Morgan has revealed the all-new Plus Four
as the brand’s latest entry-level model and the second one to adopt the
company’s aluminum CX-Generation platform. Despite looking very similar to the
old Plus 4, the historic British brand says that the new Plus Four is 97
percent new – also notice how they swapped “4” for “Four” in its name.
The all-new Morgan Plus Four was developed
alongside the also new Plus Six during the past four years, with the aluminum
platform providing a much more rigid basis than the old steel chassis. Since
this is a Morgan, a hand-made ash frame is still present, alongside hand-beaten
aluminum panels and a hand-trimmed leather interior.
Power comes from a BMW-sourced 2.0-liter
four-cylinder TwinPower turbo engine that produces 255 HP and 400
Nm of torque. Combine that with a dry weight of just 1,009 kg and
is no wonder why the new Plus Four can achieve a 0-100 km/h in 4.8
seconds. Top speed is set at 240 km/h.
In addition to the eight-speed automatic
version, Morgan will also offer the new Plus Four with a six-speed manual
variant; that one makes slightly less torque, at 350 Nm, with the
0-100 km/h figure dropping to 5.2 seconds. Horsepower and top speed remains the
same.
Morgan says that the turbocharged engine
has a specific mapping for the Plus Four to ensure “optimum drivability and
response”, helping them along the way to achieve a 30 percent reduction in CO2
emissions compared to the old Morgan Roadster (159 g/km for the automatic
variant).
The new Morgan Plus Four is 78 mm narrower
than the Plus Six (104 mm narrower at the central body) and features
model-specific profiled wings, giving a similar footprint to the model it
replaces. For the first time in a CX-platform car, Morgan offers a set of new,
low-offset 15-inch wire wheels that required a lot of work to make them fit,
including redesigned wishbones, suspension uprights and braking parts.
Morgan has already opened the order books
for the new Plus Four, which starts from £ 62,995 (US$ 80,500) in the UK, with the first customer deliveries expected to start
in the second quarter of the year.
