Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax MOG Mag Teaser

Great for you guys but it is not just Italy. This sort of taxation in one form or another is in existance in many parts of Europe. It is seen as a way of extracting more tax out of the wealthy.

Realistically how many owners actually use all that power. Hands up who has actually taken it to 170 mph or even taken it to the red line on more than a couple of occasions. It is not the absolute power that counts in the real world, it is the torque at low to mid range for acceleration and overtaking.

Sure the sound of the V8 is glorious but we seem to have got caught up in a race to have the most powerful road car possible. I see it as very much an ego thing on the part of the car builders. Take the extremes like the Bugatti, no one can actually use all that power. It is only a matter of time before the UK Government dreams up a similar tax. Enjoy your V8s while you can.

The Italian tax has been around for quite a while. Ferrari made a V6 2.0 litre engine to meet the lower tax bracket in the 70's for those that didn't want to pay the tax on the V8 3.0 litre.

This particular super tax has only been in place since 2012. It is in addition to the normal tax.

The biggest market for Morgan V8's is actually Germany and not UK which is the second largest market. The Aero/Plus 8 is a niche market for now, and whilst these markets still exist markets like Italy and even the USA don't make commercial sense .


Don't really disagree with much of your reasoning, but if you carry it through to its logical conclusion, why did you buy a Plus 4 rather than a 4/4? Maybe because it is easier to have an excess of power for the job in hand rather than trying to row along an under-powered car for touring at say French speed limits (130 kph). Incidentally, no Aero model will do 170 mph, I have maxed several of them at Bruntingthorpe and the AeroMax was the fastest at 165 mph, the Aero SS was much slower at circa 155 mph. In both cases the limit was aerodynamically limited.


We will, which was the point of our previous post, I have just ordered a new Mog.

The temptation at the Show got to you then Brian?

What another one?

Yes let's celebrate while we can ,I love my v8's but I am also a realist and so are the MMC ,who ,as you are aware have ,and are at present looking to the future . Like it or not engine sizes are getting smaller and more efficient ,and Morgan will have to join the club eventually ,as there is not plenty of time to develope and keep ahead of legislation.
Also being realistic ,I am aware that a diesel morgan is a no no.....however the most famous Sports Car race in the world "LE MANS " has been won by a DIESEL sports car 9 times ,
I was always a firm believer that "there's no substitute for cubic capacity" but I was wrong , and am now old enough and wise enough to accept evolution .......
I would also like to remind other sports car enthusiasts that the BRITISH sports car heritage has its foundations and history based on the use of 4 and 6 cylinder engines ,and certainly not a v8 .
In the years to come ,why would you want to install a 4.8 litre v8 367 hp engine when you could fit a 400hp 2 litre unit ,which would be lighter ,greener ,more fuel efficient ,and cheaper to purchase .......
Ah yes. Because it sounds better ?
Good luck with the new Morgan purchase ,I guess it's the new Aero ,which looks great ,I doubt the world would want to see another Sp1???

So to clarify:
- Morgan must build traditional cars with a dated suspension design on a dated chassic design covered in a dated bodyshape
- Morgan must use state of the art engines



Morgan's (all of them including the Aeros) hark back to a byegone era - they don't chase low CO2 emissions, comfort or outright power/performance bragging rights. The people who can afford to go out and buy an Aero 8 are not going to not buy it because it costs an extra 1000eur per year in road-tax. You can't tax the rich away from buying expensive/powerful cars.

I really like what Morgan have done with the new Aero 8. One of the first things I thought when I saw the design of the rear was that it could be transformed into an interesting shooting brake. Now all I need is the winning Euro Millions numbers and the next Morgan SP could be in the pipeline.

Looks like Jays!

But, a production model Digi...