Goodness gracious! This is the most powerful Morgan of all time

Things move slowly at the Morgan Motor Company.

Morgan was founded 116 years ago. It’s been based at the same site – the quaint factory on Pickersleigh Road, Malvern – for 112 of those years. It still uses ash wood from British forests to shape and support the bodywork.

Today is therefore a momentous, um, moment. Morgan has finally crested a colossal milestone: its first production car sporting more than 400 horsepower. Welcome to the Morgan Supersport 400. Well, why rush out an overcomplicated name?

402bhp, to be precise, is not a lot in 2026. There are umpteen electric crossovers with that sort of poke. German hot hatches laugh in the face of 400bhp. Ferrari gave you 400bhp in a 360-shaped supercar 25 years ago. Its modern successor, the 296 GTB, develops more than twice as many horsies.

But aren’t we all a bit jaded by endless power one-upmanship? Morgans aren’t about raw speed – they’re rich in other things. Englishness, tradition, craftspersonship. Not that this new Supersport 400 is sedate…

The BMW-sourced 3.0-litre straight-six from the regular Supersport is up 65bhp, and knocks the 0-60mph time down from 3.9 to 3.6 seconds. For anything rear-wheel drive with no e-motors, that’s very brisk indeed.

Despite the aerodynamic properties of a wingback chair, the top speed climbs from 166mph to 180mph. This is normally the point where we’d point out how much quicker that is versus a Porsche Boxster. But while that’s stuck in EV purgatory, the super-Mog’s zipped off into the distance. Tally-bloomin’-ho!

The £3,100 handling pack that’s optional on the regular Supersport is fitted as standard to the 400, meaning 24 clicks of compression and rebound adjustment for the Nitron dampers to get your B-road flow just-so. You also gain a fruitier exhaust and lighter 19in wheels.

Our favourite tweaks are little details you might’ve missed. Inside, the plasticky BMW-carryover gearlever can be optionally swapped out for a bespoke Morgan item fashioned from anodised dark grey aluminium. It looks much more in keeping with Morgan’s aesthetic than the BMW item which stood out like an iPhone Pro Max in Downton Abbey.

We’re also partial to the new vents in those sweeping front wings, channelling heat out of that narrow engine bay under the side-hinged bonnet. It’s twee, yet aggressive. Like a Tower of London Beefeater wearing knuckledusters.

Thanks to the extra power, equipment and bespoke colours and trim on offer, Supersport 400 prices will comfortably exceed the £105,000 you’re asked for in return for the standard model.

There are many more obvious choices in that territory. A Porsche 911 Carrera S gives you 475bhp for £120,000. An AMG GT 55 with a thumping great V8 starts at £143,000 – but it’s actually slower than the Morgan, because it’s weighed down with touchscreens.

So this might be Morgan’s Bugatti Chiron – its ultimate speed machine – but this is still a stubbornly individual car for folks who don’t fancy the well-trodden sports car path. Give it another 50 years, and perhaps there’ll be one with 500bhp. But we wouldn’t count on it.