“A Morgan, typically, is a third or fourth car for many people and we would like this car to become their only sports car,” said Wells. “We would like this to be legitimately usable 365 days a year.”
Prices for the Supersport start from £102,000, and Morgan expects to build roughly 180 cars this year, before ramping up to an average annual output of around 200 units – slightly more than its predecessor.
Q&A: Jonathan Wells, chief design officer, Morgan Motor Company
Does the Supersport have as much technology as a Morgan customer wants?
“People have these connected lives where everything is device-driven; music isn’t a CD player any more. There’s this idea of ‘quiet power’ with a Morgan, whereby you don’t want something that’s busy and confusing. This is escapism.”
In making your flagship more usable, is there a risk you dilute some of its analogue appeal?
“The Plus Four is still that legacy, traditional Morgan – those Tenax fasteners are going nowhere! The Supersport is definitely about a slightly more contemporary driving focus and the use case is different. It’s not about a quick blast around the Cotswolds. You could go for a long weekend away.”
Did the Plus Four CX-T off-roader influence the Supersport’s more compliant chassis?
“A lot of us consider the CX-T to be what you would expect a Morgan to drive like, having never driven one before: that slightly more linear travel, a little bit of playful body roll, confident in the corners – and just fun to play with.”