BACK TO THE FUTURE

The Morgan Plus Six is a glorious salute to the past, but it’s also the most technologically advanced car in the company’s 110-year history

- Chris Pickering

Big changes don’t come along very often at the Morgan Motor Company. Step into the wonderfully charismatic workshops of its Malvern base and you’ll find cars being built in much the same way as they were in the 1930s. The smell of fresh timber still wafts through the air, along with the sound of hammers beating aluminium panels into shape.

All is not quite as it appears, however. The traditional steel chassis that underpinned most of the Morgan range for an incredible 84 years is finally bowing out. The Morgan Plus Six that you see here is the first model to use an all-new bonded aluminium chassis that will soon form the basis of the entire range. Not only that, but there’s a thoroughly-modern turbocharged engine from BMW and an 8-speed automatic gearbox as standard.

Don’t think for one moment that Morgan has abandoned its roots, though. The Plus Six is still almost entirely handmade, with its unmistakable silhouette formed from traditional aluminium panels draped over an ash frame.

ON THE ROAD