Following the debut of the breathtakingly beautiful Morgan Midsummer last year, the British retro car building company has now taken the wraps off the Supersport. But unlike the Midsummer, the Supersport is not a limited edition model. It is a replacement for the Plus Six. Prices start at £85,000 (excluding taxes).
It is unclear whether Pininfarina was involved in the design of the Supersport as well, but you can notice the similarities in the design language. The retro-modern slider has been pushed a bit more towards the modern side, and maybe because of this, Morgan claims a 5% reduction in drag and a 20% reduction in lift. The best thing about the Supersport is that one car can be made into a coupe or a convertible. In other words, the roof is interchangeable with a hard or soft-top. You can order a hard-top, but can purchase a soft-top later and change it as you wish.
The Supersport is built on the CXV aluminium platform, the successor of the CX platform. This new platform is claimed to weigh just 102 kg (225 lbs), including front and rear subframes, and delivers an overall increase of 10% torsional rigidity to the vehicle—this is increased by a further 10% when the optional carbon fibre hard top is fitted.
The new suspension setup is claimed to deliver a compliant ride alongside improved body control. The revised suspension geometry combined with front and rear anti-roll bars, are claimed to offer a level of handling sophistication beyond any previous Morgan car. An optional Dynamic Handling Pack, featuring adjustable front and rear Nitron dampers, has valving and spring rates that have been tuned specifically for Supersport to provide optimum performance. It offers 24 clicks of damping adjustment. A Limited-slip Differential can also be found in the options list.
The standard 18-inch flow-formed aluminium ‘Superlite’ wheel weighs just 10.8 kg (24 lbs) per corner, while buyers can go for the optional 19-inch forged aluminium ‘Aerolite’ wheels, which weigh 9.7 kg (21 lbs) per corner. The wheels are wrapped with Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres.
There’s also a new steering system featuring revised steering shaft routing, which has been honed to enhance steering feedback and response. The cockpit is fairly analogue, except for that tiny LCD display in front of the steering wheel. A new Sennheiser audio system should satisfy your aural expectations.
The powertrain continues to be supplied from Munich, as you can probably tell from that shifter in the centre console. The BMW B58 3.0L straight-six turbo petrol engine offers the same 250 kW (340 metric hp) and 500 Nm (369 lb-ft). An 8-speed ZF automatic drives the rear wheels. The Supersport weighs 1,170 kg (2,579 lbs) (kerb weight), 95 kg (209 lbs) more than the Plus Six. Morgan claims a 0-100 km/h (62 mph) time of 3.9 seconds, 0.3 seconds quicker than the Plus Six. The top speed, however, is claimed to be the same 267 km/h (166 mph).
