Morgan Motor Company describes the forthcoming Plus 8 GTR as a ‘gloves off’ special edition – more about that later.
This actually heralds the start of a potentially busy year for Morgan, as the Plus 8 will be the first in a series of planned special limited editions from the Worcestershire company. This particular limited edition arose due to Morgan acquiring 8 pre-2018 Plus 8 rolling chassis. There will be just 9 (no, not the more obvious number of ‘8’) Morgan Plus 8 GTR models, making this a very limited Morgan special edition. One of the advantages of such a small number will be that each lucky owner will be allowed the luxury of being able to conspire with the Morgan design team to discuss their commission for each bespoke vehicle.
The Malvern-based company is keeping this strictly old school – no electric powertrains here. The Plus 8 will be a traditional throaty V8 powered beast, with a choice of ZF 6-speed automatic or standard 6-speed manual gearbox to connect the 4.8-litre BMW sourced engine. The same engine has previously been used in the Morgan Plus 6 from a couple of years ago and also powered the Aero Chassis Plus 8. Regarding the Plus 6, that pushed out around 362bhp, although Morgan are currently remaining rather coy about how much they will allow the Plus 8 GTR to have, suggesting the V8 will possibly be undergoing a little bit of tweaking before being dropped into the new Plus 8 GTR.
Morgan will also be reintroducing a 5-spoke centre-lock alloy, rather reminiscent of the Morgan Plus 8 racer variants from the nineties. Though the car itself will differ somewhat from those race cars with redesigned wheel arches, front wings and splitter. Big Blue, the nineties test racer that benefitted from a bonded aluminium chassis, now inspires part of the reimagining of the new Morgan Plus 8 GTR. Previously, Big Blue went on to loosely inspire the Morgan Aero 8 models, and with Morgan’s relatively recent CX-Generation platform, the Plus 8 will be a fitting tribute to this famous test racer.
Morgan’s Head of Design, Jonathan Willis, says that when the opportunity arose to utilise these unused rolling chassis, it was a chance for the engineering and design teams to let their hair down a little and have some fun incorporating some favourite design elements from Morgan’s rich automotive past.
That’s about as much as Morgan will allow us to know so far, with just a couple of pretty sketches to get the juices flowing. And with the company looking over the horizon to more eco-friendly and more modern powertrains, who knows – this just might be the last time we get to see a lovingly crafted brand new classic V8 limited edition Morgan sportscar coming out of Worcestershire (though I wouldn’t bank on that).
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
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