What's the news?
Just eight of these Morgan Aero GTs, revealed today at the Geneva Motor Show, will be made and they are Morgan's way of waving goodbye to its Aero 8 range, ending almost 20 years of production.
As before, beneath those trad looks, the Aero GT is fearsomely modern, featuring an all-aluminium chassis and a 4.4-litre BMW 'N62' V8 engine. Performance, thanks to a low kerb weight, is impressive; 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 274km/h, all from 367hp. All eight examples will have a manual gearbox.
They'll also have the most aggressive bodywork ever fitted to a Morgan road car, clearly inspired by Morgan's racing experience with Aero 8 models down the years. Designed by Morgan's own Special Projects department, each GT gets heavily restyled front wings with louvres, an optional carbon-fibre hard-top (which features a sixties-style rear roof vent) and body panels that have been through a rigorous computational fluid dynamics routine to ensure that their aerodynamic performance is at a peak. For instance, the wing louvres stabilise the air flow around the side of the car and there's a honking great rear diffuser to keep the back end stuck down.
Each car will be further customised by their owners, who will get an individual consulting meeting with Jon Wells, Morgan's Head of Design, during the eight-to-ten weeks that it will take to build each Aero GT. A final touch is a GT badge hand-made by an actual jeweller.
Anything else?
Steve Morris, Managing Director, said: "One of our greatest strengths as a brand is our ability to be responsive and create a hand-built car which is truly bespoke to each customer. The Aero 8 has been a stalwart of Morgan production for almost 20 years, it offers an exceptional driving experience and unrivalled looks, further enhanced in Aero GT guise. Every Morgan is built to an exacting specification and is bespoke to each customer; their personality is displayed in every detail. Owners invest a great deal of emotion in choosing and tailoring their own perfect specification, this investment is rewarded at the first drive of their unique and exhilarating vehicle. The Aero GT is the ultimate ensemble of this formula."
Jon Wells, Head of Design said: "The Aero GT, unlike its predecessors, adopts an unconventionally aggressive aesthetic. However, a purist approach to achieving a design in which 'form follows function' has been rigidly adhered to. This is most apparent in the new additions to the body work. The additional wing top louvres, side impressions and dramatic rear diffuser have all been tested extensively to ensure they work together to reduce drag and increase road holding capability. The merits of these additions were first unearthed during the early development phases of the 2015 Aero 8 whilst we were exploring the requirements of a more aerodynamically efficient Aero. This was a key requirement of the initial Aero 8 brief. Each new panel has been sculpted by hand, by Morgan master craftsmen. The beauty of working so closely with talented sheet metal workers and coachbuilders is that designers are relatively unrestrained in their ability to challenge the forms and their functions. Unlike many, we can make special limited-edition vehicles that really exercise the imagination of the designer and the ability of the craftsman. The Aero range has always offered Morgan the platform to explore the boundaries of mechanical and styling design and I am delighted the family has allowed one of our wildest ideas to become a reality."