Is the new Morgan Plus Six just a smartly tailored BMW Z4?

[MUSIC] A lovely road in Wales on a summer's day and a Morgan. Now in the past that would have meant [INAUDIBLE] a little bit. Not pushing too hard, enjoying general ambiance of being in something that was probably a parts automobile, two parts World War Two fighter. Particularly very one of the V8 models on the blood and thunder soundtrack was sort of the mercenary equivalent of Brian lesson. [NOISE] Now however, that top of the range Morgan, has been replaced by this, The Plus 6, and the clue is in the name. Out with the V8, in with the Turbo charge straight six. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Morgan has retained its relationship with BMW for this new drive train. And the Munich manufacturer has supplied a three litre 335 brake horsepower B58 engine and the attendant eight speed auto box. [MUSIC] Of course this is the same running gear that also makes an off brand appearance in a certain Japanese coupe. Now I haven't driven the Supra yet, as of today anyway. But I have driven the BMW Zed 4 and 40i. And the thing that people have been saying about the Toyota is that it, It's well a BMW in super skin. So one of the things you wanna know about this is its a BMW with some Morgan tailoring. No, no as soon as you get into this, yes we have the gear selector here. But apart from that, you really don't get the feeling that you're just in a sort of classic Z4. What you do feel, is you're in something very [INAUDIBLE]. The cases weighs just 1075 kilos or a bit dry. This has got an awful lot of performance. [INAUDIBLE] just over four seconds, and it certainly feels that because it's got all this torque. 369 pounds-foot of it. It's incredibly responsive. This is one of two launch additions. This is the Moonstone one for obvious reasons, taking it from the color and it is just under 90,000 pounds which isn't an awful lot of money. There's no getting away from it. Some bets well we don't necessarily look like 90,000 pounds as well. Doesn't look right. But it's really nice to feel and hold on events of ergonomics. When you get into it well, their seats you tend to sorta sit on it rather than in it and you feel like you're sitting On the chassis a bit. Which is not great, I'd probably want to change that eventually. But, having said that, it's fairly comfortable. And because it's still a relatively sort of compact cockpit, you can actually still race yourself pretty well, even with your legs. To help with the seating position, the steering wheel is now adjustable for both reach and rake. The first Morgan It's also worth mentioning that the basic, non-launch edition price for this Plus 6 is actually a fiver under 78,000 pounds, which is a touch more palatable. After all, hand-crafting an ash frame isn't easy. Also included in that price is a roof. It's a single layer of air that still has a whiff of the silver cross power about it. But After a bit of practice [MUSIC] I reckon you could put it up or down in about 30 seconds, who were not on the move, obviously. We've got a few minutes so we've got normal and then if you click this across the here, you got scores and press the button down here. Here, and you get sport plus, plus you got these puddles back here which are fixed in position, unusual for BMW powertrain. [SOUND] Of course, we're always quick in a straight line to, when you go to the corners. You just had the feeling of the front and rear, really talking to each other very much This new aluminum chassis car, however, is a completely different proposition. Now you can really drive the car. You still have to wait a little as you go into corners cuz there's quite a bit of roll. But the double wishbones all around And when she circled the buttons remarkably well and it feels so much more precise than any Morgan I've ever been in. Even the new electrically power system steering felt pretty well judged to me. Like all the past systems, it filters out some of the riddling you felt with a hydraulic system set up, that arguably some of the added Commons and also thanks to better controlled front suspension I went to that new [UNKNOWN] which is an amazing 100% stiffer than the old one. The other interesting thing is despite this car having the same footprint as the old V8 car and in fact a slightly longer wheel base, it feels much smaller to me. And I think a big part of that is because This new chassis and just how much more accurate it feels.This now feels like a proper driver's car. You've got ABS,but there's no traction control or stability control. When I first got into it, I felt that the rear suspension was perhaps a little soft, which in itself speaks volumes decades previously. You'd never really have got into the handling minutiae like that. You've got a limited slip depth. [MUSIC] [LAUGH] And it does feel really nicely controllable. You can get a moving around, you tend to want to still pour it into corners, let the roll settle, and then Squeeze on the power. There's still definitely a very Morgan feel to the way it goes around the corner. But just now it's so much more, [BLANK_AUDIO] precision that you can actually drive it harder enjoy it. What about the sun? Well of course is not That wonderful gargling V8. It's an engine that sounds better on low revs, I think. [MUSIC] When you're really pushing it up towards its red line, it just sounds a bit breathy and you lose the complexity The only other thing that could perhaps do with just tweaking slightly is the breaking. It wasn't bad, but I just felt like the pedal could be a bit firmer from the top of the [UNKNOWN]. Afterall, while the brakes might not have much weight to stop, this is a [UNKNOWN] that arrives at corners very quickly, so you want to have absolute confidence in them. So how to sum up this new Plus Six If you jumped onto something modern, the cheaper Z4 for example, you get into this and probably think well, there are no toys in here and it's a very thin roof and so NVH is high and it's not very modern. But if you come at it from the perspective of driving the Morgans, then this feels like a revolution. To me, if you want a Morgan, then this still does all the things I think we want in a Morgan in terms of that charm. The fact that it is a bit of an adventure. The big thing for me is that now you can find this through all those things and the wonderful looks, which I have found is a big part of So that. You have got a car that is really enjoyable when you get to a road like this. That's a big change, and that makes me very happy. [SOUND] [MUSIC]