2016 Morgan ARP4 – Classified of the Week

Morgans. You know, those cars made out of wood? Or, as it happens, not. Lots of folk will like to scoff about a Morgan’s timber bits, but ignore those people. Yes, the Morgan employs an Ash frame, but that’s it. Everything else is metal and oil, much like you’d find in every other car. And frankly, a Morgan is all the better for having that wooden frame. Ash is an incredibly durable wood, yet it’s also soft enough that it can be teased and turned into the shapes required to build the skeleton of a Morgan’s body. The Ash brings with it an elegance, and a throwback to a time when all cars were made like this. A Morgan is tradition on wheels. Yes, the number plate on this particular car might be from 2016, but make no mistake, this car is built by hand, using skills that have taken decades to perfect. 

With that in mind, you might now be expecting us to go off on a tangent about slow Sunday drives and vintage vehicle rallies that also include steam traction engines and somewhere on the National Trust’s books. We’re not going to do that though, because the Morgan we’ve picked today is the angry, noisy, fire-breathing, race-bred ARP4. This isn’t a car from the dawn of motoring creation. This is a modern-day weapon masquerading in a vintage outfit. It’s Usain Bolt in a Zoot Suit. 

In one guise or another, the Morgan Plus 4 has been around since 1950. Over those sixty-nine years it’s come on a bit. Not only as a road car, but also as a race car. There is a fierce and hard-fought race series for Morgans, and the factory is deeply involved. Not only is motorsport good for business, it’s also good for development and testing. The ARP4 is the coming together of generations of development both on and off the track. However, the guys at Morgan were given carte blanche to really push the race side of things. And push they did. The result was a road car that, with the addition of a roll bar and a harness, could become a race car. It’s not unheard of for owners to drive these to the track, spend a weekend racing, then drive home. There aren’t many cars that can boast that.

The 2.0 Ford engine may have once been humble, but now it’s been breathed on by Cosworth, and Cosworth has impressive form in performance and motorsport, with hundreds of F1 victories care of its engines. Uprated cams, head, exhaust and a shouty set of throttle bodies come together to give the ARP4 225bhp. That’s a lot in any car. In fact it’s bordering on the insane in a car that weighs as much as a beer mat. There’s a limited-slip differential, too. Yokohama ADO 48R tyres, a five-linked rear suspension system and, well, what more do you need?

The AR in ARP4 stands for Aero Racing, and when you look at this car, it shows. We’re lucky enough to have driven one of these on a decommissioned runway where we could drive like a loon without fear of hitting another vehicle, or a tree. Let us tell you first-hand that the ARP4 is something special. It’s absolutely glued to the road, the steering it weighted perfectly and almost telepathically responsive. And the noise, oh the noise. The throttle bodies shout and howl as you work your way through the gears, while the exhaust pops and bangs on run-down. It’s glorious. Driving this car is an event, not a chore.

Is it a good car? In a broad sense, no. It’s awful on our ruined roads, it’s cramped, it uses far too much fuel, the roof is a bit rubbish, the tyres are hopeless in the wet and you can’t hear the stereo. But none of that matters. It’s not what the ARP4 is about. It’s brash and loud and silly. It cares not for comfort or practicality. It doesn’t care for your savings account either, with a price of £61,995. But remember, Morgan only made fifty of these. And there will always be more than fifty people willing to buy one.