Boutique British carmaker Morgan has just unveiled their latest model, the Plus 8 GTR. It's the most powerful Morgan ever, combining the company's traditional building techniques with a BMW-derived V8 engine and modern componentry. It's not the first special edition Morgan to arrive this year, as the Plus Four CX-T debuted in October with a toughened-up rally car setup. The Plus 8 GTR is a little different though, as it's a special edition of a model that Morgan doesn't even make anymore.
The original run of the Plus 8 lasted up until 2004, then the car was briefly revived between 2012 and 2018 before being killed off for good. Or, so everyone thought. As it happens, by a strange turn of events, there was still some life left in this veteran model, and the result is the ultra-limited GTR. It's both a first and a last for the company, marking the end of Morgan's V8 era in the most bittersweet of ways. Here are eight fast facts that break down what you need to know about this latest creation from Malvern, England's finest.
8 It Was Teased Months Ago
Although the finished GTR has only just been officially revealed, Morgan showed off a teaser in February 2021 that suggested a revival of the Plus 8 was underway. At the time, the company was too busy churning out the Three Wheeler to give away many details, but they did reveal the basic design and some of the back story.
The sketch clearly showed a more hardcore Plus 8 than a regular model, with a fixed hardtop roof and retro five-spoke wheels. A rear diffuser and vent in the hardtop added to the impression that this was going to be a racing-inspired model.
7 Inspired By Morgan's '90s Race Cars
Morgan later clarified that the GTR was in fact inspired by Morgan's racing cars from the 1990s. The Plus 8 competed in GT races throughout the Nineties and served as a testbed for new technologies that would eventually make their way into production cars.
One particularly notable Plus 8 race car was nicknamed "Big Blue", and it's the inspiration for the first customer GTR. Big Blue featured the first bonded-aluminum Morgan chassis, back in a time when the company was still using wooden chassis, the designs of which dated back four decades prior.
6 Only 9 Units Will Be Made
Anyone who wants to get their hands on this latest and greatest Morgan will be disappointed, as only nine units will be built and they've all been sold. Each owner got the chance to design their car in collaboration with the company's design team, so they're completely custom finished.
That means there's a good chance that the later cars might end up looking significantly different from the first customer car we see here. Morgan hasn't given out details on who has ordered these special editions, but they have said that five have been sold to export markets and four are remaining domestically in the UK.
5 Powered By A BMW X5 Engine
The main reason why the Plus 8 GTR is special is that it's the most powerful production Morgan ever. The source of that power is a bit unusual, however: the car uses a BMW N62 V8 from the second generation X5 SUV. This generation of the X5 was only made between 2006 and 2013 and the engine was dropped from BMW's lineup shortly after.
For some reason, Morgan decided that this long-dead 4.8L engine was the one to have, and so all nine cars will be equipped with it. It's likely since the N62 was previously used by Morgan in their Aero Super Sports model so they already have experience with it. But, it still seems odd that they didn't choose a modern BMW unit for the GTR.
4 It Makes 375 HP
Whatever their reasons for picking it, Morgan made sure to improve the V8's output before putting it in the GTR. The engine and exhaust have been upgraded by Morgan to put out 375 hp, 20 hp more than its original output in the X5 4.8iS.
It's a notable improvement over the previous most powerful Morgan, which was the 362 hp 'regular' Plus 8. It's also likely to remain the most powerful Morgan for the foreseeable future, for reasons we'll get into later.
3 Conceived By Chance
Fans of the brand might be a bit puzzled as to why the Plus 8 GTR exists in the first place. After all, the Plus 8 went out of production in 2018 with no hint that it would return. Well, true to form, Morgan never intended on bringing the car back, and it was by complete chance that the GTR happened at all.
It turns out that someone at Morgan's factory found nine old Plus 8 chassis lying around in storage, and rather than scrapping them the decision was made to recondition and upgrade them. Morgan says the idea was to make a "swansong" to its V8 line of cars, and thus the Plus 8 GTR was born.
2 It Borrows BMW's Iconic Yas Marina Blue Paint
If the color on this first customer GTR looks familiar, that's because it is. See, the engine isn't the only thing that Morgan has borrowed from BMW. The bright blue paintwork is actually Yas Marina Blue, a shade that first came to prominence on the F80 M3 and F82 M4.
The color generated a lot of hype when it was first introduced by Bimmer in 2014, and it was inspired by the Formula 1 track of the same name in the UAE. It seems very fitting then that a racing-inspired paint covers the first of these racing-inspired Morgan special editions.
1 It's The Last V8-Powered Morgan Ever
While the release of the GTR is great news in one sense, it's also a sad reminder that a beloved era of sports cars is coming to an end. The car marks the last of Morgan's line of V8-powered models thanks to increasing emissions restrictions and a shifting consumer market.
It's a fitting tribute to Morgan's long history with eight-cylinder cars, and unfortunately, it reflects the situation at many smaller carmakers around the world. With the change to electric power accelerating every year, it remains to be seen how smaller companies like Morgan will be able to find their place in this new market. But for now, let's bask in the glory of this most old-school of performance cars, a classic British design with a roaring V8 stuffed under the hood.