Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Photo Gallery Plus four Test Drive

My thanks to Dan at Krazy Horse for the loan of the car.

This is a very fast competent modern car that looks like a trad.

I drove the manual version and enjoyed it immensely but to keep the turbo on song you have to stir the petrol with the gear lever. Sixth at 60 or even 70 struggles if you accelerate hard & is really an overdrive. Dan tells me the autobox keeps the car on song as does driving in lower gears in the manual. On the video at roughly 12 min 27 secs I tried some 0 to 60 runs. I would say 5 seconds in non sports mode based upon counting elephants.

https://youtu.be/cYzekkM-oo4

Unlike the Plus Six it has normal profile tyres so the ride is more compliant / comfortable vs the low profile tyres. You can sense it has less power that then Plus Six but in reality it has loads to spare. It has more power than my S1 Roadster which felt under powered when I got back into it. But it has I would say similar power to a 3.7l Roadster though with the turbo it delivers differently.

In normal gearbox mode the exhaust is pretty quiet, press the sports mode button and the car responds more rapidly and on the over run there are addictive pops & bangs.
It has a start button which I also like.

So a very good if not indeed a great car from MMC. The one I drove is roughly £68k. The build quality was excellent.

Whilst the car is wider than a trad there are no door pockets to store stuff. The glove box has a bulge into it so is very small. Behind the seats is a reasonable space. At 5 ft 11in I needed to move the seat forward.

I didn't see anywhere to put tools & I am not sure if there is a tool tray in the back. Sorry I only thought of that after the event. As you can from the photos there is no space under the bonnet.

The gearbox tunnel is quite hard as it isn't covered in leather. I normally lean my leg against it but in the Plus Four that wasn't comfortable. Though I expect I would get used to it.

Definitely different to a trad but a very very good car. I need to talk to :swmbo and have long think.

Another reason to buy a manual is that you get a proper Morgan gear lever ball and not the horrid BMW Auto thing .....

I'm interested in taking a test drive but would not buy one. Even if I could justify spending that amount of money on a car, aesthetically it's not the kind of Morgan I fell in love with back in the 70s!!

I am also mightily impressed by the Plus Four. So much so that I spent a while on the configurator, with the inevitable come down when I realised that £77k was never going to get past the Head of Finance.

But interestingly, her objection was not so much the money, but "Shame they don't do an electric version".

I've just finishing a careful configuration exercise, building "Half a Tarka", visually the same and with most of the features we love, but manual.

£80,500.

Hmm.

Thanks for the write up John and I enjoyed the video

The ride seemed very stable and vibration free, which (as per all the road tests) is not something Morgan's have been renown for in the past?

There are two things - I am not too keen on:
1/ The price: whilst I can appreciate it is a hand built car....the competition for your money at this price point is eye popping?
2/ The sound of the 4 cylinder engine - admittedly through a video/microphone - is not appealing?

A great job done by Morgan tho..

John, thanks for taking the time to do the write-up, photos & video

Some interesting opinions

It's the car I probably wanted five years ago. I remember musing about a Plus 4 with an Aero-type chassis a few years ago. But out in my Plus 4 the other day I started wondering how much better it would actually be for the way I drive. To put it frankly, I dont drive all that fast. The occasional bit of fun on an empty twisty road or an empty piece of dual carriageway, but all of it pretty sedate in all honesty. My Plus 4 GDi has a pretty lively engine - enough for me anyhow. It's as comfortable as any other car (although it can crash a bit on really lumpy roads). So would spending probably at least £40,000 plus my Plus 4 give me any sort of value?

Nice write-up, thanks!

On the video at roughly 12 min 27 secs I tried some 0 to 60 runs.

Having watched that 0-60 section as few times, do I hear 'rev hang' from the ECU as you changed up gears, or was it you still slightly on the loud pedal?

Lovely weather btw! :>)

A point already raised and answered Pete!

Probably me pushing the loud pedal. There is no rev hang.