Morgan Supersport review

From £105,1608

Fancy suspension, a locking diff, a roof and a boot – has Morgan finally built a top-class sports car?

Morgan has been through quite a remarkable transformation over the past 20 years or so. The new Morgan Supersport is a different world from the charming-but-crude Morgans of not so long ago.

In 2004, the Roadster got a two-star verdict for its wayward handling and alarmingly long stopping distance. The first aluminium chassis represented a big step for the Malvern firm’s cars, but our 2012 Plus 8 road test still judged it to be “not all the car it should and could be”. A real shift came in 2020 with an all-new bonded aluminium platform. Although the Plus Four and Plus Six lacked some polish at launch, they got steadily better with various model-year updates.

Now comes the latest step change in Morgan’s 21st-century plan. Although development of the Supersport started as a facelift for the Plus Six, it spiralled into an entirely new model generation.

There have been structural chassis and suspension revisions, and a ream of liveability upgrades. Is it finally comparable with more mainstream sports cars?

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DESIGN & STYLING

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02 Morgan Supersport 2025 Autocar road test review front cornering

For the Supersport, Morgan evolved the aluminium CX platform from the Plus Six and Plus Four to the CXV. Both names refer to the company’s age in Roman numerals. The chassis itself weighs 102kg, including the front and rear subframes. Thanks to reinforcements, such as additional bracing around the front and rear suspension, the Supersport is said to be 10% more torsionally rigid than the Plus Six. As always, the mostly hand-formed aluminium body panels are mounted to an ash wood frame.

Building on the stiffer platform, a lot of work has gone into the suspension. There are different mounting points, some of which are twice as stiff as before so that the suspension itself can do the work of absorbing bumps. At the rear, there is new anti-squat geometry and an anti-roll bar as standard. At the front, screw adjustment for the camber replaces the shim system for greater precision.

Supersport loses the Plus Six’s louvres for a smoother, more modern look. There’s now a large black vent at the front of the bonnet. The short, upright windscreen is still serviced by three little wipers, which are as charming as they are useless at clearing obliterated insects.
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

There are now two suspension options. The standard set-up has been revised for more compliance, and, as with the latest Plus Four, a new Dynamic Handling Pack brings different springs and single-way adjustable dampers from British specialist Nitron.

To give the suspension less to do, the wheels have been made lighter for reduced unsprung weight. The standard 18in cast aluminium Superlite wheels weigh 10.8kg per corner and the optional 19in forged Aerolite wheels bring that down to 9.7kg – a big improvement over the Plus Six’s 13.8kg 19in Multispoke wheels, which remain available. Unusually, the wheels are the same width front and rear but are fitted with staggered Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres.

While the design is unmistakably Morgan (we had a few passers-by tell us they “hadn’t seen one of those in a long time”), it looks much more modern than the Plus Six. The front and rear lighting has been integrated into single pods, and the bonnet louvres and faux spare wheel cover have both gone.

You could never accuse Morgan of minimalism, though. Instead, this cleaner look brings the Supersport closer to the retro-futuristic aesthetic of the Aeromax. Meanwhile, the dark mesh grilles, with silver inserts that are suggestive of traditional bumper overriders, give the Supersport a much airier look than the firm’s previous cars.

The smoother body also results in a 5% reduction in drag, a 20% reduction in lift and improved aerodynamic balance. That said, the 0.44 drag coefficient shows that there is only so much you can do to stop the classic Morgan shape from disagreeing with the air.

The design highlight of the Supersport has to be the way that the new carbon-composite top, with its panoramic rear windscreen, flows into the sweeping tail, which is much longer than on previous Morgans, thus making space for a (small) boot.

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INTERIOR

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10 Morgan Supersport 2025 Autocar road test review dashboard

At first glance, the Supersport’s interior looks identical to that of its predecessor, but Plus Six owners will notice and appreciate quite a few quality-of-life improvements. For starters, installing or removing the sidescreens has never been so easy. The knuckle-skinning knurled fasteners have gone. Instead, you now just slide them in or push the internal door release forwards to release them.

On our pre-production car, the driver’s side worked quite well but the passenger’s side was very stiff. However, this did lead us to the discovery that the nicest way to drive a Supersport solo is to remove the driver’s sidescreen, letting in more sounds and smells, but leave the passenger’s side in place to reduce the air turbulence. The windows are still sliding Perspex and don’t seal especially well.

The doors feature big changes. They now have internal hinges and the sidescreens lift out when you push the door release forwards. Both the inside and outside door releases are very recalcitrant, though, and keen to take your fingernails off. It needs revising.
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

When you remove the sidescreens, you can now store them in a fitted bag in the boot, rather than having to leave them at home. The boot is shallower than it looks in pictures and the sidescreens take up most of it, but the ability to secure items out of sight makes this Morgan more practical than any that came before. In addition, there’s space for a soft bag on the shelf behind the seats and there’s a decent-size glovebox.

You settle on a seat that feels set about 5cm too high, partly because the steering wheel (which adjusts for reach and rake) sits slightly lower than you might expect. The seats themselves are very comfortable, though (at least in Comfort Plus spec). They have inflatable elements for the lumbar, thigh and lateral bolster, making long motorway stints less fatiguing than in many mainstream cars.

Despite the loss of the bonnet louvres, the view ahead is still one of the most dramatic that money can buy. With the low-cut rear windscreen of the hard top, the rear view has become much more dramatic too, giving you the feeling that you might be able to reach back and touch the road. Visibility in general is excellent.

The dashboard, which has included twin airbags since 2023, is much the same shape as before, but the designs of the steering wheel and the analogue gauges have been updated – the latter with a cleaner look and a bespoke Morgan font. Apart from a few small misses, the sense of occasion this cabin imparts is second to none. The combination of beautiful leather, wood and fabric is classic without being quaint.

The small digital screen in front of the driver remains unchanged, and while it is useful for its digital speedometer, MPG readout and more, it’s quite low-res. Similarly, it’s a pity that Morgan still hasn’t found an alternative to the Peugeot column stalks and shift paddles, which feel rather out of place.

Otherwise, the Supersport hides its modernity well. The Sennheiser audio system, which works like a Bluetooth speaker, is controlled with the left dial on the fascia and sounds good up to about 50mph. Above that, the wind noise drowns out the detail in podcasts and music.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Morgan Supersport 2025 Review engine 087

Our Supersport, with its hard top and half a tank of fuel, weighed 1180kg. The only lighter car we’ve weighed in the past 12 months has been the Kia Picanto. That’s both an indictment of how heavy today’s new cars have become and a credit to Morgan’s lean engineering. Pair that mass with BMW’s flexible and torquey B58 straight-six engine and the result is quite a rapid car.

Although the Plus Four and the Plus Six/Supersport have had traction and stability control since 2023, that doesn’t extend to launch control. Nevertheless, and despite relatively modest rubber (255-section Michelin Pilot Sport 5 – not even the S version), launching the Supersport is easy: simply bring the revs to 2000rpm, come off the brakes and smoothly feed in the power. It out-accelerates the Ford Mustang Dark Horse, which we tested with automatic transmission, steadily increasing its lead up to 130mph. At this point, the Morgan’s vintage aerodynamics catch up with it and allow the Mustang to narrowly beat it to 150mph.

What would make the Supersport complete to me is the option of a manual gearbox. Now that BMW has given the Z4 a manual, the components exist. Sadly, only about 10% of Plus Fours are ordered with three pedals, so it’s unlikely there would be enough demand for a manual Supersport.
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

Although the Morgan evidently has the power-to-weight ratio for high speeds, we wouldn’t want to go much over 90mph, even on an autobahn. The side mirrors aren’t made to withstand the air pressure over 100mph and will start to fall over. Sturdier mirrors (or some strategic duct tape) might be able to fix that, but the classic wing shape of a Morgan means that the car starts to wander a little at 130mph. Is that a problem? Not really, but it’s worth noting should you ever find yourself in Germany.

The engine is unchanged from the Plus Six, even though BMW has since developed the B58 to produce more power. Clearly, the Supersport doesn’t need it. It’s a fantastic engine, whose smoothness, cultured howl at higher revs and wide spread of power and torque are ideally suited to the Morgan – more so than the peakier M-spec S58 engine would be. With less sound deadening than you will find in a BMW with the same engine and no trickery with the cabin speakers, you hear more of the injectors ticking and the turbo whooshing, amping up the character.

Although the engine needed no changes, the gearbox calibration could have done with an update. It remains the same as in the Plus Six and is actually done by BMW with input from Morgan. When left in D, it can be a bit too busy in the lower gears and generally is overly keen to shift up. Despite the engine’s torque and the car’s low kerb weight, this makes the car feel slightly lethargic. A prod of the accelerator will make it downshift, but this is still an unnecessary delay and can make it feel like an old-school automatic with no torque-converter lock-up.

A Morgan may have embarrassed itself with its braking performance in 2004, but this Supersport makes up for that. The ABS works perfectly, a 42.8m stopping distance from 70mph in the dry is excellent, we observed no notable fade and it even performed well in the wet too. The pedal isn’t as over-assisted as in most modern cars, which we like.

RIDE & HANDLING

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20 Morgan Supersport 2025 Autocar road test review front cornering

If you’re unused to Morgans, driving the Supersport might feel alien at first. Because you sit so far back – right in front of the rear axle – and have so much unusually shaped car in front of you, this relatively narrow car can seem bigger than it actually is. Having your steering inputs take effect about two metres in front of you adds to an initial feeling of disconnect.

Most drivers should acclimatise quickly enough, though, and will find a sports car that is ideally suited to British B-roads. It fits into its lane with ease, which gives you more road to play with.

I’ve got so accustomed to having to disable a raft of ADAS features in modern cars that just pressing the start button, shifting to D and driving off in the Morgan feels odd, as if I’ve left the fridge door open. I could get used to it, I dare say.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

A number of upgrades compared with the Plus Six help to give the Supersport a surprisingly sophisticated ride. Our test car had the Dynamic Handling Pack, with the adjustable Nitron dampers. We left them in the setting they came in, which was somewhere midway. The Supersport is also more rigid than the Plus Six, thanks to the upgraded chassis and the hard top, and it has slightly higher-profile tyres than the Plus Six.

The result is that you can still feel the usual shimmies of a convertible but they’re not jarring. Even so, we would love for Morgan to do a proper coupé with a structural roof.

The low-speed ride can be slightly leaden but it’s rarely brittle, and once you get some speed up, the Nitrons start working and give the high-speed ride a very cushioned but beautifully controlled feathery feel. You can sense that the body isn’t moving very much, while the wheels are doing all the work. In corners, the body rolls more than some sports cars, but in a very natural way that never risks throwing you off course.

In fact, everything about the Supersport has an extra layer of dynamic polish over the Plus Six. It uses the same steering rack, but it’s mounted higher and has one fewer universal joint. So although the ratio is the same, the responses are slightly quicker. It’s relatively light but has a lovely fluidity and mechanical-feeling build of weight to it. There’s no more feel and feedback than you strictly need and less than in a Porsche 718 Cayman, but that’s not a comparison you could ever make with Morgans of old.

The traction and stability control systems are excellent too. The ESC Sport mode allows a bit of wheel slip coming out of tight corners without ever allowing the rear end to truly step out under power. With the optional limited-slip differential, the Supersport puts down its power more effectively than the Plus Six, which was liable to spinning an inside rear wheel. Instead, the Supersport feels alive, gently tightening its line on the power, like a proper rear-drive sports car.

This upgraded mechanical specification makes the Supersport more suitable for light track work, even if that’s still not its natural environment. We recommend winding the dampers to their stiffest setting beforehand, because in spite of the standard anti-roll bar and anti-dive geometry, our test car (with the dampers set midway) felt very soft when introduced to the higher cornering loads of a track.

It has grip and balance to spare, so its reactions are entirely natural and predictable, but its susceptibility to roll-oversteer means fast direction changes require extra care, particularly if you switch off the ESC. If smoky slides are your aim, of course, they are very easy to call up, although the short wheelbase means that the window between straightening up and spinning is relatively narrow.

Although the ride and seat comfort are excellent, any Morgan is still a more challenging car to drive over long distances than most modern cars. With the hard top, there’s less wind noise than in a Plus Six (or presumably a Supersport with the soft top) but still rather a lot. There’s also no cruise control and, with just the air vents in the centre console and under the dash, the heating and air conditioning aren’t the most effective.

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MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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01 Morgan Supersport 2025 Autocar road test review lead driving

You could look at the £105,160 starting price of the Supersport and decide you would much rather buy a far cheaper yet more daily-usable BMW M2, 718 Cayman GTS 4.0 or Mustang. That would be a reasonable conclusion, but it would also miss the point of a Morgan. Given its rarity, sense of occasion, style and unique experience, this hand-built sports car is arguably quite good value. The Porsche 911 Carrera and Lotus Emira V6 start at similar money. Although we don’t have hard data, you can be certain that it will hold its value like few other cars. Some optional equipment is expensive, mind.

BMW’s B58 engine is very efficient, given how powerful it is, and in the lightweight Morgan it’s capable of well over 40mpg at a cruise. The fuel tank is very small, however, so cruising range is relatively limited. Usefully, it doesn’t require high-octane fuel.

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VERDICT

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The Supersport is quite plainly the most polished Morgan yet. It’s easier to use and more practical than any before it, as well as better to drive. The stiffer platform, excellent damping control, new differential and improved steering give it great composure and predictability.

Could it replace a Porsche 911 in your garage? Put simply, if you had both, it would be a difficult decision which one to take for a Sunday blast, but for a rainy commute or a track session, there would be no contest. A 911 has more bandwidth.

As a desirable object, an experience, a talking point, though, few new cars can beat a Morgan. That the Supersport is now a rounded sports car that can be compared on equal terms with more mainstream cars – without losing any of its characteristic charm – is the real victory here.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S.