The 2023 Morgan Plus Four is a surprisingly modern mountaineer

Barry Hayden

It’s barely six degrees Fahrenheit at the summit of the Julier Pass. Visibility is zero, a full-blown whiteout. The edges of the road are practically invisible with the blizzard sending horizontal sheets across the windscreen. Snow ceaselessly accumulates onto the asphalt.

I’m the first person outside of the factory to be allowed behind the wheel of this updated 2023 Plus Four, and I briefly wonder whether perhaps we’re both a little too far out of our comfort zones. It may well be the most extreme test the roadster has ever been through. At the very least I suspect it is a situation in which precious few owners of Morgan’s latest Plus Four will find themselves.

2023 Morgan Plus4 front 3-4
Barry Hayden

This is, after all, a machine meant for pleasure drives and holidays. For meandering English country lanes, pausing for a pint and a ploughman’s lunch, or perhaps an ice cream by the coast. At an elevation of 7500 feet, the ice isn’t in a cone. It’s everywhere.

It’s the fifth and final Swiss high alpine pass that I’ve driven in as many days. Once I’m out of the mountains it will be a long haul across the autoroutes and routes nationale of neighboring France to the U.K., back home. But before we come to the end of this 2000-mile test drive, let’s go back to the beginning.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 on Julier Pass 2
It’s well below freezing at 7500 feet, thus the top is up. For now. Barry Hayden

Scaling new heights

In what has been the biggest shake-up in the boutique British sports car maker’s 110-year history, Morgan redesigned its four-wheel sports cars from the ground up in 2019. The process breathed new life into the Plus Four and replaced the long-running Plus 8 with the Plus Six. Morgan’s stalwart, steel ladder-frame chassis was retired in favor of a superformed aluminum structure dubbed “CX.”

The benefits of the CX chassis are extensive. Instead of having to measure, cut and fit Morgan’s trademark ash wood frame and aluminum body panels to each one individually, the company can now produce identical chassis and pre-cut frames with incredible accuracy. The process streamlined production and created a significantly stiffer structure—all while maintaining Morgan’s hand-built traditions.

2023 Morgan Plus 4engine
Barry Hayden

Morgan has always relied on external engine suppliers, including Ford, Fiat, Rover, Coventry Climax, and others. Continuing a relationship that began in the early 2000s with the V-8-powered Aero 8, Morgan turned to BMW for the Plus Four and Plus Six engines. The former uses a 2.0-liter, 255-hp turbocharged four-cylinder, while the latter uses a 335-hp 3.0-liter turbo straight-six. With BMW power came more sophisticated engine management, automatic transmissions, and even a digital dashboard.

For 2023 those engines remain unchanged, but the power now comes with even better control. Suspension dampers and bushings have been finessed. There are AP Racing brakes, new calibrations for the automatic gearbox and, for the first time ever in a Morgan, electronic stability control and dual airbags. These significant updates mean that the Plus Four will meet U.S. federal regulations (under the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act) and join the Super 3 in America before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the interior has been enhanced with a wider choice of fabrics, a single-piece aluminum dash, wonderful wooden marquetry for the center console, and a Sennheiser audio system which uses the uses the chassis structure to resonate bass.

These changes, on paper, should make the modern Morgan quite the grand tourer. That’s exactly what I plan to put to the test.

Road-trip ready

My destination is the Swiss town St. Moritz, home of The ICE, a gathering of some of the world’s most exotic classic cars on a frozen lake. The Plus Four may be a new car, but Morgan hasn’t much changed its styling in 80 years. I reckon it will fit in.

Storage space has never been a priority for Morgan. There’s room behind the seats for a couple of soft bags and a box of snow chains, but everything else will have to go in waterproof duffels strapped to the Plus Four’s chrome rear carrier.

One area where technology has noticeably progressed: paint. The Volcano Orange finish looks sensational. I’m a sucker for bright colors, and the first time I set eyes on the Plus Four I adore how the orange accentuates the cars’ classic curves.

The run down to Folkestone through a still-sleeping London is easy and remarkably efficient, the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic gearbox maintaining an engine speed that’s barely above idle for most of the journey. At the 70-mph motorway speed limit wind noise isn’t too bad, but one issue rears its head that will plague the entire trip: winter chill seeps through the door seals. Naturally, it only gets worse as the temperature drops. Despite the heated seats and cranking heater, the next five days will be spent either too hot, too cold, or, somehow, both at the same time.

The car is a pre-production model, and Morgan assures me that customer cars won’t suffer in this way. But the new Sennheiser audio system isn’t quite behaving, either. In order to get it to pair with a phone via Bluetooth, the unit needs a complete reset only achievable by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery. Again, Morgan says, a pre-production glitch.

The French connection

I meet photographer Barry Hayden near the Channel Tunnel to France. We play a short game of packing Tetris, filling the meager available space with luggage, photo equipment, and other road trip odds and ends. “It could be worse,” says Barry. “You could have got a Super 3.”

Soon enough we pass through the Chunnel and under the sea that separates Britain and its nearest European neighbor. We reach France and waste no time, motoring south at 80 mph.

The extra 10 mph that France permits on its autoroutes brings a rush of wind noise into the cabin, despite the closed soft top. Dialing up the volume on the stereo, with the bass vibrating through the bulkhead, just about overpowers the drone but reduces in-car communication between Barry and me to hand gestures. Sennheiser’s Calmo noise-cancellation system would be a welcome addition (and may come later, says Morgan).

The run down to Lucerne is forgettable—around 500 miles whisking us past Reims, Metz, and Strasbourg. This is not the most picturesque part of France, being largely flat, and the grey winter sky is doing nothing to enhance the aesthetics. Fortunately, the cabin of the Plus Four is surprisingly comfortable. The seats are excellent and even after four hours or so behind the wheel Barry and I experience no back twinge or muscle ache.

Toll booths prove a challenge in a car this low and uncommonly shaped. It takes a few runs to accurately assess where the front corner of the car is, but by the time we reach the Swiss border we’ve just about perfected the teamwork required to collect or pay for a ticket without the passenger having to unbuckle and stretch out.

Despite the sustained high speed, we’re covering around 250 miles on a tank of fuel and averaging around 33 mpg.

Into the Alps

We overnight at a cheap pub/hotel on the banks of Lake Lucerne, slightly bemused by its English football theme, and the next morning make an early start for a day in the mountains. It’s still dark as we make our way out of the city through a series of tunnels, one of which is so long that the sun has actually risen by the time we reach the exit.

Soon we’re climbing up and over the Brünig Pass, which as far as alpine views does not quite reflect the spectacle it appears to be on the map. One section looks like a toddler’s scribble on paper, and is indeed a delightfully dizzying series of hairpins, but rises to only 3000 feet or so. Staying below the treeline means views aren’t of the Swiss postcard variety I’d hoped for. We drop down to lake level, running parallel with the frosty blue waters of Brienzersee and Thunersee before cutting due south for our approach to Alps.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 on Julier Pass
When the blizzard clears, the Julier Pass is pure joy. Barry Hayden

Driving in Switzerland during the winter takes a little pre-planning, as many of the country’s most famous mountain passes are closed for the season. The handy AlpenPasse website will tell which are open at any time. Right now the Grimsel Pass I had been hoping to take is … unpassable.

The alpine anticipation is building as we head toward the base of the Bermese Alps. Abruptly, in the village of Kandersteg, the road simply stops. In its place is the rickety Lötcschberg tunnel railway that takes us through the belly of the mountain. It’s only a 15-minute ride, at the price of 27 Swiss Francs, but it takes place in pitch darkness; the only illumination comes from my fellow travelers’ cell phones which, as a testament to Swiss efficiency, retain a strong 5G signal throughout.

Morgan Plus 4 in Switzerland
Entering the Lötcschberg tunnel as if the Morgan is on rails. Barry Hayden

Emerging into the light, we unload and immediately begin to ascend. The road is sufficiently twisty to begin experimenting the Plus Four’s various engine and transmission modes. Nudge the slightly incongruous BMW shifter over to Sport and gears can be selected manually by pushing and pulling the lever or using the steering column-mounted paddles. Keeping both hands on wheel seems prudent as the curves come thick and fast, so it’s paddles for me here and, although the shifts are rapid I do feel the lack of a physical connection. The paddles themselves would certainly feel nicer in aluminum instead of plastic, and if they had just a bit more movement the whole shifting experience would be elevated.

We’re the ones rising rapidly, as we discover ourselves quickly getting above the trees and into proper snow for the first time. The beginning of the Simplon Pass is marked by the grand Hotel Külm-Bellevue, which majestically overlooks the route. It’s also home to one of the most strikingly designed public toilet buildings I’ve ever seen.

Mountain madness

It’s here that we drop our roadster’s roof for the first time. It’s not quite a Miata mechanism, as you need to release a couple of external poppers before unlatching it and carefully folding the fabric as you stow the top behind the front seats, but with practice it only takes a minute or so.

“Brace yourself,” I warn Barry, but we soon find that with hat and gloves in place and heat on full it does not really feel much colder than with the roof up. It helps that by now the sun has burned through the clouds, and we’re also some 6000 feet closer to it. The cozy, slightly claustrophobic feeling of the Plus Four’s cabin is replaced with a wonderfully open sensation: that elemental connection with the environment that makes driving a roadster so invigorating.

Morgan Plus 4 Simplon Pass 5
Barry Hayden

The road, too, is exciting, with plenty of fast third or fourth gear corners and more than a handful of hairpins thrown in. By the time we reach the end of it we’ve crossed into Italy, passing through a seemingly unmanned border crossing.

Over the next few hours we follow the valley and battle through poorly-surfaced Piedmontese autostrada, diving in and out of tunnel after tunnel, with local drivers seemingly glued to our rear bumper. It’s a relief to escape and get back onto less busy roads, skirting the glamour of Lake Como and heading north again to Chiavenna and the mountains.

At the border the Swiss guards stop us, check our papers, and then seem to get bored. They send us on our way to the simply marvelous Maloja Pass. In the space of just a couple of miles the pass climbs over 2600 feet in a spectacular sequence of switchbacks.

Morgan Plus 4 Maloja Pass 3
Barry Hayden

The Plus Four doesn’t have the best turning circle, but there’s another, altogether more entertaining way to steer it: on the throttle. I press the Sport Plus switch, disengage the ESC, and find I can adjust the attitude of the car with a lift to tighten my line or stab the throttle to slide the rear a little. Shifting rapidly back and forth between second and third gears, the Morgan reveals its previously-hidden hooligan side, with pops, crackles and bangs from the exhaust and a screech of the Avon winter tires singing through every corner. It’s the sort of behavior one might expect of a Caterham 7 more than a mature Morgan, and it’s wonderful. While Barry flies his drone overhead I make repeated and progressively swifter and noisier runs up and down. Oh how I must suffer for the photographer’s art.

The pass spits us out just a few miles from St. Moritz where The ICE concours is taking place over the next two days and, as we pass through the town, we get a sense of the kind of clientele it attracts. We see an Aston Martin DBX 707, a Lamborghini Urus, numerous 911s, even a Ferrari 296. We attract just as much, if not more attention, from the sea of camera phones.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 Maloja Pass
Barry Hayden

Staying in St. Moritz is way beyond our budget, and our hotel in Poschiavo just happens to be over the Bernina Pass. It’s getting dark by the time we reach it and the clouds have also rolled in. Visibility is near zero, so Barry is calling out upcoming curves like a proper rally co-driver from what he can see on Google Maps. Behind me all I can see is a blaze of headlights and, at the merest sign of a straight, a scrappy VW Passat powers past. For a couple of corners I try to keep up, but there’s no beating local knowledge.

Over the next two days we travel back and forth to St. Moritz, and I get to know the road pretty well amid ever-changing conditions. There’s fog, snow, sunshine, and showers sometimes all within the space of the same trip. It’s a brilliant road, a good 30 minutes of full-concentration driving through tight hairpins and speedy sweepers, never knowing exactly how much grip will be available on any of them. As such, the ESC stays on and, without being aggressively intrusive, it adds a welcome layer of safety. In the one instance we switch it off on an open, snowy section it elicits a lurid third-gear slide, proving just how effective the system is. “Please don’t do that again,” quips Barry.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 on Bernina Pass 3
Barry Hayden

Old Mog, new tricks

Before I set out I wasn’t quite sure how I’d take to a modern Morgan. Could it really offer a 21st century sports car experience with such old-school styling, and would that combination actually be appealing anyway? Would it be up to such an extreme cold-weather task on harrowing mountain passes?

Yes, yes, and yes. The Plus Four is both capable and entertaining beyond expectation. It wouldn’t be a match for a modern Porsche Boxster in objective terms, but it edges much closer than one would think given the vintage aesthetics.

In the media tent at The ICE I hear people talking about the “crazy Brits” who drove all the way in a Morgan mid-winter. I turn my head and have one more look at the orange Plus Four cooling its heels on the snow. Somehow it all seems perfectly sane.

2023 Morgan Plus 4 outside St Moritz
Barry Hayden

Specs: 2023 Morgan Plus Four

  • Price: £70,195 (U.S. price TBD)
  • Powertrain: 2.0-liter turbo I-4; eight-speed automatic (six-speed manual available)
  • Output: 255 hp @ 5500 rpm, 295 lb-ft @ 1000–4300 rpm
  • Layout: Rear-wheel-drive, two-seat roadster
  • Suspension: Double wishbone front/rear
  • Weight (dry): 2224 lbs
  • 0–62 mph: 4.7 seconds
  • Top speed: 149 mph

***

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.

Click below for more about
Read next Up next: This is the vintage Lamborghini you’ve never heard of
Your daily pit stop for automotive news.

Sign up to receive our Daily Driver newsletter

Subject to Hagerty's Privacy Policy and Terms of Conditions

Thanks for signing up.

Comments

    It’s kind a mustard yellow in the pictures. I do like this car but I am not a fan of the new BMW automatic shifter stick. It is complicated for no good reason. So go buy the 6 speed and solve that issue.

    I have a 2019 Plus 4. Still a little old school, but so am I. DOC Ford EFI and a wonderful exhaust note. Not to mention just fast enough to make my hands sweat. …………………Jim.

    Jim – you are one of the lucky few to have the last of the breed… me too. The Ford GDI is awesome in that flexy lightweight platform. The new Plus Four is no replacement for our perfectly traditional Plus 4. But perhaps we need one of each?

    i have a 4/4 seriesv comp that i’ve driven on 3300mi round trips oklahoma/california 3 times. forgot to order a heater. in freezing weather with the top down i put on my nomex underwear, 3-layer racing suit, and a heavy marmot hooded coat and gauntlets. i wore my racing balaclava and had an earplug in my outside ear and an earbud in the inside ear and a little radio on my chest. in those stupid 55mph days i cruised through the nighttime chill at 60. the tip of my nose got cold though!

    Toly! My dad has the last Series IV 4/4 to leave the factory, though it now has a Series V engine. Many cold weather drives growing up, so I totally get it. Some of my best car memories in the passenger seat.

    It seems to resonate with me that a true adventure always relies on just a touch of discomfort and in an era of safety bound climate controlled detachment bubbles it is so comforting and familiar to see that finally a company understands that feeling a bit of outside draft makes the cozy hotel at the end of the day that much more welcome.
    I truly wish I were there and could see myself in a Morgan in a Rocky Mountain adventure.
    Hail Brittainia

    I was on that road to St Moitz. Only problem, my sister in law was with me and I had to behave. She was scared. I will keep my 1966 +4 and 2003 +8. They are the real thing. The new +4 is ok, but not like the original.

    I’m ready for this car to be in my garage. It will be my 3rd Morgan following a +8 and a Four Place 4/4. Both lovely cars but I don’t think a little bit more comfort and civility would detract from the joy of a Morgan.

    My current fun car is a 2021 718 Cayman GT4. I like it a lot, but I am shopping for its replacement. The Plus Four is one of the leading contenders and your 2,000 mile test run is very encouraging. I think I will head to Malvern Link and hire (rent) one for a week this summer. Thanks for the great review!

    I have had 2 Plus eight 2013 and 2017, a plus 4 2016 and a roadster 2019. I have kept the pus 8 17 for its rarity, beauty and V8. The CX chassis is by FAR the best that MMC ever has produced. I have now traded in my roadster for a new Plus Four 2022. I have never regretted it one WHIT. It´s a LOVELY, sprightly car. It still has quite a lot of idiosyncracies and is definitively a true Morgan, but a Morgan one can have much more fun in, and keep one´s kidneys in place, than the roadster or the old Plus four.

    Yes. We sped through the same route a few times from 2004 to 2013..in our prepared 1990 4.6 Plus 8, though never through snow. (Not sure why anyone would want to!) Fun in the other seasons and too rarely used. Most keep to the Autostrasse or the amazing tunnel ferries. The Plus Four has a fine specification (I cannot say the same for the Six). It will be a good roadster once all the niggles are found and resolved. But the sensuous feeling of the trad’s amazing flexing frame has disappeared, the weight is way up and like all other modern cars, one cannot mechanically interact with them. 🙁 That being said, the days of full owner interaction with their automobiles, even their hobby cars, are for the moment, gone.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *