Morgan Plus 4’s 70th Anniversary

In our new feature, Thursday Time capsule, we look at classic cars celebrating significant birthdays in 2020.

2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the classic Morgan Plus 4, a classic that was developed and released in 1950. This highly sought after sports car graced the scene with its 2088cc standard Vanguard engine which was installed on a 4/4 chassis.

To mark its 70th anniversary, Morgan released 20 special edition Plus 4’s in March which sport a Platinum Metallic paint to promote the nuances in Morgan’s iconic visual design. What is particularly unique about this limited edition model is the gold chassis. It is the first time they’ve been developed in this colour, and will also be the last as they commemorate the end of their steel chassis production that has been going since the original Morgan 4/4 in 1936.

These rare models were handcrafted in Morgan’s workshop in Malvern, the UK, which we visited back in September.

Morgan Plus 4’s have been in and out of production since 1950 but were most recently revived after a break in 2005. The new production Plus 4’s feature a BMW powered engine instead of the popular Ford engine.

Our Morgan 4/4

Although we haven’t had the pleasure of working on a Plus 4, we have had several 4/4’s in, which are the older model to the Plus 4. Morgan released their 4/4 as a groundbreaking vehicle in 1936 which premiered their steel chassis technology and have been in production, without breaks since.

The 4/4 is the worlds longest running production car, with the 4/4 standing for ‘4 cylinder, 4 wheel’ as it was the first of its kind in Morgan’s development as they moved away from the bike powered 3 wheels.

Although there’s little difference between the 4/4 and the Plus 4, the latter of the two was developed to be faster and more powerful, making it less mainstream and typically a touring option.