I got to do just that on a recent trip back to the UK, the home of Morgan, founded 115 years ago. Unlike the majority of its peers (Aston Martin, Jaguar, Lotus) Morgan is still British-owned and it wants the world to know.
The Look
The new Supersport harks back to that glorious dawn-of-the-motorcar past, but with some very modern twists. It is, in essence, what happens when you blend old-school British eccentricity with German engineering precision. Visually, the Supersport is a theatre production on wheelswith its gleaming Copper Metallic paint that glows like molten toffee under the city lights. The arched wings, bug-eyed headlamps, and sloping tail recall the rakish Morgans of yesteryear.
Yet under that elegant bonnet you will find a turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six engine from BMW, churning out 335bhp and 369lb ft of torque. That’s enough to whisk this featherweight 1,170kg roadster from 0 to 100km in just 3.9 seconds. It’s supposed to be the sportiest thing Morgan’s made yet. It looks like it’s floating on air and that’s on purpose, thanks to black sills under the main body. The Supersports appears to have taken inspiration from different decades and rearranged them into something new and modern.
The Cabin
If nostalgia is what you want, then the new Morgan Supersport interior gives you plenty of that. The cabin is a haven of wood, leather, and box-weave carpets. And it’s back to the roaring 20s with its minimalist design. There’s no touchscreen, no lane assist or modern safety gadgets we rely on nowadays. The beautiful handmade analogue dials immediately catch your attention.
There are so many nice little touches meant to remind you of Morgan’s heritage like the strip of ash wood that you can see when you open up the trunk, or boot if you speak old English. The frame of the original Morgans were made from wood. The trunk/boot is a little on the snug side, much like the rest of the cabin. Just open the little latched door, squeeze inside and you will feel its cosy charm.
But if you do want some 21st-century touches, it has Bluetooth and Sennheiser speakers so you can play your own tunes, and the system is controlled by a single button. Oh, there’s no radio by the way and no infotainment screen, just a holder for your phone. Another modern touch is the gear selector which looks like it was stolen from a BMW 3 Series.
If you want more space you can always take off the roof. There’s a choice of a folding soft top or carbon fibre hard top. In fact you can have both. It can get noisy inside at high speeds, but that’s all part of the charm.
The Drive
The Supersport is every bit the thoroughly modern sports car. You can’t really compare it with a Porsche 911, the Alpine A110, the Lotus Emira or even that other British-owned classic Caterham. For the Morgan Supersports is unique in both looks and drive. Given its responsive BMW engine and light body, you feel you have to take it easy. But in reality, it has superb roadhandling and grip, thanks to its Michelin PS5 tyres. It’s a slightly bizarre but addictive experience.
The company’s previous flagship, the Plus Six, also had a 3-litre BMW engine but came with retro styling. Whereas the new Supersport looks as though it may have been generated by AI. The point being that Morgan knows what it’s doing when it comes to modernizing its cars in terms of performance while staying true to its roots.
It has had a few critics who say the new design is a little bit too avant-garde, while others have complained the cabin is too basic. Some have even moaned about the paddle shifters, saying they should have been chrome rather than black plastic. No car is perfect, and it all comes down to personal taste.
The verdict
There’s not much else like the Supersport on sale right now so it will surely turn heads, be it on the narrow lanes of Britain or the streets of Dubai. It’s pricey though at around £125,000 (600,000 AED) and doesn’t come with the mod cons many of us are used to. But you can easily fall in love with the Morgan Supersport, like I did. And because they are still coach-built (custom-made and hand-crafted) if you order one, you can go and see it being built. Malvern is about a three-hour drive north of London and has a lovely little hotel called the Malvern Spa Hotel if you fancy it.
