While in California this year for Monterey Car Week, I was able to attend The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. Other than the Pebble Beach Concours, this was the only event I actually went to this year and, boy, am I happy I did.
While walking around the show area near a great Shelby Mustang display, I saw a small light green car peeking between the many GT350s. I walked over to and saw discovered the Morgan Motor Company display—and the car I had seen was the new 2025 U.S.-legal Plus Four.
I spent quite a bit of time looking at the car with my friend David Lillywhite, who is also the editor and founder of Magneto and Octane magazines. We discussed just how good the fit and finish on the car was. We ogled the car some more, and then David introduced me to James Gilbert, the head of PR and Communications for Morgan. After a quick conversation, I asked James if I could sit in the new Morgan and he said, “Of course—that’s why the car is here!”
I have loved Morgan cars for decades—especially the roadsters—but have always had one insurmountable issue with the cars: I have never been able to fit in a Morgan two-seater. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try with this new Plus Four and found that not only did I fit, I also was actually quite comfortable behind the wheel. I came away stunned and worked out a way for me to drive one for this review.
To do a little backtracking, the reason I love Morgan vehicles and the Morgan Motor Company is that it is truly the last of the old British car companies. The factory is in the same location of Malvern Link in Worchestershire, England, as it has always been. In fact, the Plus Four is produced in the same factory in which they have always built the Morgan four-wheeled car. In addition, the company does not have—nor has Morgan ever had—an assembly line; the cars are built by hand in an assembly hall. These cars are produced by expert craftspeople, one at a time. The fact the company is still in business in 2025 and no other car company in the world resembles anything like this early 19th-century throwback is what makes Morgan a fascinating automaker. Morgan cars have soul and are the very definition of the classic British sports car.
Take a look at these photos of the Morgan factory in 1966 taken by Maurice Bruton:
Now here are a few factory photos from 2025:
Sure, the factory is tidier and better organized, but the build process is somehow the same today and happening in the same location. Yes, the car is still handmade in aluminum. Yes, that aluminum body is over a wood framework. No, the chassis is not wood and never was. In the old days it was steel, and now it is made of aluminum. The fact that Morgan is still here is nothing short of amazing. There is literally no other automaker in the world that resembles Morgan Motor Company.
A few weeks after Monterey Car Week, while attending the Lime Rock Historic Festival, I was loaned a 2025 Plus Four by Larry Eckler, the owner of Morgan Motors of New England and Morgan Spares and the dealer closest to me in Connecticut. I took some time shooting photos of the car’s details, like the exquisite door handles and the BMW engine under the hood. I discovered a really cool angle was from the back, shooting into the passenger compartment. Everywhere I looked, the fit and finish were nothing short of perfection.
Larry and I headed out of the gate together, with me behind the wheel, and took a drive on the country roads around Lime Rock Park. These roads were made for cars like the Morgan, and we quickly motored through the countryside. After around 15 miles, we headed back to the dealer display area, where I began to make notes from my time driving the car.
The 2025 Morgan Plus Four is, in a word, exceptional. The chassis is amazingly communicative as well as quite stiff; the manual steering has a better feel than any other car built today. The way the car handles sharp bends is incredibly confidence-inspiring, and the car takes corners almost like a race car. It is as if the Plus 4 whispers in your ear to “take this next bend a little faster” and, when you do, it delivers—holding the road with amazing adhesion limits and no drama. When pushed a bit harder, the car responds as you would want it to, with a little bit of slide from the rear that is easily catchable with a slight turn of the steering wheel. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the lack of any rattles or scuttle shake from the front of the car. Somehow this small classic sports car feels as solid as a BMW M3.
Yes, the transmission of the 2025 U.S.-spec model is equipped with only one gearbox, the ZF 8-speed used in BMW models. Before you complain about this, drive one of these cars. The transmission not only shifts much faster than I can, but also in sport mode it makes shifts at the same time and at the same rev range that I would have done myself with a manual. (Plus, notice the wood detailing on the tunnel.)
The most impressive thing about the new Plus Four is just how refined it is. That might sound like a crazy word to use to describe something basically based on a classic British sports car of the 1930s that doesn’t even have proper door window glass, but the Plus Four is one of the finest-built roadsters I have ever driven. The way the doors close, the fit and finish of everything—from the body panels to the interior bits —seems more on the level of Aston Martin or Rolls-Royce then the Morgans of old. Yes, old Morgans were properly built, but the new Plus Four is what you get when you spend a lot of money taking a classic design and building it as well as possible, using the very best traditional materials combined with some newer materials that don’t take away the car’s “Morgan-ness” but just make it as good a Morgan as possible.
I came away after my time with the 2025 U.S.-spec Morgan Plus Four desperately wanting one. The car makes no sense in today’s world (again, it doesn’t even have door windows), but it is the very essence of a traditional sports car—the ones that made the entire idea of a sports car something to be desired in America. It adds all the things a car needs today to be able to be usable not only as a weekend plaything, but also as a car that you could honestly use day to day (weather permitting). It is the perfect classic car to take on a cross-country trip, to a show, to park in a British car corral on a vintage racing weekend, or even to dinner with someone special on a Friday night. In fact, I would guess that dropping the new Plus Four at valet parking at a high-end hotel or restaurant would cause more interest and commotion than someone arriving in a $350,000 Ferrari.
Also, do not forget that a Morgan is a truly bespoke car. You can choose any color you want, your leather (including the piping, stitching, and color), and wheels and trim. The people at Morgan have given us the opportunity to build the classic sports car of our dreams for less than the cost to restore one. If you would like more information on how to get one of these amazing cars, visit Morgan’s website. The car configurator is especially fun to play with (so far, I have built five, with the most expensive one being $110,550). As they say on their site, “Adventure Awaits.”
