Morgan Plus 8 GTR is an old school V8 beast

Wherever the nine rolling chassis came from – officially they are “part of a discontinued external project” by a third party – they are now back at Morgan where, in the words of the company, “designers and engineers have the opportunity to reignite one of the marque’s heroic legacy models with a ‘gloves off’ special edition.”

Each of the nine is available to be commissioned by its new owner to whatever bespoke spec they want, but the central idea is the GTR will take its cues from the racetrack and especially Morgan’s late 1990s GT racer known as “Big Blue”. As the initial design sketches show, that means a classic competition-spec Morgan: low and wide with hard-top, a high shoulder line, re-sculpted wheel arches and a front splitter. Five-spoke centre-lock wheels complete the convincing throwback look.

And the motor? That will be the BMW 4.8-litre V8 that supplanted the Rover V8 in the later Aero chassis Plus 8s. This famous engine, no longer in production, usually pushes out around 367PS (276kW) but Morgan hints that more is available if wanted. A choice of a six-speed manual or ZF six-speed automatic gearbox will be available. Like the nine rolling chassis, the engines are said to be unused.

All recommissioning work and handcrafting of interiors will be handled at the Morgan Design and Engineering Centre and is said to be the first in a line of Morgan special projects this year. No price is quoted.

"Reviving a V8-powered Morgan at the current time may not seem like the obvious choice,” Morgan design chief Jonathan Wells tells us. “But the Plus 8 GTR has allowed Morgan’s design and engineering teams to revisit some of their favourite elements of past Morgan models and we embraced it fully.” Quite right too.