Road test rewind
Morgan Roadster from 2004
There’s no clock on the Morgan Roadster’s dashboard, but if there were, it would turn anticlockwise. Buyers want their Morgans to be time machines, and change is so infrequent in Malvern that any new Morgan is a significant event.
The long bonnet, waterfall grille and swooping wings date back 50 years and have lost none of their charm. Beneath the aluminium panels, the Plus Eight’s ash body frame and steel ladder chassis also remain, complete with archaic sliding pillar front suspension and leaf-sprung live rear axle.
But under the louvred bonnet, a Ford V6 replaces the Plus 8’s Rover V8.
Standing starts take practice to balance wheelspin and axle tramp and we restricted our runs for fear of damage, so violent was the rear axle’s protest. But get it right and you’ll pass 60mph in 5.4sec and 100mph in 14.5sec, aided by the speed and precision of the gearchange.
The Morgan pips Porsche’s Boxster S to 60mph by 0.6sec. And the V6 makes a decent stab at the V8’s rumble, hardening with revs to a lupine howl. It’s very flexible, too. A shame, then, that the brakes don’t let you fully exploit the performance. The Morgan persists with solid front discs and rear drums, and no anti-lock. There’s long dead pedal travel and then a tendency to grab and lock the front wheels, pulling the car to the right.
Over 100mph, it feels unstable, suffering a strong torque reaction: under power, it veers to the right; lift off and it veers left. Meanwhile, the ride fails to settle at any speed. It bounces on the motorway, feels nervous on country lanes and crashes over potholes around town.
On a smooth road, the Roadster has lots of grip and little roll, and with a smaller, lighter engine sitting further back in the chassis, it feels better balanced than the Plus 8. The heavy steering doesn’t help its case, though. Turning the wheel is like bending a piece of metal, and it kicks and writhes in your hands.
Visibility through the tiny windscreen is obstructed by the rearview mirror and, with the hard-top in place, there is a huge rear blindspot. In the rain, water comes in through the side screens and drops from the steering column onto your legs.