Morgan Supersport 400 review: extra power hasn’t ruined the Mog, hurrah!

Supersport 400, eh? Is the name honest?

Yes, this is indeed a supersporty car, and yes it has 400bhp. Or 402 if we're being pedantic. Now, it's true you can find that sort of power in hordes of electric mid-size electric crossovers these days. But they don't weigh a feathery 1,170kg. And they don't look or feel like a Morgan.

The special charm of a Morgan is that it doesn't actually feel like it looks. The body shape might be closer to a 1936 Morgan 4/4 than today's Porsche 911 is to its 1963 forbear, but this Morgan's structure and technology are wholly modern. And its performance and dynamics are definitely of our age.

Quick recap please.

With pleasure. A Morgan Supersport has the 335bhp BMW six-cylinder turbo three-litre B48 engine, and this is more than just a chipped-up version. Behind it is an eight-speed auto, but Morgan has now introduced its own handsome selector lever, not BMW's weird gondola-rowlock thing. It was a big development effort, as it has all sorts of electronics in the lever, and so remains a £1,741 option in a £140,780 car. Yes, the Supersport 400 has a very modern price.

All modern Morgans have an aluminium structural frame, made even more rigid when the 335bhp Supersport launched. Riding on that, in the four-wheelers, is a body framed up by ash wood members, formed into curves where necessary, that hold the aluminium body panels.

The Supersport 400, aside from the engine boost, has as standard a pair of the regular Supersport's options: the sharper Dynamic Handling Pack and a sports exhaust. That suspension pack includes adjustable Nitron dampers and slightly altered camber and toe angles in favour of agility, but the actual springs are unchanged.

Recognise the 400 by its new wing vents to reduce front lift. Actually its whole grille is different because Morgan worked closely with BMW to make sure the cooling is Bavarian-standard. The exhaust too is BMW-approved, and Morgan worked with BMW's engineers to ensure its engine management tweaks are fully suitable.

So how is it?

Really quick. This engine is so progressive, and this car so light, that you can pelt down the road even with a thousand (or two thousand) revs to spare. Use it all and 62mph is yours in 3.6 seconds. The engine is typically BMW-smooth, but there's a sharp blare to the new exhaust. That's terrific, but I reckon the pops and bangs on the over-run in Sport mode are a little overdone.

Sometimes you want to surf out of a corner on the torque, or shift down for engine braking. A new pleasure awaits: Morgan's lever, topped with a metal ball. Move it left to go from auto to sport auto, and from there it toggles backwards and forwards for manual shifts. And in the correct direction too, hurrah: forward for down, back for up. Those are the senses in which your hand is naturally impelled under the inertial forces of braking and accelerating respectively.

Actually the column-mounted paddles are small and made of flimsy plastic, unbecoming beside the rest of the cabin's excellent aluminium switchgear. I soon ignored them.

That's cor-blimey quick. Can it handle it?

Absolutely. It's a very different experience from a fast saloon-based coupe. You sit lower and further back, and ahead of you lies one of the great vistas of motoring: the long Morgan bonnet and flowing wings. It also moves very differently from a mid- or rear-engined supercar. You're nestling by the rear axle, behind the pivoting axis.

Ahead of you lies one of the great vistas of motoring: the long Morgan bonnet and flowing wings

That bonnet is a great aiming device, and the steering is fairly quick and very progressive, far less twitchy than Morgans past. It really pours into a corner, even if the wheel doesn't have that much feel. Your information comes from those very proximate rear tyres; you sense the bodywork – and your spine – squat over them slightly as the tyres lean on their shoulders, hook into the surface and fire you through and out of the bend.

There's two-stage traction control, and I absolutely never felt the need to kill it. Big stops don't call the brakes into doubt at all, but if I was being fussy I'd have shorter, firmer pedal travel.

A pretty firm ride does jostle you at low speed. But then it would do because you're right over the diff, rather than being half-way along the wheelbase (try swapping seats next time you're on a minibus). Get a move on, though, and it takes the hits well. Also, the suspension geometry is uncorrupted by bumps and camber, so you don't need a lot of road width.

The dampers could sometimes do with a little more authority on a heaving road. But that's just the factory setting – you can get the tools out and adjust them to suit your local terrain and taste.

And where does a fast Morgan fit in the word of cars?

Roof off, the Supersport 400 is on the same pitch for drivers as a quick 911 cabrio or Vantage Roadster. But that doesn't make it a rival. You'd need to be committed to use it daily. There are hard and soft tops (you can have either or both) but whichever you're using, the Morgan is a noisy thing because the perspex side windows don't seal properly.

So go roof down. It's not a refined everyday motorway car, even if it does have a boot and bag space behind the seats. It's for lovely summer foreign tours, and for refreshing your head on a Sunday morning.

It has a beautiful but sparse interior. The gauges are like jewels, the woodwork gorgeous, but it doesn't mess about with screens. Not even a radio. Slot your phone into the charge tray and you have satnav. You can also opt for a Sennheiser amp and speakers that Bluetooth to the phone. It's a brilliant connectivity solution that won't date, for a car you'll want to keep as an heirloom.

A Morgan doesn't make you look like some pushy Nomex glove wearer... it makes everyone happy

Forget wedgy design and aggressive spoilers and air intakes. A Morgan doesn't make you look like some pushy Nomex glove wearer who's taken a wrong turn out of the pit-lane. It makes everyone happy, like the sight of a classic car does.

In that sense it probably competes most squarely with restomodded roadsters. Yet it meets modern safety needs, goes like stink and drives beautifully too. At a fraction of a restomod's price.