The Morgan Plus Four Arrives Stateside in March. Here’s What to Know.

How much would you pay to put a car from the Ralph Lauren collection in your own garage? Not Ralph’s personal example of course (he actually has two of these) but your own, unique, bespoke version of a British sports car which bears one of the world’s oldest nameplates, and which won its class at Le Mans in 1962?

The Morgan Plus Four is returning to the United States early next year, priced from $84,995. Morgan likes to say that “bespoke is standard,” so you can expect owners to exceed that MSRP significantly with their special requests. But unless you go completely berserk on the configurator, it’s still likely to be a very reasonable bill for a car with such a storied history.

Order books are now open, with the first U.S. cars already in build and due for delivery in March. They will join the mad three-wheeled Super 3 at the marque’s dozen U.S. dealerships, and their arrival ends the nearly 20-year absence of Morgan four-wheelers from a market which once adored them.

The Plus 4 model was first introduced in 1950, making it the world’s second-oldest surviving nameplate after the Chevy Suburban, even if interruptions mean it hasn’t been in continuous production for as long as venerable sports-car rivals such as the Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Mustang, or Porsche 911. A white 1961 Plus 4—with a leather strap over the bonnet—was the first car Ralph Lauren bought, and there are now both green and black examples in his extraordinary collection.

The looks may have changed little since 1950, but the engineering beneath certainly has. The lightweight aluminum bodywork is still hand-formed and mounted to an ash-wood frame. But the traditional wood frame is there solely to support the panels, and it now mounts to a very modern, stiff aluminum chassis: the name was changed slightly from Plus 4 to Plus Four in 2020 to mark this significant advance.

Power comes from a 2.0-liter, turbocharged BMW inline-four engine driving the rear wheels through a ZF eight-speed automatic gearbox. Although Morgan says the Plus Four “prioritizes driving feel and enjoyment above lap times and performance figures,” the numbers are still impressive, with approximately 259 hp and a dry weight of 2, 233 pounds combining to get the Morgan to 60 mph in under 5.0 seconds and onwards to 149 mph. Brakes from AP Racing get it back to standstill again.

The options list will delight anyone who finds the paint and trim choices offered on most modern cars too constrained. We counted 33 paint, 24 leather, 21 wood, nine wheel, seven hood, and five radiator options, and that’s before you add contrasting piping and stitching, as well as pleating and quilting for the leather. Of course, you can also specify your own paint-to-order, but even without that option, no two will leave the factory alike, unless someone orders a pair of the same.

You can add retro race-style graphics, such as roundels and hood stripes, and leather suitcases for the optional luggage rack. You might also want to add the cost of a flight to England to the budget. Founded in 1909, the Morgan Motor Company has been hand-assembling its cars at a glacial rate at the same picturesque premises on Pickersleigh Road in Malvern since 1918. Yours will be built there too, but if you can’t witness it in person, a photographic record of the build is also available.

See Also

King Charles’s First EV Is Heading to Public sale

Click here for more photos of the U.S. version of the Morgan Plus Four.