The Morgan Supersport, a compact sporty car with a sleek and delightful new take on the British company’s ye olde motorcar aesthetic, has been confirmed for the US market. It will have a smaller engine than it ships with in Europe, but on the plus side, it has a much cooler-looking shifter than the one we’d seen before.
The Supersport debuted last March. It has a fresh look without straying from Morgan’s distinctively anachronistic signature design (long hood, round lights, you get it). You can enjoy that scrolling through this article—I’ll drop Morgan’s whole studio gallery in below. The Euro model we saw was powered by a BMW B58—a proven and exceptional turbo straight-six (same engine employed by the Toyota Supra, among other things). The US one gets a bit of a downgrade to the BMW B46—a single-turbo inline four-cylinder.
I actually own a version of this powertrain (B46 plus ZF eight-speed) in my BMW 330 wagon. While it’s not ripping fast, it’s definitely not slow—and a Morgan is a heck of a lot lighter than my all-wheel-drive longroof. So I’m optimistic the Supersport will still be fun to drive with about 250 horsepower instead of 330 (though the name now seems a little overly ambitious).
Morgan dropped a huge studio gallery, which you can swipe through here to see the car in different configurations:
As Morgan shared in a press release, the car’s been homologated for sale in the United States under the Replica Vehicle legislation established by the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act). The company states:
“The legislation enables manufacturers to produce replica vehicles based on models sold not less than 25 years ago and allows Morgan to sell up to 325 qualifying vehicles annually within the market. Following an extensive program of engineering, validation and federal homologation, Supersport has been approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for sale in the United States. US specification vehicles are powered by Morgan’s approved BMW B46 TwinPower Turbo engine, paired with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission, providing a powertrain package developed specifically to meet applicable federal emissions standards.”
So, yeah, sounds like the car’s allowed into America specifically with this powertrain. Pricing for the US is still TBA, though the B58-powered Euro spec Supersport is listed for about $130,000 at current conversion rates. I would expect the four-cylinder Americanized version to be a little less. I think anywhere in the $100,000 neighborhood is a nice price for a truly hand-built car, even if it lives in kind of an unusual middle ground between sporty and grand-touring. Maybe it’s a “tiny touring” car? You buy a Morgan for the look and the vibes, not the speed specs, anyway.
And I am glad to see the OEM BMW shifter, as seen in the initial photos of the car last year, has been replaced with a bespoke unit. I mean, it’s fine, good-looking, even, in BMWs, but kind of jarring in the otherwise unique and old-world elegance of a Morgan cockpit. The clean knob Morgan has come up with fits the interior much more appropriately.
Morgan prides itself on coachbuilding every car it sells—that means limited quantities and maximal customization. The boutique automaker says fewer than 50 US-market build slots are available for the year.
“Every aluminum body is handcrafted over a traditional ash wood frame before being seamlessly integrated with
the lightweight CXV-Generation bonded-aluminum platform and its advanced suspension, braking, and electronic
systems,” the company shared in its release.
“More than 60% of the aluminum used throughout the chassis and body is sourced from recycled material, reflecting Morgan’s continued focus on responsible manufacturing. The cockpit combines natural materials with modern production techniques. Scottish leather, sourced as a by-product of the food and agricultural industries, is used sparingly throughout the interior. While advanced laser scanning technology ensures exceptional consistency, every hide is individually trimmed using traditional techniques and hand-finished by Morgan’s skilled craftspeople. By the nature of its coach-built construction, natural materials are used thoughtfully, resulting in minimal waste.”
Morgan’s design language is definitely not for everybody, but if you’re into cars, you’ve got to appreciate what they’re doing out there at Pickersleigh Road.
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