Morgan’s four-wheeled sports cars – the Plus Four and Plus Six – tend to lead pampered lives. Tucked away in timbered garages, they emerge, blinking into the sunlight, for Sunday-afternoon jaunts to the country pub.
Morgan 3-Wheeler owners, it seems, are cut from sturdier cloth. These somewhat masochistic souls use their trikes for epic road-trips, sharing their adventures in online blogs. One elderly couple toured 3,500 miles around India; another driver has crossed the Alps, lapped New Zealand and gone coast-to-coast across America.
The new Morgan Super 3 had better limber-up: it has some long roads ahead.
Prepare for lift-off
This is a very different vehicle (I hesitate to call it a ‘car’) to the 3-Wheeler. It has Morgan’s first monocoque chassis, so there is no ash frame beneath the aluminium body. And instead of a thumping motorcycle V-twin, it uses a three-cylinder Ford engine.
Driving the lone rear wheel via the five-speed manual gearbox from a Mazda MX-5, it propels the 635kg Super 3 to 62mph in 7.0 seconds.
If the 3-Wheeler looks a bit steampunk, the Super 3 leaps forward several decades into the jet age. Its insectoid face is framed around a single aluminium casting, which supports the pull-rod suspension and 20-inch disc wheels.
The dashboard channels the spirit of NASA mission control circa. 1969, but with joysticks and digital dials that riff on 1980s arcade games. It’s a fantastic piece of design.
Set the nav for New Zealand
Before you jump aboard and set the clip-on Beeline sat-nav for downtown Rotorua, it’s worth remembering that the Super 3 has no radio and no roof. However, there are thoughtful touches aimed at long journeys, including custom luggage that clips onto the sideblades, door pockets made of bungee cords, a USB socket and a mounting point for a cupholder or mobile phone.
You can also opt for heated seats and a full-width windscreen, rather than the aero screens fitted here.
In fact, the options for customisation are almost endless. Morgan’s press car goes for military chic, with Olive Green paint (a Porsche colour) and fighter jet-style graphics.
Buyers can even – and I’m borrowing from the brochure here – ‘select a call sign for their Super 3, which will add their pilot name and that of their co-pilot just below the cockpit’. Fire when ready.
One-wheel peel
The Super 3’s weatherproof seats are flat like a futon, but you’re hemmed in by the transmission tunnel and side panels (no, they’re not doors).
The pedal box slides, and the steering wheel adjusts for height and reach, so finding a good driving position is straightforward. You soon grow accustomed to resting an elbow outside the tub, too.
Flick up the ‘bomb switch’ starter catch and the engine ignites. As I head into the Malvern Hills, its throaty growl is overlaid by an angry rasp from the exhaust – which exits just behind your right ear – along with a whine from the bevel ’box when you ease off the gas. Plentiful torque also makes it easy to spin the rear wheel away from junctions. Apologies to the good people of Worcestershire.
The sports car spectrum
The novelty (and uncertainty) of having three wheels prevents me from pushing the Super 3 too close to its grip limits, but it’s joyful even at sensible speeds.
The lazy steering requires big inputs, keeping you constantly busy, while the Mazda shift is super-slick. It’s a car you have to tussle with, rather than simply point and squirt, and that’s all part of its charm.
The day before I drove the Morgan, I spent the afternoon with a Porsche Cayman GT4 RS. Two more opposite ends of the sports car spectrum are difficult to imagine. The Porsche has more than four times the power (and is probably twice as quick around the Nurburgring) but this little trike served up just as much fun. In a Super 3, every journey feels like an adventure.
Tim Pitt writes for Motoring Research
PRICE: £41,995
POWER: 120hp
0-62MPH: 7.0sec
TOP SPEED: 130mph
FUEL ECONOMY: 40mpg
CO2 EMISSIONS: 130g/km
The post Morgan Super 3 review: Three spirit appeared first on CityAM.
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