Around the World: Morgan Plus Four
The new Morgan Plus Four has BMW’s 2-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Photos: Morgan
In the 110 years since the very British brand Morgan was launched, nothing much has changed with its vehicles’ look or engines – until now; meet the Morgan Plus Four that’s an all-new car.
It is the second car from Morgan to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Sorry, make that Morgan owners being dragged! The first Morgan vehicle was the big bro Plus Six.
The Plus Four has the 1920s style mixed with 2020s technology and although it’s not your everyday drive, it’s an extremely good looking vehicle. The closest dealership to New Zealand is one in Melbourne, Australia, with prices around NZ$79,000 to $83,000.
A few motoring writers from around the world got to visit the Morgan factory recently to test the old model versus the new Plus Four. This is what they thought.
Top Gear
The Morgan Plus Four has automatic headlights, central locking and new suspension.
The British magazine and website gave it 8/10.
“Fitted with a new 2-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged BMW engine, double wishbone suspension all round and a more commodious interior with such wizardry as automatic headlights, central locking, puddle lighting and a Bluetooth connection, this is nothing short of a revolution for the 110-year old company tucked away in the Malvern hills.
Just as well… Morgan expects around two-thirds of the 1000-or-so cars it aims to build per year to be Plus Fours.
Anyone not OK with dragging Morgan kicking and screaming into the 21st century, may I invite you to drive a pre-CX steel ladder chassis car in earnest. While fantastic fun, it’s also a bucking muddle of twist, shudder and axle tramp. By comparison, this new model is the very byword in sophistication.
By keeping the yesteryear design, the analogue nature, the full wind-in-your-handlebar-moustache experience, but tightening up the driving experience to the point where this is a genuine rival to something like the BMW Z4, is a long-overdue masterstroke.
It’s still not perfect, or without its idiosyncrasies, plus the steering is over-eager, the speakers are tinnier than a baked bean factory, the auto gearbox works fine but jars… and it’s not cheap. But throw back the roof, toss the windows and hang your elbow out over the thoughtfully padded door and all is forgiven.”
Car and Driver
The Morgan Plus Four will be sold in the United States under new legislation.
The American website was invited to test the new Morgan.
“The Plus Four's barely changed looks from the original reflect the preferences of Morgan's traditionally minded clientele. But the company also wants to restart sales of fully built cars in the U.S. under forthcoming replica car legislation, which requires a car to be visually almost identical to one produced at least 25 years ago.
Despite looking as traditionally English as a thatched inn in the Cotswalds, the Plus Four delivers a very different driving experience than its predecessor. To demonstrate how much so, Morgan let us drive both the last Plus 4 and the new Plus Four back to back, which felt a little like comparing medieval medicine to modern surgery. The weakness of the old car's structure and inexactitude of its suspension saw it shuddering like a wet dog over apparently smooth asphalt, while struggling to deliver even modest amounts of cornering grip.
No surprise that the new Plus Four drives like a much more modern car, although a good deal of old-world charm also made the transition. The aluminum structure is far stiffer, though even Morgan can't say by exactly how much. The company never recorded a torsional figure for the old car, so the official line is an improvement of "several hundred percent“.
There is still some chattering from the Four's trim over rough surfaces — the wooden frame is still described as "semi structural" — but the control-arm suspension is vastly superior at absorbing bumps and keeping the tires in proper contact with the road. It turns keenly, too, with its Avon summer tires finding plentiful grip and impressive traction, even when (this being England in the summer) it began to rain.”
Car Advice
The interior has new technology mixed with old world styling.
The Aussie website also had a spin in the car.
“Morgan never set out to be old-fashioned, it’s just it didn’t feel the need to change as demand stayed high and its cars got more antiquated. By the 1970s that had become a core part of their appeal, especially outside the UK. Morgan has long done well in both Japan and Germany, where a select group of buyers want a driving experience as traditionally English as a thatched cottage in a double-barrelled village.
Large parts of the experience of the new Plus Four are similar. The cabin is slightly less tight-fitting, but similarly traditional in layout, with evidence of hand-building in details like exposed screwheads. The windscreen rail is similarly low, the cut-down doors equally vestigial, and the sense of exaggerated speed isn’t far off.
But beneath that, the sports car basics feel decades better, with a hugely stiffer structure and suspension that can both keep the tyres in proper contact with the road, but also handle lumps and imperfections without putting on a wet-dog act. Grip from the Avon ZV7s is in a different league to the old car, and the steering has gained both electric power assistance and respectable feedback.
It’s also become pretty quick. The Plus Four’s BMW four-banger isn’t in a particularly punchy state of tune, but it is working against a dry weight of just 1014kg, giving a power-to-weight ratio sharper than the four-cylinder BMW Z4 30i that uses the same engine.
Morgan claims a 5.2-second 0–100km/h time with the standard manual ’box, or 4.8 seconds with the optional eight-speed auto.”
The Morgan Plus Four also gets 21st century technology such as bluetooth.
