + button immediately adds an eagerness to the throttle, and I slot the gear selector over to allow the use of the paddle shifters in anticipation of a possible passing shot. It comes as I round a right-hander, so I nudge the left paddle down a couple of clicks and floor it.

2024 Morgan Plus Six 9
Nik Berg

What follows is quite the surprise. For me—and the two dawdlers that I fly past. The acceleration is, frankly, brutal and really quite incongruous with the Morgan’s outward appearance. Then there’s the noise. A whoosh of turbos spooling up, a pop from the exhaust between upshifts, and a crackle on the overrun as I back off.

I’d experienced some of this in the Plus Four last year, but in the Six everything is cranked up above and beyond any expectation you might have from looking at it.

The styling is as traditional as ever. The flowing curves are hand-formed over an ash frame, using tools that haven’t changed for 70 years. It’s 4 inches wider than the Plus Four, to accommodate a greater track and bigger 18-inch standard alloy wheels, or 19-inch optional rims (the Plus Four runs 15-inchers). The Six also has a pair of extra driving lamps and is yet to benefit from the latest tweaks to the Four, which house indicators within the main lamp units and simplify the rear end with two instead of four taillights.

The cabin is pleasingly minimalist, with a flat painted dash, a lovely wooden center console, hand-trimmed leather, and deep wool carpets. A small digital screen is a little out of place, but the other analog instruments are spot on. Morgan’s own aluminum buttons look great, but the BMW parts are a bit of a letdown. It’s a necessary evil, of course, but the shiny gear selector, column stalks, and fixed paddles distract from an otherwise wonderfully hand-made feel.

On the plus (sorry) side, the BMW powertrain is a belter. With an extra two cylinders and 80 more horses over the Plus Four (for a total of 330) the Plus Six shaves a full second off the 0–62 mph acceleration time, bringing it down to just 4.2 seconds. Top speed increases from 149 mph to 166.

The truth is it feels even faster than that. The Plus Four I drove in the mountains of Switzerland was on winter tires, which squirmed under full load, while the Six is shod with sticky Continentals and never seems to struggle to put its power down, or trouble the now-standard ESC system.

The AP Racing brakes are superb, and so is the way the car whips through winding roads on revised bushes and dampers. Even with the heft of the bigger engine, the Plus Six only weighs 2456 pounds dry, and that gives it impressive agility through rapid direction changes. The steering is quick and decently feelsome too, loading up appropriately as the cornering forces increase.

Specs: 2024 Morgan Plus Six

  • Price: £93,603 ($119,361)
  • Powertrain: 3.0-liter fuel-injected, BMW TwinPower six-cylinder; 8-speed automatic transmission
  • Output: 330 hp @ 6500 rpm; 369 lb-ft
  • Layout: Rear-wheel-drive, two-door, two-passenger convertible
  • Fuel Economy: 38 mpg (U.K.) 31.6 mpg (U.S.)
  • Competitors: none

It’s a far cry from the last big-motor Morgan I drove. That was a Plus Eight, equipped with a 3.9-liter Rover V-8, and despite having only around 200 horsepower it was a wildly different ride, lacking the braking or cornering ability to match its straight-line speed. There was scuttle shake, a shocking ride quality, and attempting to drive it quickly was a white-knuckled, sweaty-palmed experience.

Some 30 years later, it’s only to be expected that the Plus Six is a marked improvement, but still its dynamic ability and outright performance are remarkable. Underneath that timeless body truly sits a modern sports car.

There is some bad news, however. Morgan has no current plans to bring the Plus Six to America. Instead, just 325 Plus Fours are to be imported each year under the Replica Bill approval process, and the Plus Six will remain forbidden fruit.

***

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With 115 Years Behind Him, Morgan’s CEO Looks Ahead https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/with-115-years-behind-him-morgans-ceo-looks-ahead/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/with-115-years-behind-him-morgans-ceo-looks-ahead/#comments Thu, 23 May 2024 13:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=399866

In the historic red brick building in which H.F.S. Morgan built his first vehicle 115 years ago, Morgan CEO Massimo Fumarola has just revealed one step on the company’s path to the future. The Midsummer barchetta, designed in conjunction with Pininfarina, could only have happened under his leadership and with his connection to the coachbuilder from his native Italy.

Fumarola is softly spoken, but his actions during the past two years in charge at the Malvern-based motor company speak louder than words. The Midsummer, limited in production to just 50 cars, sold out before it was publicly revealed. At over $300,000 each (when tailored to their buyers’ preferences), that’s a significant cash injection for a company that makes just 700 cars a year.

He has also succeeded in bringing Morgan back to the United States—once the brand’s biggest market. “Morgan was selling more cars in the U.S. than in the U.K. in the ’90s,” he says. “So there is definitely an opportunity. We will go to the U.S. with the Plus 4 under the Replica Bill approval process, this year, which allow us to sell up to 325 cars per year.”

The Super 3 is already on sale in America and globally, classed as a motorcycle and not so restricted. It’s the brand’s best-seller despite being a radical departure from tradition in the way it looks, is engineered, and built.

Morgan Motor Company shop interior wood work
Charlie Magee

Outwardly, Morgan is the most traditional of motor manufacturers. In the factory, artisans still hand cut timber to create the ash frames for the shapely aluminum bodywork of its four-wheelers that’s only subtly changed since the 1950s. The technology beneath the skin has moved on, with a rigid aluminum CX platform underpinning the company’s four-wheelers, and power and transmissions come from BMW. Stroll through the site, though, and it’s clear that Morgans remain very much hand-built in much the same way as they have been for decades. “You could talk to all 220 people who work here in one day,” smiles Fumarola.

His arrival at Morgan comes after an extensive career which began with Iveco trucks and included stints at Ferrari and Lamborghini. If you believe in destiny, it was perhaps inevitable.

“When I grew up, my neighbor was a member of the Italian Morgan club. He was an interesting guy, a journalist, very colourful. He knew everything about Morgan, he was telling me all the stories about the brand. So since I was a boy, I have always been attracted by this brand. It’s completely pure—authentic,” he recalls.

“I went through my studies, I went through my career in the automotive industry. I’ve always been looking at Morgan as something different unconventional and unique. I had always been dreaming of driving one and one day came the opportunity. I met the current ownership of Morgan, we started discussing, we put together a plan and we said okay, what a great opportunity it could be.”

He’s certainly been busy since. “I joined Morgan exactly two years ago and a lot of things changed. We reorganized our operation, we set up new processes, we launched the Super 3 and brought it into the U.S. We developed the XP-1 electric (below), the new Plus 4, and the Midsummer.”

Morgan XP-1 concept-2
Morgan

Looking further ahead, Fumarola has a clear vision of Morgan’s place in the automotive landscape. “We need to be consistent, we need to be mindful of our capability and what we do,” he explains. “However, there is a tremendous opportunity—I’m convinced about this—about leveraging on the past on the heritage and tradition of this brand. 115 years ago Morgan was born in this building. We never moved, we never stopped and we are so iconic and so undiluted, so unconventional in some respects. There is an opportunity to go more international more digital to start talking to a different audience, a younger generation. It’s not an easy job, it’s going to be a long way. But so far so good.”

The XP-1 that Fumarola mentions is unlikely to play a role, even though electrification will. “For most carmakers today developing and producing full electric cars is a more regulation-driven decision,” say the CEO. “In our case it may become an opportunistic decision to follow demand rather than following regulations.

“Given the latest regulation in Europe, we can actually produce internal combustion engine vehicles beyond 2035 because we produce less than 1,000 cars per year. So, we can go on forever with the current status of the regulations. We will definitely follow demand. There is a growing interest in some areas, in some countries, in main metropolitan areas, for example, for full electric. We have ideas, we are putting together plans. I don’t think that the right decision will be to electrify the current Plus 4 four or even the Super 3. So, the idea we have is that a certain point of time, we may have an additional model in the portfolio, which will be designed and engineered to be full electric.”

That sounds radical but Fumarola believes it is true to the brand. “Morgan has never produced an internal combustion engine in 115 years, so, in some respects, we are the best candidate to move into electrification,” he says. “There is a good fit between the core values of Morgan, and an electric car. It definitely will be light, will be fun to drive, it will be sensory, it will be analogue, despite the full electric powertrain, it will be everything that Morgan stands for.”

“But we need to manage this change, we need to measure transition. We need to be mindful, we need to be true to ourself, we need to measure very much the risk of developing new cars and repositioning the brand in a different territory. But the plan is there. We know what to do. And it’s very exciting.”

***

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The 2023 Morgan Plus Four is a surprisingly modern mountaineer https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/the-2023-morgan-plus-four-is-a-surprisingly-modern-mountaineer/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/the-2023-morgan-plus-four-is-a-surprisingly-modern-mountaineer/#comments Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:00:15 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=296119

It’s barely six degrees Fahrenheit at the summit of the Julier Pass. Visibility is zero, a full-blown whiteout. The edges of the road are practically invisible with the blizzard sending horizontal sheets across the windscreen. Snow ceaselessly accumulates onto the asphalt.

I’m the first person outside of the factory to be allowed behind the wheel of this updated 2023 Plus Four, and I briefly wonder whether perhaps we’re both a little too far out of our comfort zones. It may well be the most extreme test the roadster has ever been through. At the very least I suspect it is a situation in which precious few owners of Morgan’s latest Plus Four will find themselves.

2023 Morgan Plus4 front 3-4
Barry Hayden

This is, after all, a machine meant for pleasure drives and holidays. For meandering English country lanes, pausing for a pint and a ploughman’s lunch, or perhaps an ice cream by the coast. At an elevation of 7500 feet, the ice isn’t in a cone. It’s everywhere.

It’s the fifth and final Swiss high alpine pass that I’ve driven in as many days. Once I’m out of the mountains it will be a long haul across the autoroutes and routes nationale of neighboring France to the U.K., back home. But before we come to the end of this 2000-mile test drive, let’s go back to the beginning.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 on Julier Pass 2
It’s well below freezing at 7500 feet, thus the top is up. For now. Barry Hayden

Scaling new heights

In what has been the biggest shake-up in the boutique British sports car maker’s 110-year history, Morgan redesigned its four-wheel sports cars from the ground up in 2019. The process breathed new life into the Plus Four and replaced the long-running Plus 8 with the Plus Six. Morgan’s stalwart, steel ladder-frame chassis was retired in favor of a superformed aluminum structure dubbed “CX.”

The benefits of the CX chassis are extensive. Instead of having to measure, cut and fit Morgan’s trademark ash wood frame and aluminum body panels to each one individually, the company can now produce identical chassis and pre-cut frames with incredible accuracy. The process streamlined production and created a significantly stiffer structure—all while maintaining Morgan’s hand-built traditions.

2023 Morgan Plus 4engine
Barry Hayden

Morgan has always relied on external engine suppliers, including Ford, Fiat, Rover, Coventry Climax, and others. Continuing a relationship that began in the early 2000s with the V-8-powered Aero 8, Morgan turned to BMW for the Plus Four and Plus Six engines. The former uses a 2.0-liter, 255-hp turbocharged four-cylinder, while the latter uses a 335-hp 3.0-liter turbo straight-six. With BMW power came more sophisticated engine management, automatic transmissions, and even a digital dashboard.

For 2023 those engines remain unchanged, but the power now comes with even better control. Suspension dampers and bushings have been finessed. There are AP Racing brakes, new calibrations for the automatic gearbox and, for the first time ever in a Morgan, electronic stability control and dual airbags. These significant updates mean that the Plus Four will meet U.S. federal regulations (under the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act) and join the Super 3 in America before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the interior has been enhanced with a wider choice of fabrics, a single-piece aluminum dash, wonderful wooden marquetry for the center console, and a Sennheiser audio system which uses the uses the chassis structure to resonate bass.

Barry Hayden Barry Hayden

Barry Hayden Barry Hayden

These changes, on paper, should make the modern Morgan quite the grand tourer. That’s exactly what I plan to put to the test.

Road-trip ready

My destination is the Swiss town St. Moritz, home of The ICE, a gathering of some of the world’s most exotic classic cars on a frozen lake. The Plus Four may be a new car, but Morgan hasn’t much changed its styling in 80 years. I reckon it will fit in.

Storage space has never been a priority for Morgan. There’s room behind the seats for a couple of soft bags and a box of snow chains, but everything else will have to go in waterproof duffels strapped to the Plus Four’s chrome rear carrier.

One area where technology has noticeably progressed: paint. The Volcano Orange finish looks sensational. I’m a sucker for bright colors, and the first time I set eyes on the Plus Four I adore how the orange accentuates the cars’ classic curves.

Barry Hayden Barry Hayden Barry Hayden

The run down to Folkestone through a still-sleeping London is easy and remarkably efficient, the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic gearbox maintaining an engine speed that’s barely above idle for most of the journey. At the 70-mph motorway speed limit wind noise isn’t too bad, but one issue rears its head that will plague the entire trip: winter chill seeps through the door seals. Naturally, it only gets worse as the temperature drops. Despite the heated seats and cranking heater, the next five days will be spent either too hot, too cold, or, somehow, both at the same time.

The car is a pre-production model, and Morgan assures me that customer cars won’t suffer in this way. But the new Sennheiser audio system isn’t quite behaving, either. In order to get it to pair with a phone via Bluetooth, the unit needs a complete reset only achievable by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Again, Morgan says, a pre-production glitch.

The French connection

I meet photographer Barry Hayden near the Channel Tunnel to France. We play a short game of packing Tetris, filling the meager available space with luggage, photo equipment, and other road trip odds and ends. “It could be worse,” says Barry. “You could have got a Super 3.”

Soon enough we pass through the Chunnel and under the sea that separates Britain and its nearest European neighbor. We reach France and waste no time, motoring south at 80 mph.

The extra 10 mph that France permits on its autoroutes brings a rush of wind noise into the cabin, despite the closed soft top. Dialing up the volume on the stereo, with the bass vibrating through the bulkhead, just about overpowers the drone but reduces in-car communication between Barry and me to hand gestures. Sennheiser’s Calmo noise-cancellation system would be a welcome addition (and may come later, says Morgan).

Barry Hayden Barry Hayden Barry Hayden

The run down to Lucerne is forgettable—around 500 miles whisking us past Reims, Metz, and Strasbourg. This is not the most picturesque part of France, being largely flat, and the grey winter sky is doing nothing to enhance the aesthetics. Fortunately, the cabin of the Plus Four is surprisingly comfortable. The seats are excellent and even after four hours or so behind the wheel Barry and I experience no back twinge or muscle ache.

Toll booths prove a challenge in a car this low and uncommonly shaped. It takes a few runs to accurately assess where the front corner of the car is, but by the time we reach the Swiss border we’ve just about perfected the teamwork required to collect or pay for a ticket without the passenger having to unbuckle and stretch out.

Despite the sustained high speed, we’re covering around 250 miles on a tank of fuel and averaging around 33 mpg.

Into the Alps

We overnight at a cheap pub/hotel on the banks of Lake Lucerne, slightly bemused by its English football theme, and the next morning make an early start for a day in the mountains. It’s still dark as we make our way out of the city through a series of tunnels, one of which is so long that the sun has actually risen by the time we reach the exit.

Soon we’re climbing up and over the Brünig Pass, which as far as alpine views does not quite reflect the spectacle it appears to be on the map. One section looks like a toddler’s scribble on paper, and is indeed a delightfully dizzying series of hairpins, but rises to only 3000 feet or so. Staying below the treeline means views aren’t of the Swiss postcard variety I’d hoped for. We drop down to lake level, running parallel with the frosty blue waters of Brienzersee and Thunersee before cutting due south for our approach to Alps.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 on Julier Pass
When the blizzard clears, the Julier Pass is pure joy. Barry Hayden

Driving in Switzerland during the winter takes a little pre-planning, as many of the country’s most famous mountain passes are closed for the season. The handy AlpenPasse website will tell which are open at any time. Right now the Grimsel Pass I had been hoping to take is … unpassable.

The alpine anticipation is building as we head toward the base of the Bermese Alps. Abruptly, in the village of Kandersteg, the road simply stops. In its place is the rickety Lötcschberg tunnel railway that takes us through the belly of the mountain. It’s only a 15-minute ride, at the price of 27 Swiss Francs, but it takes place in pitch darkness; the only illumination comes from my fellow travelers’ cell phones which, as a testament to Swiss efficiency, retain a strong 5G signal throughout.

Morgan Plus 4 in Switzerland
Entering the Lötcschberg tunnel as if the Morgan is on rails. Barry Hayden

Emerging into the light, we unload and immediately begin to ascend. The road is sufficiently twisty to begin experimenting the Plus Four’s various engine and transmission modes. Nudge the slightly incongruous BMW shifter over to Sport and gears can be selected manually by pushing and pulling the lever or using the steering column-mounted paddles. Keeping both hands on wheel seems prudent as the curves come thick and fast, so it’s paddles for me here and, although the shifts are rapid I do feel the lack of a physical connection. The paddles themselves would certainly feel nicer in aluminum instead of plastic, and if they had just a bit more movement the whole shifting experience would be elevated.

We’re the ones rising rapidly, as we discover ourselves quickly getting above the trees and into proper snow for the first time. The beginning of the Simplon Pass is marked by the grand Hotel Külm-Bellevue, which majestically overlooks the route. It’s also home to one of the most strikingly designed public toilet buildings I’ve ever seen.

Barry Hayden Barry Hayden Barry Hayden

Mountain madness

It’s here that we drop our roadster’s roof for the first time. It’s not quite a Miata mechanism, as you need to release a couple of external poppers before unlatching it and carefully folding the fabric as you stow the top behind the front seats, but with practice it only takes a minute or so.

“Brace yourself,” I warn Barry, but we soon find that with hat and gloves in place and heat on full it does not really feel much colder than with the roof up. It helps that by now the sun has burned through the clouds, and we’re also some 6000 feet closer to it. The cozy, slightly claustrophobic feeling of the Plus Four’s cabin is replaced with a wonderfully open sensation: that elemental connection with the environment that makes driving a roadster so invigorating.

Morgan Plus 4 Simplon Pass 5
Barry Hayden

The road, too, is exciting, with plenty of fast third or fourth gear corners and more than a handful of hairpins thrown in. By the time we reach the end of it we’ve crossed into Italy, passing through a seemingly unmanned border crossing.

Over the next few hours we follow the valley and battle through poorly-surfaced Piedmontese autostrada, diving in and out of tunnel after tunnel, with local drivers seemingly glued to our rear bumper. It’s a relief to escape and get back onto less busy roads, skirting the glamour of Lake Como and heading north again to Chiavenna and the mountains.

At the border the Swiss guards stop us, check our papers, and then seem to get bored. They send us on our way to the simply marvelous Maloja Pass. In the space of just a couple of miles the pass climbs over 2600 feet in a spectacular sequence of switchbacks.

Morgan Plus 4 Maloja Pass 3
Barry Hayden

The Plus Four doesn’t have the best turning circle, but there’s another, altogether more entertaining way to steer it: on the throttle. I press the Sport Plus switch, disengage the ESC, and find I can adjust the attitude of the car with a lift to tighten my line or stab the throttle to slide the rear a little. Shifting rapidly back and forth between second and third gears, the Morgan reveals its previously-hidden hooligan side, with pops, crackles and bangs from the exhaust and a screech of the Avon winter tires singing through every corner. It’s the sort of behavior one might expect of a Caterham 7 more than a mature Morgan, and it’s wonderful. While Barry flies his drone overhead I make repeated and progressively swifter and noisier runs up and down. Oh how I must suffer for the photographer’s art.

The pass spits us out just a few miles from St. Moritz where The ICE concours is taking place over the next two days and, as we pass through the town, we get a sense of the kind of clientele it attracts. We see an Aston Martin DBX 707, a Lamborghini Urus, numerous 911s, even a Ferrari 296. We attract just as much, if not more attention, from the sea of camera phones.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 Maloja Pass
Barry Hayden

Staying in St. Moritz is way beyond our budget, and our hotel in Poschiavo just happens to be over the Bernina Pass. It’s getting dark by the time we reach it and the clouds have also rolled in. Visibility is near zero, so Barry is calling out upcoming curves like a proper rally co-driver from what he can see on Google Maps. Behind me all I can see is a blaze of headlights and, at the merest sign of a straight, a scrappy VW Passat powers past. For a couple of corners I try to keep up, but there’s no beating local knowledge.

Over the next two days we travel back and forth to St. Moritz, and I get to know the road pretty well amid ever-changing conditions. There’s fog, snow, sunshine, and showers sometimes all within the space of the same trip. It’s a brilliant road, a good 30 minutes of full-concentration driving through tight hairpins and speedy sweepers, never knowing exactly how much grip will be available on any of them. As such, the ESC stays on and, without being aggressively intrusive, it adds a welcome layer of safety. In the one instance we switch it off on an open, snowy section it elicits a lurid third-gear slide, proving just how effective the system is. “Please don’t do that again,” quips Barry.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 on Bernina Pass 3
Barry Hayden

Old Mog, new tricks

Before I set out I wasn’t quite sure how I’d take to a modern Morgan. Could it really offer a 21st century sports car experience with such old-school styling, and would that combination actually be appealing anyway? Would it be up to such an extreme cold-weather task on harrowing mountain passes?

Yes, yes, and yes. The Plus Four is both capable and entertaining beyond expectation. It wouldn’t be a match for a modern Porsche Boxster in objective terms, but it edges much closer than one would think given the vintage aesthetics.

In the media tent at The ICE I hear people talking about the “crazy Brits” who drove all the way in a Morgan mid-winter. I turn my head and have one more look at the orange Plus Four cooling its heels on the snow. Somehow it all seems perfectly sane.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 outside St Moritz
Barry Hayden

Specs: 2023 Morgan Plus Four

  • Price: £70,195 (U.S. price TBD)
  • Powertrain: 2.0-liter turbo I-4; eight-speed automatic (six-speed manual available)
  • Output: 255 hp @ 5500 rpm, 295 lb-ft @ 1000–4300 rpm
  • Layout: Rear-wheel-drive, two-seat roadster
  • Suspension: Double wishbone front/rear
  • Weight (dry): 2224 lbs
  • 0–62 mph: 4.7 seconds
  • Top speed: 149 mph

***

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Morgan is modernizing—on its own terms https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/morgan-is-modernizing-on-its-own-terms/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/morgan-is-modernizing-on-its-own-terms/#respond Wed, 13 Jul 2022 13:00:32 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=234360

Take a walk through the 100-year-old brick sheds at Pickersleigh Road in Malvern, U.K., and, at first glance, little seems to have changed in a century of Morgan manufacturing. In the woodshop, planks of locally-sourced ash are hand cut to form the frames to support aluminum bodywork. Panels are beaten into shape, in the building next door, by chaps with hammers.

Look closer, though, and you’ll notice there’s been something of a technological coup.

As recently as 1990, the Morgan Motor Company didn’t even own a computer. The company was famously frightened of progress. At the time, father and son owners Peter and Charles Morgan invited industrialist Sir John Harvey Jones to help reduce their ten-year (!) waiting list and improve profitability. Closely documented by the crew of BBC documentary Troubleshooter, the Morgans rejected Jones’ advice so they could carry on as they always had.

Charles made piecemeal progress, to be fair, increasing production and overseeing the introduction of such marvelous Morgans as the 3 Wheeler and the Aero 8, before his departure from the company in 2013. However, it is only really since Italian investment group Investindustrial took majority ownership in 2019 that a quiet revolution has transformed the boutique British car maker.

Barry Hayden Barry Hayden Barry Hayden Barry Hayden

This change is not, of course, about the way Morgan motor cars look. The styling of today’s Plus Four and Plus Six are as reassuringly familiar as always. In fact the rear wing frames are still formed in the same chunky wooden mould that’s been used for the last 70 years. The cars’ long and shapely hoods continue to be gently shaped by hand, and each body panel is applied to each car individually by one craftsman.

What has changed significantly is the chassis to which the bodies are mounted. Instead of the basic steel ladder frame which dated back to 1936 all Morgans are now built on a bonded aluminum tub that comes in as a complete unit from Superform in nearby Worcester. Superform also makes the front wings for four-wheelers and all the body panels for the new Super 3, the replacement for the 3 Wheeler.

Morgan Morgan

Morgan factory chassis
Barry Hayden

Crucially, this means that the bodies can be built separately for the first time, explains PR Manager James Gilbert.

“The problem that we would come up against was that we’d build the platform, build the body on top of it and then go and paint the body,” says Gilbert. “When the body was being painted, you would just have platform sat around needlessly. What happens now is, your car will start in the woodshop where the wooden frame gets made, it then gets paneled, fitted up with its wings, and bonnet (hood).

“At the point when it goes to get painted we start building the chassis, so when the car has been painted, the chassis is built just in time for the marriage to happen. Before we could never build the body panels off the chassis, because each one was just so different, we had to build the car as a whole. We were used to it, but in modern manufacturing it’s just such an alien idea.”

It still takes around 150 hours to build each car, but the process is more efficient, and, of course, the car itself is far more sophisticated. Turbocharged BMW four- and six-cylinder engines are smooth, powerful, reliable, and automatic transmissions  with shift paddles are proving appealing, with 60 percent of buyers opting for two pedals rather than three.

Then there’s the new Super 3. With 500 of these new-era three-wheelers ordered before it had even been launched, the Super 3 is set to become Morgan’s best-selling model. And quite the game changer—it’s the first Morgan in more than a century to be built without an ash frame. The chassis and bodywork comes in from Superform and Morgan’s craftsmen assemble the Super 3s in one shed, each taking around a week to build. Sounds of sawing and hammering are nowhere to be heard.

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Morgan says it will be able to build 400 Super 3s per year in this fashion, compared to 350 Plus Fours and 250 Plus Sixes with its traditional body-on-frame designs—which, don’t worry,  will remain a staple for four-wheeled Morgans long into the future.

“The frames are designed in CAD, but they’re still made by hand. You’ve got this wonderful mix of craftsmanship and technology, using the same processes that the generations have used before,” adds Gilbert.

It’s no secret that Morgan will soon be electrifying its line-up. The wonderful, steampunk-styled EV3 concept demonstrated the company’s vision for a three-wheeled electric sportster. It came close to production but was ultimately shelved. The Super 3 has been designed from the outset to take an electric powertrain, but, says Gilbert, we may see a different Morgan EV before that arrives. He doesn’t give anything else away.

In the meantime we can expect more special projects as Morgan works closely with customers to create short-run and one-off models such as the off-road CX-T, the LM62 or the Plus 8 GTR.

Skunkworks aside, the Morgan factory is open to the public. Some 30,000 people take tours every year, guided by former workers or enthusiastic owners. There’s a wonderful museum inside that charts over a century of history, plus a café that hosts regular cars-and-coffee events.

For a company that once seemed willfully stuck in the past, Morgan is welcoming the future. In its own way, of course. Here’s to another 100 years.

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