Road test: Morgan Plus Six is fun to drive, but on the right roads

Creating ‘restomods’ is an automotive phenomenon that is fast becoming a craze.

This is a trend whereby modern mechanicals are installed – by specialist garages or savvy DIY mechanics – into an old classic, yielding a car that’s better to drive than the original ever was.

But what if you could buy a brand-new restomod, straight off the showroom floor, that is backed by a 30-month factory warranty? This is essentially what you get in a Morgan.

Founded in 1909, the ultra-niche British sportscar maker has clung to its original recipe more closely than arguably any other marque on the planet. It is almost as though time has stood still for the brand.

The Morgan Plus Six we are reviewing here looks little different to a 1955 Morgan Plus 4, and that is the allure of the retro-laced roadster in an era when virtually all new vehicle offerings appear to be electronics-laden, identikit clones of each other.

Although the Plus Six looks little changed from its seven-decade old ancestor, things are not quite as they seem, as the vehicle is underpinned by a modern aluminium architecture introduced in 2019. The drivetrain is virtually identical to a new BMW Z4. That said, the aluminium bodywork is still cloaked over an ash wood frame, in keeping with Morgan’s traditional construction formula.

Propulsion for the Plus Six is provided by BMW’s lovely B58 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo engine mated to an eight-speed ZF automatic, which slingshots the 1,075kg (minus fluids) Morgan from zero to 100 kph in just 4.2 seconds and on to a top speed of 267 kph … should you have access to a racetrack.

Adding to adrenaline levels, the Plus Six makes do without traction control and stability control – features we nowadays take for granted – so it is all down to the driver to ensure the car does not end up wrapped around a tree or other object.

Virtually everything about driving the Plus Six is a throwback to a bygone era. The push-button door handle reminds me of the archaic Hindustan Ambassador in which I learnt how to drive, while the window opening mechanism (actually, there’s no mechanism) is plain laughable. Using a little knob integrated into it, the window pane slides horizontally. At