Morgan Midsummer is a Pininfarina-designed Barchetta
Morgan has teamed up with Pininfarina to create a coach-built barchetta that might just be the most beautiful car yet to come out of Malvern. Based on the Plus Six, this is the Midsummer.
Abundantly familiar yet entirely bespoke, the Midsummer’s looksare defined by what Morgan calls ‘eccentric elegance’ and ‘delicate yet exaggerated proportions’. In part callback to 1930s and ‘40s car design and part-nautical in its look, there is a raw feel through its extensive use of exposed materials, from the hand-formed stainless steel sills and valance, to the door-top and cabin wood.
That tail tapers in immaculate style, culminating in the vents and exhaust mounted within. The nose is most identifiably Morgan, with those lights, that grille, and those signature arches that swoop down into the sill. The wheels might look heavy, but the monolithic-forged 19-inchers weigh just 10kg each.
It quite literally wears its ‘Morgan-ness’ on its sleeve. It’s so appropriate that initial meetings about this car between Morgan and Pininfarina allegedly took place in a pub. “Complementing and learning from each other, the two teams engaged collaboratively across all stages, from an inspirational “what if..?” in an English ‘Pub’ to colour and material discussions over Italian coffee and many more encounters in between,” said Felix Kilbertus, Chief Creative Officer, Pininfarina. “Refining all aspects of design, a fully digital development phase based on Pininfarina’s extensive expertise in VR/AR modelling and visualisation blended seamlessly with the art and craft of truly hand-built automobiles.”
Speaking of the wood, the 30 hours it takes to turn each car’s 83 square-metre sustainably-sourced teak allocation into the 400-odd layers of sculpture is one among a number of superlative numbers pertaining to the craftsmanship that goes into this thing. Each hand-formed aluminium body takes some 250 hours to create. Good job they’re only building 50 of them, then…
On the inside the raw material theme continues with lots of wood and metalwork complementing the body colour dash that spills inside. Even more out-of-place than usual in a Morgan, is that BMW gear selector. The car overall is targeted to weigh just 1,000kg. It should be quick then, given it uses the 340PS (250kW) straight-six turbocharged engine and eight-speed automatic gearbox.
Needless to say, the price hasn’t been mentioned and yes, all 50 are sold. Oh, and the name? On the one hand, it’s a direct reference to when this car will be at its best, at the height of summer. On the other, it’s a reference to Midsummer Hill in the Malvern Hills, which looks out across all the important landmarks of Morgan’s 110-year history.
“Midsummer is dedicated to enthusiastic individuals who will enjoy an unconventional, sensory, and analogue driving experience,” said Massimo Fumarola, Morgan’s CEO. “By identifying and re-interpreting Morgan’s admired ideals, Midsummer turns our legacy into a charming, sophisticated, and timeless aesthetic.”
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