Morgan stride into a new era with the Eva GT

Posted 1 year ago in British, Supercar News

Morgan used to be known for 1950′s style sportscars, with wooden Ash frames, and decidedly old-style handling. But now they have branched out into aluminium, and are launching the first Moggy to not have round headlights…

Until 2004 people assumed Morgans would be the same as they have been since the 1950s, until the end of time. Nothing much had changed at the Malvern, UK based factory, with the cars’ frames still being hand crafted from Ash wood. The styling had also stayed the same, with the upright windscreen, round headlights, swept front wings and wire wheels.

But then, out of nowhere they launched the Aero 8. It still looked like a Morgan, but thrust into the new millennium. Out went the wood, and in came the bonded aluminium chassis and a 4.4 litre BMW V8 engine. And that was just the start.

A year later they showed a concept proposal called the Aeromax, which was an Aero 8 with an utterly gorgeous coupe roof, tapering to a point at the rear like a classic Bugatti. The interest in this was so strong, that they simply had to go into production with it, which they did in limited numbers.

To keep momentum this year they unveiled the Super Sports, which is a targa-roofed variant of the Aeromax with a rear end which looks like a classic Italian Riva speedboat. The engines are now 4.8 litres pushing out 368bhp, and sound utterly amazing through the side-exit exhaust pipes.

But these were merely a stylistic stop-gap for Morgan. The new (and very first) head stylist Matthew Humphries wanted to push Morgan to new areas, and this has come out with the first images of the Eva GT. The first to be revealed was this rather teasing side profile:

This led to much speculation, but then today they released the design sketch for the car, stopping work dead in offices throughout the world…

Now i’m sure you’ll agree, that is one of the most utterly stunning cars to evey have graced a computer screen. What is even more surprising is that it is going to be one of the most practical Morgans to date.

The Eva GT will be a 2+2, but Morgan promise it will seat 4 adults in comfort. It also takes a nod to the environment, and down-sizes the engine. Power will come from a BMW 3 litre straight six twin turbo with direct petrol injection and 306bhp which will be good enough for a 4.5 seconds 0-60mph and 40mpg. Keeping the weight relatively low will help the dynamics, and it’s rumoured to have a price tag north of £120,000.

But frankly, with looks like these, they could probably charge double and sell every one.

Morgan director Charles Morgan said, “The Eva GT will go into production at Pickerleigh Rd in 2012. We’re planning a production series of 100 cars and will start taking deposits this Sunday.

“Our goal with the Eva GT is to manufacture a practical car that could be used every day and answer all of a family’s transport needs,” Morgan added.

“Although it has two large doors, the car can seat four adults and has a large boot that’s considerably deeper than that of the Supersports.

“The Eva GT will be fun to drive, with sensitive hydraulic power steering and excellent chassis balance. The mass is evenly distributed within the axles and the car has short overhangs.”