The Morgan Plus 8 GTR Special
Limited to just nine examples, the Morgan Plus 8 GTR represents what the Morgan Motor Company can create when its design and engineering teams let their imaginations run wild.
The Plus 8 GTR has a high shoulder line not seen on a traditional Morgan body for decades, a revised rear end, front wings, and front splitter, and the fitment of a hard top.
This project has only been possible because the company re-acquired a number of Plus 8 rolling chassis from a third party. These were all built by Morgan before 2018 but were never used. All are to be recommissioned and will benefit from the upgrade of selected mechanical components.
Each GTR will be handcrafted using Morgan’s traditional coachbuilding techniques, but at the Morgan Design and Engineering Centre (M-DEC) instead of its famous Pickersleigh Road factory. These ‘Aero-chassis’ Plus 8s use the Morgan first-generation bonded-aluminium chassis developed initially for the Morgan Aero 8 and will be powered by the 362 bhp BMW N62 4.8-litre engine.
Just nine Morgan Plus 8 GTRs will be built and customers will be invited to commission their bespoke Plus 8 GTR assisted by Morgan’s design team.
Jonathan Wells, Morgan Head of Design, said: “Reviving a V8-powered Morgan at the current time may not seem like the obvious choice for a manufacturer firmly focused on new platforms and powertrains. However, when the opportunity presented itself to recommission a number of rolling chassis and create an exciting special project such as Plus 8 GTR, we embraced it fully. This project has allowed Morgan’s design and engineering teams to revisit some of their favourite elements of past Morgan models, as well as experiment with some features that we hope will appear on future Morgan cars.”