Is Morgan finally in the pink?

An update (of sorts) of the Plus Six is here. As Andrew Frankel finds out, beneath the art deco curves there's modernity – and fun!

- Andrew Frankel

One of the first big jobs I did as a young road tester was to pit a Morgan Plus Eight against an E30-series BMW M3 convertible. The outcome may seem obvious, except that, for reasons known only unto the callow youth called upon to deliver the verdict, I gave it to a Morgan whose front suspension dated from the First World War. What do I remember of that story? Mainly being as cold as I've been on test and that the Morgan was ridiculously quick, probably because I was later told it had a distinctly nonstandard engine under the bonnet.

But if I'm honest, that's the last four-wheel Morgan I really liked. Many years ago my stepmother had a Plus Four which still ranks among the worst cars I've ever driven. I remember too an early Aero 8 turning up to one of Autocar's annual events to find Britain's Best Driver's Car and it coming last by such a distance it might as well have been in a separate contest. Some of the more recent, up-to-date efforts have been much better, but they're still cars for which huge allowances need to be made, because to judge them purely by objective yardsticks would be to damn them. They got by on the charm of their appearance and the undoubtedly characterful, highly idiosyncratic way in which they drove, and there is nothing wrong with that.