Morgan Supersport: This Is It

Morgan is waving goodbye to the Plus Six and welcoming its replacement—the Supersport. Although you may be tempted to say this is just a facelift, the newcomer is essentially a different car altogether. The retro-modern sports car adopts styling cues from the Midsummer concept and uses a revised aluminum platform. It brings a 10-percent boost in torsional rigidity, plus another 10-percent if you spring for the carbon roof.

The Supersport is a two-in-one car in the sense that it features interchangeable roofs. The fabric top can be swapped out for a body-colored carbon composite hard top that weighs 43 pounds. The coupe has a large, curved rear glass for better visibility, but we’d probably stick to the folding soft top for its sleeker profile. Although slightly heavier than its predecessor, it tips the scales at just 2,579 pounds, roughly as much as a Miata RF.

But while the MX-5 has a four-cylinder engine with 181 hp, the Supersport has nearly double the horsepower. It uses a BMW “B58” unit, a turbocharged 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six good for 335 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. The new Morgan flagship takes 3.9 seconds to reach 62 miles per hour and maxes out at 166 miles per hour.

The BMW connection is evident from the moment you hop inside the cabin. A modern gear selector for the eight-speed transmission of Bavarian origins contrasts the retro look. It reminds us of the Ineos Grenadier off-road SUV, whose utilitarian interior starkly contrasts the BMW gear lever. Sadly, there’s no manual gearbox available for the Supersport. Elsewhere, the wooden dashboard hosts analog dials and a digital screen in front of the driver.

Options are plentiful, including a Dynamic Handling Pack with Nitron dampers and a limited-slip differential. Customers can also pay extra for 19-inch alloys weighing 21.3 pounds each, or 2.4 lbs less than the standard, smaller 18-inch wheel. The body can be painted in an “almost limitless combination” of colors, while the wood for the door cards is offered in 11 finishes.

Morgan is already accepting orders and charges £85,000 in the UK. At current exchange rates, that works out to $110,000. There’s no word just yet about bringing the new rear-wheel-drive machine to the United States.

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