The new Morgan Supersport encapsulates the enduring appeal of a classic sports car

The Morgan Motor Company exists perpetually in the teeth of a dilemma. Not an existential dilemma, you understand, but the kind of quandary that’s nice to have. For the people that love, cherish and most importantly buy Morgans love the fact that a Morgan looks like nothing else on the roads. Wedded to a design philosophy of slow but steady evolution, today’s Morgan Plus Four carries distinct overtures of the cars the company built in the 50s and 60s, along with construction methods – hand-formed aluminium panels bent over an ash frame – that hark back to the early days of motoring.

Yet somehow the little British manufacturer not only survives but thrives. The subtle modernisation of the Plus Four is a case in point, resulting in a hugely desirable compact sports car with a cult following, both for its timeless looks, pitch perfect handling and performance. To drive a Morgan is to be immersed in a richly atmospheric experience, one where every conceivable parameter, from sight lines to smells, stirs up a cocktail of emotions few other cars can muster.

Losing this formula would be catastrophic, which is why at first glance the all-new Morgan Supersport hews closely to the established template. Again, it’s a question of looking a little more closely and carefully, for although the Supersport’s silhouette is undeniably classical, the devil is in the details and in this case, the details are purely contemporary.

Wallpaper* got a preview of the Supersport at the company’s London HQ in a traditional cobbled West Kensington mews. In the company of Managing Director Matt Hole and Chief Design Office Jonathan Wells, the covers were pulled back on this impressive new flagship two-seater. The Supersport project has been several years in the making, a ground-up reimaging of the company’s current top model, the Plus Six, giving it a huge amount of additional practicality and day to day usability. The powerplant is still a BMW-sourced six-cylinder engine (electrification remains a few years away), but every other facet of the car, from the suspension geometry to the bodywork has been thoroughly overhauled.

Despite the strong familial genes,’ the Supersport is very different from the ‘entry level’ Plus Four, something that couldn’t really be said about the Plus Six. ‘Ever since the Morgan Aero left the family in 2019, we’ve been thinking of a new flagship,’ says Wells, ‘last summer we designed the Midsummer in collaboration with Pininfarina. That was a glance, an offshoot if you like, of this car.’

Describing the venerable Plus Four as ‘nostalgically confident – an iconic standalone product,’ the Morgan team was tasked with creating a new look that blended technology without becoming too retro. The sculptural, coachbuilt body has a far greater purity of line than ever before, with tighter tolerances and much more precise geometry. Despite this, the company hasn’t had to radically re-think the way it builds cars. ‘There’s more wood and hand-finished metal work in this car that in the one it succeeds,’ Hole says, ‘this is the core of our identity.’ Even the famous ash frame – usually buried beneath the bodywork that’s shaped around it – is exposed, polished and promoted for the first time.

As well as the cleaned-up geometry, the Supersport’s design has vastly simplified vents, ducts and aerodynamics. Gone are the distinctive bonnet louvres, replaced by an air extractor located behind the radiator and vents tucked down beneath the (traditional) folding bonnet. ‘We’re careful to avoid doing things just because we’ve always done them,’ Wells says, dispelling any sense that Morgan is mired in the past. Pointing out the clean negative spaces and the geometric perfection of that familiar but different front end, with its larger 8” headlights and low-level vents, Wells describes it as a ‘slightly fuller bodied form’ than in the past, citing Jaguar’s evolution from the XK120 of 1948 through to the D-Type, E-Type and beyond.

Lightweight, powerful, hand-crafted and nimble – these are all established Morgan characteristics (the ‘Super Sports’ name goes all the way back to 1927, when it graced the high-performance three-wheelers that made the company’s name). How then does modern Supersport improve on day-to-day usability? For a start, there’s that carbon fibre roof. Better sealed and insulated, it creates a cabin ambience that’s much more conducive to long journeys. Door and window seals are now more sophisticated thanks to overall improvement in build quality. It’s not that Morgans were ever badly built, more idiosyncratic, and the odd bit of water ingress was not uncommon on a very rainy day.

Another key departure from tradition is the introduction of a proper boot. Yes, the tapered tail now features a hatch and stowage space for the very first time. Not only can you squeeze a weekend bag or two in there, but there’s also space for the removable side windows. If you’ve decided to use the hood and leave the hardtop behind, the folding canvas mechanism stows neatly behind the seats.

Other elements retain a pleasingly archaic edge, like the shallow flat slab of windscreen, served by three stubby and industrious wipers, or the dashboard, laid out according to symmetry, not ergonomics, even though the dials are all new (and printed with Morgan’s own ‘HFS’ font). The Supersport does improve substantially on its predecessors’ HMI with an info-screen tucked behind the steering wheel, and a volume control for the Sennheiser audio system that is no longer hidden beneath the dashboard. There’s even a dock for your mobile phone.

The cabin is still a fabulous place to sit, all wood, leather and aluminium, with a view down the long bonnet to the distinctive wheel arches (made from cold formed aluminium) that give you a precise indication of the Supersport’s placement on the road. It’s a snug fit, no question, but very few modern cars offer such an unmissable invitation to drive.

As a flagship, the Morgan Supersport will be built in lower numbers than the Plus Four, with the Malvern factory reckoningon an output at between one to two cars each week. For now, the new model can’t be sold in the USA, although the Plus Four can. For now, Morgan will stay small. The factory’s capacity is effectively capped at 800 cars a year, and that’s the target Hole and newly appointed Chairman Steven Armstrong are aiming for in the short term. ‘We just don’t want to mass produce cars,’ Hole says, ‘what’s essential to our business is to make a hand-crafted car.’

We hope to get behind the wheel of the new Morgan Supersport in due course.

Morgan Supersport, enquiries to Morgan Motor Company, Morgan-Motor, @MorganMotor