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.

Nice write up John!

+1

Thanks for report John. Whilst I was expecting a Sports mode button in the auto version, I wasn't advised so wasn't looking for one on the manual. Is there a big difference in power or is it mainly exhaust note?

Totally agree on the "overdrive" sixth gear which is substantially higher than the overdrive sixth on the 3.7 Roadster. All the gears after are in fact very much higher than the norm after first, although well placed. Even third I roughly calculated as 20mph/1000 rpm which was close to top gear gearing on many cars not so long ago. The upshot I found was plenty of opportunity and need for gear changing on country roads which fortunately is a pleasure.

Handling as you suggest is more nimble compared to heavier Plus Six but shares general handling traits which are entirely different to a Classic. It just grips on corners with a neutral modern car feel not so different from our Mini, whilst soaking up the road surface almost irrespective of condition.

Agree about the transmission tunnel top on the test car, Just a flat bit of body coloured material which looked out of place and tacky. My preference would be for classic padded leather covering which would integrate far better with trim elsewhere. Better probably than the wood finish on the auto car which hopefully you got a glimpse of.

Great video for those of us more distant to get a feel, I really miss the English driving and felt that watching the vid except the peculiar smell of some countryside there. The car seems very smooth down the road but I am not sure about that terrible rev hang - or was that the roadster man at the wheel 😉. The exhaust note was not ideal though I guess that is being picky and that dash.... Interested that you feel there is good room behind the seats ,as in the Plus Six it is definitely lacking compared to my trad.

Richard,
the sports mode does more oomph I felt but the big difference is the noises on over run.
Malcolm,
I can't say I noticed rev hang. It could be the cheap gopro I use.

Thanks John. I would agree no rev hang on the Plus Four, more a Mustang engined Roadster trait.

Yes no rev hang at all. I only spotted the sports mode button late on . The wheel hides it and it sits forward on that tunnel cover near the drivers left knee.

Yes spotted know as shown here to right of gear knob.

I can't wait to book a test drive at Williams. It sounds like a really rather good car!

John I’m wondering if you have very fancy stabilisation software for your camera, it all seems so smooth - can’t surely be a Morgan? Might be your driving of course.
Very nicely put together, a view from an existing owner is particularly valuable as others have said.