Richard Hammond: "I'd Buy THIS Over A Porsche"

Morgans say their new supersport is the car that will finally move them from number three in a person's garage to number two car. Enough about how many cars people have or haven't got. What they mean is, I think, it's still a toy, a precious novelty, but it's more usable. The question is, is it? Well, I'm going to find out. I'm going to use it in the way I think a hand-built, it's still hand-built, British roadster should be used. I've just stepped off the train after a night out last night in London at a black tie bash. Basically, I'm Bertie Wooster returning from a night out on the tiles to pick up the old two-seater and return to the country domicile for a refreshing tonic from Jeeps. This whole thing is about as British as Paddington Bear in a Union Jack bowler hat eating fish and chips out of newspaper, or a hooded youth stealing your mobile. Take your Anyway, here it is. Now, pay attention to what I'm doing here. I'm opening the boot. Yeah, I know, on any car ever made, this side of an F1 car, that's no big deal, but this is a Morgan and I've just put my luggage in the boot. Already, that's a move from number three to number two car. Note something else. I'm opening the door. Again, no big deal, but look, it's got a proper hinge internal into the body itself rather than on the outside like the one in your shed. Such modernity, it's madness. Now, excuse me for rambling on a bit. I know I am. Fact of the matter is, I was very sensible last night. I had my last glass of the electric soup at least 12 hours ago, so I'm perfectly safe to drive. I am still feeling a bit flaky, to be honest. Mind you, this is a nice place to recover. I know it's got a digital dash and modern touches. I can charge my phone wirelessly. I'm going to, but it still feels as beautifully crafted as my favourite armchair in my club, if I had such a thing, which I don't. Let's get one thing out of the way straight away. The engine in this quintessential hand-built British sports car is, there's no other way of putting it, German. They're using the same three litre turbo straight six that powered the outgoing plus six Morgan. That is a good thing because it's a great engine. 335 horsepower driving through the rear wheels via the eight speed ZF automatic gearbox. I know there will be those saying, oh no, automatic. How dare they? I want to shift manually. Well, yeah, but I quite enjoy advancing and retarding the ignition manually and adjusting the mixture manually on my vintage Lagonda, but that's the sort of thing that reduces a car from second car to third car, and that in this won't do. This just feels so correct. Beautiful British villages, beautiful British car. I'm feeling better. This car's medicine. I don't need Jeeves's tonic. I just need a quick scamper about on the old two seater. This wasn't originally intended to be a brand new car. It was a revision of the plus six, but well, in a very un-Morgan way, they got carried away. They made so many fundamental changes to the chassis that they had to redesignate it as an entirely new car, and once they'd done that, well, they just kind of went berserk. It's got faster steering and you can feel that. It's got wishbone suspension all round, optional nitron shock absorbers. They're not messing about with this car. I'll just put it in sport mode. This will make me feel better. Four to 60 in a shade over three seconds means it is actually faster than nearly every Porsche Cayman, and although it's 20 kilograms heavier than the plus six, the brakes are still well up to making your eyeballs bulge if you need them to. This is a whole new Morgan experience. There is a little bit of lead through turns when you're pressing on, but that's good. I want that. I don't want it to feel digital. It's a British two-seater. I want it to feel analog. I want to feel the car lean into the mechanical grip. That just sounds so much more solid and car-like than Morgan's of old. Now, you may have noticed something. This, it's got a hard top on. You probably used to see Morgans with the soft top. There is one. This comes off, it goes on. There's also tops that go on the doors here, side screens, as there always have been, but these now slot into these holes rather than a sort of fiddly arrangement of knurled nuts and bolts. It is a lot easier to live with. Something else that Morgan haven't gone on about much, but I suspect is on their mind. If they are seeking to raise their cars from a third car, a total novelty, to a second car, a regularly used sports car, they're probably going to want to lower the average age of their buyers a bit. Put it this way, back in the day of long Morgan waiting lists, it wasn't uncommon for somebody to put their name down to buy a car, but then kind of not make it to the delivery date. That's probably changing. I do know that 25 years ago when I bought my first Morgan, I used to take great delight in watching people's reaction when they saw my youthful, fresh face grinning through here down the long louvered bonnet of a Morgan. Now at the age of 55, of course, I'm bang on the demographic. This isn't a surprise, nothing to see here. You see, the face now fits, although, and this does trouble me actually, the bonnet is no longer louvered, it's plain, and well, I'm a romantic soul, I suspect most Morgan owners are, and the louvers, they were a big part of the experience. It was, I suspect, quite a divisive thing when the designers elected to go with a plain bonnet, so if a customer were to order one and say, could you pop some louvers in it, I don't know how they'd react. If it were mine, I would say, can we put some louvers in, and put up with the shouting. So does it answer the question, is it mission accomplished? Is this a more usable Morgan that moves from third car to second car? Yes, yes it is. It has modernity, the chassis, the feel of it, but it is still very much hand-built, it feels crafted. Over the bonded aluminium chassis, there is a wooden ash frame that's carved and made, of which are 100 aluminium body panels. It's made like no other car, it is special. I mean, it also has a very modern price, starts at £102,000, but by the time you've added all the things you need, like this car, the price is going to look more like £125,000, but it still makes me, in it, feel special. And if your favourite toy makes you feel special, well, that's love, isn't it?