Yahoo News 2020 Morgan Plus Four review: an authentic sports car with a beguiling blend of retro and modern
Spoiler alert: Morgan owners aren’t quite as tough as we’d always believed. Even the Morgan Motor Company admits as much, saying that old as well as new guards of owners now demand effete luxuries such as doors that close without having to slam them, heaters that work, some sort of ride quality without sacrificing handling prowess and no flies in their teeth. What is the world coming to?
This Plus Four, first of the new breed of four-cylinder cars, is not only based on the company’s up-to-the-minute aluminium chassis, but is also one of the most luxurious Morgans ever.
Replacing the old but revered steel-chassis cars, it is expected to occupy about half of Morgan’s planned output of 900 cars a year when things get back to normal, although the company aims to increase that to about 1,400 over the next five years. The question remains, however: is the Plus Four a “proper” Morgan?
How luxurious?
Simply climbing in confirms that this is certainly a different sort of Morgan, even though on the outside it looks much like the old Plus 4, one of the company’s oldest continuously produced models and its most popular.
Just feel the stiff-but-accurate closing of the low-cut door, and the new-found space for legs and even luggage by the new design and engineering, which allows a six-footer such as myself to sit back from the steering wheel in some comfort. Study the quality of the trim and carpet fitting, the snug feeling of the hood.
There’s a parcel shelf behind the seats which allows the carriage of a couple of soft bags without resorting to the traditional leather-case-strapped-to-the-boot-rack luggage solutions of previous Morgans. There’s even a glove compartment in front of the passenger and, while you wouldn’t exactly call this a practical car, it does at least swallow people and stuff in a more commodious manner than ever before.
One issue is the seats, however, which are set too high in the body so you feel as though your head is stuck out in the breeze. Morgan claims it’s all about an arcane measurement called the hip point; that mysterious explanation aside, there are a couple of inches of frame under the seat squab which could be dumped to get you out of the gale.
After years of dubiously designed instruments, Jon Wells, Morgan’s design head, has got it just about right with the Plus Four. Five dials, with the central speedo and rev counter look modern and high quality, but with a nod to the past. There’s a discreet black panel in front of the driver to give a digital speed readout, fuel economy (32mpg, since you asked) and a Bluetooth link to your phone – that’s progress indeed.
I wasn’t convinced by our car’s dark brown wood trim, which looked like a 1930s sideboard, while the rotary heater controls need spinning endlessly to get a reaction. There’s also further weird control logic with the starting process, during which the ignition key needs to be turned against a resistance to prime the centrally-mounted starter button.
Equipment such as power steering, air-conditioning, anti-lock brakes and remote central locking are standard (although still not airbags), yet it rolls on traditional-looking 15-inch wire wheels, which have involved large amounts of engineering to keep the distinctive offset dish of previous Morgans.
There’s also a button to select Sport mode, but we’ll come back to this…
Under the skin
The Plus Four is 97 per cent all new though it shares much with last year’s Plus Six, including the chassis design and some parts. The chassis (called CX since it was launched in the firm’s 110th year), consists of extruded, riveted and welded aluminium sheet and spars, with an all-independent suspension. Where the Plus Six has a BMW six-cylinder turbo engine, the Plus Four has BMW’s 2.0-litre, four-cylinder twin-scroll turbo B48 engine and a choice of six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission.
Like its bigger sister, the Plus Four’s hand-crafted aluminium bodywork is supported by an ash-wood frame – some things don’t change at Morgan. It's narrower than the Plus Six (104mm less at the central body and 78mm overall) and to my mind better proportioned.
Mustering 255bhp, the turbocharged BMW unit will propel the one tonne Plus Four from 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds (5.1sec for the manual), with CO2 emissions of 158g/km (163g/km for the manual).
Prices start at £62,995 for the manual and £64,995 for the automatic. Expensive, yes (especially as both have mysteriously gone up by £500 since they were first announced) and a lot more than the current £43,389 entry price for the outgoing, steel-chassis Plus 4.
On the road
We’re driving the first production car, which had been due to be revealed at the cancelled Geneva motor show in March; its deep turquoise green is a fitting colour for this new/old thing.
The BMW-made six-speed manual gearbox slots lightly and accurately and the engine burbles quietly, even with the optional sports exhaust system fitted. Pull away quickly from the factory gates into Pickersleigh Road and it’s surprising how taut this car feels. Where the old model would yowl and take off like a disintegrating brass bedstead crashing through every tiny road imperfection, the new Plus Four feels far more settled, with much more body stiffness.
The turbocharged engine is absurdly well mannered if a bit featureless, though the sound of a mad cymbalist under the bonnet, which is the turbocharger’s wastegate exhausting excess boost, comes as a bit of a surprise.
Quick but docile
It feels fast, but docile. Part of this is the overgearing, which means that at an indicated 70mph in top the engine is turning over at 1,500rpm. It’s what Morgan has to do these days to sell the car in continental markets, where every single gram of CO2 counts.
Even though the engine of the manual version has 37lb ft less torque than the automatic, there’s still a surfeit of gears. If you leave it in top (sixth) gear and burble along you’ll see upwards of 38mpg; start using the performance and it’ll soon drop to the mid-20s.
There’s no sense of the engine coming on to its camshafts, or the turbo boosting harder, just a flat whoosh from tickover. That’s going to suit some owners just fine, but others are going to miss the character of the peppy units in the old Plus 4.
Press the Sport button and the throttle and fuelling maps change and the exhaust pops gently on over-run, although the logic in having a Sport button in a sports car beats the hell out of me…
Talking of things being different, I feel a bit arriviste recommending Morgan’s first four-cylinder automatic, but while the BMW eight-speed is actually the ZF 8HP gearbox used by almost everyone, in this application it’s sublime.
Perhaps it’s something to do with light weight, but the transmission’s reluctance to change down (which is such an issue in other applications), doesn’t seem to exist and the change quality through the steering-wheel paddles is fast and smooth.
Thanks to that extra torque it feels a little quicker than the manual and for some reason the steering felt more positive, with better feedback on the example I drove.
What do you mean, ride quality?
And here we are at ride quality, not something you’d even talk about with Morgans in the past. On 15-inch diameter 205/60 Avon tyres it rides stiffly, but not horribly so. Drain covers don’t set the wheels shimmying along the road and pot holes thump but don’t crash through the frame like a dropped cutlery drawer.
The rear will bounce a bit on regular bumps, but owners of old Morgans simply won’t recognise how this car addresses a typical British B-road; it’s simply not rubbish enough.
The handling is first rate, too. Not that you are going to be mixing it with VW Golf GTIs or BMW M2s, but the way the front turns in is a vast improvement, while the wheels grip rather than hop across the road.
It’s still quite vintage-feeling as you stare over the triple windscreen wipers and bonnet louvres and line up the snout for the apex of a corner. It’s long and narrow and with a bit of heel into the bend, you can fool around with it on the way out of the corner, not in it. I wasn’t totally convinced by the rear damping which, in spite of that hard ride quality, allowed a fair bit of squat and squish when really on it. The steering on the manual feels overassisted and overgeared, but it is accurate.
The brakes require a firm push and there were different amounts of free play in the pedal between the automatic and manual cars. I’d have preferred more bite from the pads on first application and I’d wager there’s a bit more work to be done there.
Conclusion
Authenticity is key here. Just what are you buying? A vintage-looking BMW Z4, or an up-to-date Morgan? The company has worked hard to produce the latest Plus Four (which was funded and running before Italian investors bought the company from the Morgan family) and it is so vastly superior to the outgoing version it’s virtually unrecognisable. It has up-to-the-minute levels of equipment and comfort, its dynamics and performance are indubitably modern and yet it still looks much like Morgans of yore.
I worried about this all the way to Malvern last week, but once behind the wheel on the roads of Herefordshire, the thought never entered my head.
With just a few bum notes, they’ve just about pulled off the tricky dance of old and new; the Plus Four, although a lot more expensive, is most importantly just as fun as the cars it replaces - as well as one that’s a lot easier to live with.
THE FACTS
2020 Morgan Plus Four
TESTED 2.0-litre four-cylinder twin-scroll turbo petrol, six-speed manual gearbox (optional eight-speed auto), rear-wheel drive
PRICE/ON SALE from £62,995 (manual), £64,995 (auto)/now with four- to six-month waiting list
POWER/TORQUE 255bhp @ 5,500 rpm, 258lb ft (295lb ft for automatic) @ 1,000rpm
TOP SPEED 149mph
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 5.2sec (auto 4.8sec)
FUEL ECONOMY 39mpg (auto 40mpg) WLTP Combined, on test 32mpg
CO2 EMISSIONS 165g/km (auto 159g/km)
VED £540 first year, £475 next five years, then £150
VERDICT The new Plus Four isn’t going to please the purist, but in spite of its BMW drivetrain it’s authentically a Morgan – just one that you can fit in, that rides over bumps rather than crashing through them and in which you can even carry a bit of luggage. No wonder the Italians recently bought the company; when you look at what it has achieved here without their money it makes you wonder whether the Morgan family charged enough for their firm.
TELEGRAPH RATING Four stars out of five
THE RIVALS
BMW Z4, from £37,115
The Z4 has always been pleasant enough to tootle around in, but it was never precise or focussed enough to be a “proper” sports car. Modern technology has helped narrow the gap but this is still more a two-seat cabriolet than it is a sports car.
Audi TT Cabriolet, from £30,605
The TT is a smashing looking thing and this latest version is much the best driving TT ever, but it's too luxurious and soft to be a sports car. For all that, the TT is a competent cruiser and the base 1.8-litre model weighs just 1.3 tonnes so handles adroitly.
Abarth 124 Spider, from £29,780
Who doesn't know that this is a rebodied Mazda MX-5? You might wonder at the sense of swapping an impeccably reliable Japanese driveline for one from an Italian manufacturer, but this 170bhp, one tonne sports car is a pretty hardcore drive, though the ride suffers as a result.
Porsche Boxster, from £44,758
Now called 718, the Boxster is a stirring drive despite a disappointingly incoherent, if highly effective, four-cylinder turbo engine. Terrific handling, great performance and a decent enough reliability record.
Caterham Seven 620R, from £51,405
Forget Patrick McGoohan's transport in The Prisoner, this is an insanely quick supercharged 2.0-litre two-seater, with 310bhp, a sequential six-speed gearbox, a de Dion rear axle and carbon-fibre seats. Capable of 0-60mph in 2.79sec, this will be far too much for most, but it’s an awesome machine nevertheless.
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