2025 Morgan Supersport review: Finally! As good to drive as it looks

One of the first big jobs I did as a young road tester was to pit a Morgan Plus Eight against an E30-series BMW M3 convertible. The outcome may seem obvious, except that, for reasons known only unto the callow youth called upon to deliver the verdict, I gave it to a Morgan whose front suspension dated from the First World War. What do I remember of that story? Mainly being as cold as I’ve been on test and that the Morgan was ridiculously quick, probably because I was later told it had a distinctly non-standard engine under the bonnet.

But if I’m honest, that’s the last four-wheel Morgan I really liked. Many years ago my stepmother had a Plus Four which still ranks among the worst cars I’ve ever driven. I remember too an early Aero 8 turning up to one of Autocar’s annual events to find Britain’s Best Driver’s Car and it coming last by such a distance it might as well have been in a separate contest. Some of the more recent, up-to-date efforts have been much better, but they’re still cars for which huge allowances need to be made, because to judge them purely by objective yardsticks would be to damn them. They got by on the charm of their appearance and the undoubtedly characterful, highly idiosyncratic way in which they drove, and there is nothing wrong with that.

But I’ve always wondered why Morgan doesn’t just try for once to make a car as good to drive as it looks and, heaven be praised, it seems someone at the company finally listened. This, the new Supersport, is the answer. And if you think it looks different to any other Morgan, try driving it.

You can tell from the first revolution of its wheels that this is not going to be a typical Morgan experience. Though essentially intended to be an update of the Plus Six, it’s such a different car in both appearance and execution it deserves to be thought of as something altogether new. And its role is to attract people to the company who might never have previously considered a Morgan. The folk at the factory accept this also means it might horrify some of their more traditionalist customers, for whom it will continue to make less good Morgans for them to drive instead.

I think it looks great, its retro styling delivered with modern surfacing, but it won’t be to everyone’s taste. Inside a great job has been done designing a characterful dashboard entirely in keeping with what you might expect from a modern Morgan, all of which just makes the BMW-sourced steering wheel and, worse, the BMW gear selector jar even more. Its powertrain and many other parts are sourced from Munich, but Morgan should have done a better job disguising the fact.

“Its power- to-weight ratio is slightly better than the Porsche Boxster GTS”

Its 3-litre straight-six single-turbo engine makes a modest 335bhp, but in a car weighing just 1170kg it’s enough. Put it this way: its power-to-weight ratio is actually slightly better than that of a 394bhp, 4-litre Porsche Boxster GTS. Performance is convincing, delivered with a satisfying snarl from the engine with minimal turbo lag and adequately fast gearchanges for this kind of car. But goodness me it’s crying out for a manual, and as BMW has a six-speed manual transmission that fits this engine, I’m at a loss to work out why it’s not been made available.

But we’re used to Morgans that look cool and go fast. Where this one varies is the way that it handles or, indeed, the fact that it actually handles. Three-wheelers aside, which have always been a delight to punt from place to place, every Morgan I’ve driven has been let down to a lesser or, more often, greater extent, by its chassis. Desperately vague steering, poor body control and crashing ride quality are just what one has come to expect.

No longer, for this is a car transformed. You can tell at once how much more rigid the aluminium chassis has been made, and it pays dividends: the car is more accurate, more comfortable, more confidence-inspiring and, above all, a stack more fun. At last Morgan has built a serious, quite senior driver’s car, and I’ve never said that before about any of Malvern’s products with a conventional complement of wheels and tyres. It’s genuinely entertaining, a car for which you might set an alarm to ensure you have the roads to yourself.

Even so, it left me with a nagging sense of how much better it should be, particularly given the Porsche 911 pricing. The steering is still not good enough, lacking in feel, while some vestiges of the cottage industry from which it sprang remain in the ride and narrow seats. Calling it a car that’s great to drive up to 8/10ths only sounds damning with faint praise until I tell you I’m not sure I’d rank any of its predecessors above four. It’s the best and brightest step I’ve seen Morgan make since the reintroduction of the three-wheelers, but there remain further steps it could, and should, be making.

Morgan Supersport

• Price £102,000
• Engine 3.0 litres, six cylinders, petrol, turbocharged
• Power 335bhp
• Torque 369lb ft
• Weight 1170kg (DIN)
• Power to weight 286bhp per tonne
• Transmission Eight-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
• 0-62mph 3.9sec
• Top speed 166mph
• Economy 36.8mpg
• CO2 175g/km
• Verdict The best Morgan I’ve driven.