FIRST LOOK: THE 2026 MORGAN SUPERSPORT BOASTS RETRO LOOKS, MODERN THRILLS
Bored with Porsche 911s? This modern but deliciously retro sports car is cheaper and boasts a better weight-to-power ratio than a base Carrera.
At first glance, the Morgan Supersport looks much like almost every Morgan roadster built since 1953. But under its artfully rendered retro-modernist exterior is a thoroughly modern sports car with a lightweight aluminum chassis, a turbocharged engine, and independent suspension all around. Inside, you find wood and leather if you want it, but also standard air conditioning, a Sennheiser audio system, and a hands-free phone system that uses active noise canceling so you can have conversations while driving with the roof off.
What It Is
Morgan designed its new flagship from the wheels up to be a Morgan roadster that can be driven every day, rain or shine. The Supersport—the name was first used on a Morgan in 1927—is also designed to be more obviously different from the four-cylinder Plus Four than its predecessor, the Plus Six. The Plus Six was essentially a Plus Four with a more powerful six-cylinder engine and a wider track and a noticeably edgier demeanor when driven hard. “We wanted to grow the breadth of our portfolio,” Morgan CEO Matthew Hole says. “The Supersport is fundamentally about making a more usable Morgan.”
The Hardware
The 2026 Morgan Supersport’s powertrain, which features a 335-hp, 369-lb-ft version of BMW’s B58 3.0-liter turbocharged straight-six driving the rear wheels through a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission, is unchanged from the Plus Six, as are the four-wheel disc brakes. The chassis is based on the Plus Six’s all-aluminum CX platform introduced in 2019 and still used for the Plus Four, but Morgan engineers made thousands of detail changes to improve ride, handling, and structural rigidity, enough to warrant giving it a new designation, CXV.
The Supersport’s wheelbase is the same as that of the Plus Six, but the front and rear suspension geometry is new. The track is slightly wider, and there’s more wheel travel—3.2 inches versus 2.0—and anti-roll bars front and rear. A new steering rack and column deliver 13 percent quicker steering with more feel. Standard wheels are 18-inch cast aluminum-alloy items that weigh 23.8 pounds each versus the 30.4 pounds of the old Plus Six wheels; they're shod with Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tires, 235/45 up front and 255/45 at the rear. Optional wheels are 19-inch forged aluminum pieces that weigh just 21.4 pounds, with 235/40 and 255/40 Michelins front and rear. Other options include a Dynamic Handling package with adjustable Nitron shocks and a limited-slip differential.
Morgan says the CXV chassis weighs just 225 pounds, including its front and rear subframes. There’s also more wood in the structure, notably to support the rear end, where it is visible when you open the trunk. The Supersport’s underpinnings are different enough from those of the Plus Six that Morgan had to crash test and recertify them under Europe’s small-volume manufacturer rules.
The new Supersport’s body panels are all aluminum, many of them hand-formed, and the optional hard top, which improves torsional rigidity by 10 percent when fitted, Morgan says, is made of carbon fiber. Because of those lightweight materials, the Supersport pushes scales at a feathery 2,600 pounds. And that’s curb weight, not dry weight, which means the Supersport has a weight-to-power ratio within 0.5 lb/hp of that of a BMW M4 CS and about 1 lb/hp better than a base Porsche 911 Carrera’s. The new chassis and upgraded suspension and tires mean the Supersport should be easier to drive fast than the Plus Six, which was quite intimidating on a greasy road. That said, it’s still going to be rather like a Shelby Cobra in a tweed cap: Morgan claims a 0–60 time of less than 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 166 mph.
Different by Design
Although it looks like a typical Morgan, the 2026 Supersport’s new body is nothing like that of the old Plus Six or the Plus Four, the latter of which continues as the more traditional model in the lineup above the grin-inducing Super 3 three-wheeler. Morgan previewed many of the Supersport’s design cues in the limited-edition Midsummer barchettait revealed last year, though that car was in fact styled afterward. The Supersport combines vintage Morgan forms with a soupçon of the Midsummer’s extravagance, lovely reductive surfacing, and thoroughly modern detailing.
Compared with the Plus Four, the Supersport has fuller, differently profiled fenders and a long, sloping tail that delivers a small but usable trunk on a Morgan for the first time in many years. Underscoring the fact this isn’t your grandfather’s Morgan is the modern technical detailing around the car’s base, from the front intakes under the classically profiled grille to the taillights and diffuser nestled under the sweeping tail’s trailing edge. The Supersport sits confidently over its big wheels; it looks low and planted.
Air Apparent
Despite the Morgan Supersport’s vintage visuals, there’s cleverly embedded aerodynamic function in the form. For example, the front fenders sweep back more gently to allow the airflow to stay attached longer, while the rear fenders are angled slightly as they rise from the running boards to allow air to pass over them more easily.
The long hood—the longest ever on a Morgan—has no louvers. The old Plus Six’s traditional hood louvers looked great but were an inefficient means of drawing hot air from the engine compartment, Morgan design boss Jonathan Wells says. The Supersport instead features ducts between the grille cowl and the front of the hood; they vent air from the redesigned and improved cooling system. Morgan engineers employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology to hone the body surfaces and the underbody, resulting in a 5 percent drag reduction, a 20 percent lift reduction, and improved aerodynamic balance.
Although the doors have more aerodynamic handles, they still stand proud of the bodywork, as on old Morgans. However, they are now located by extruded aluminum beams inside them that are hinged directly to the frame. This not only hides the hinges but also allows for better seals to reduce wind noise and to keep the cold air out. The aluminum beams are also used to locate a modern version of Morgan’s traditional side screens. “We thought a lot about how to do the side windows,” Wells says, “but we decided that having removable side screens was part of the Morgan magic.” The side screens fit in the trunk, and the longer tail means there’s also room for a couple of soft bags behind the seats.
The only non-Morgan part visible on the 2026 Supersport is inside. It’s the BMW automatic transmission's shifter, which can’t be changed because elements of the powertrain control electronics are housed within it. The Supersport has a small screen in front of the driver to display HVAC and audio settings, but everything else is analog, the old-school instruments featuring bespoke Morgan graphics in a font derived from one the company used in 1909. A small grille on the center console hides three microphones that use beam-forming technology and active noise cancellation to ensure hands-free calls will be practical even with the roof off. A little cubby ahead of the shifter allows your smartphone’s screen to remain visible, which means you can use things like navigation apps while wirelessly charging your phone. The Supersport even has remote central locking.
The Bottom Line
With the new 2026 Supersport, Morgan may have unlocked the formula that has made Porsche’s 911 such an icon. It’s a car that retains a look and style that date back decades. But it’s totally modern below the surface. If Morgan delivers on its promises of improved drivability and reliability, the Supersport could attract buyers who have owned multiple 911s and are bored with them or disillusioned by their ever-increasing size, weight, and price. The quirky, characterful 2026 Morgan Supersport promises to be light and exhilarating to drive, just like sports cars used to be.
With prices starting at 15 percent less than a bare-bones base 911 Carrera, (which translates to an MSRP of about $102,000 in the U.S.) the Supersport looks like a bargain, not least because you won’t see one on every street corner. Morgan expects to hand-build about 200 Supersports per year. Porsche, by comparison, sold almost 51,000 911s worldwide last year. Sadly, though, the Supersport won’t be coming to the U.S. Unlike the rest of the world, which accepts Europe’s innovative small-volume manufacturer waiver in terms of crash testing, U.S. authorities insist the Supersport would have to meet this country’s crash regulations.
2025-03-11T14:54:06Z