Leaving Lake Geneva (and fear of Coronavirus) behind, Morgan has decided to proceed with the debut of its new four-cylinder car. Only they have to make it back home to England first. Behind the wheel.
One of the debuts we were most excited to see at Geneva was Morgan’s new roadster. Based on the company’s new aluminum CX architecture, the new car will have four-cylinder power and a manual option and will bring much needed technological updates to a design that will likely remain close to the traditional 1930s shape the brand is known for.
But with the motor show canceled, Morgan was in a rut. Would it be worth it to debut the car online? Maybe wait for another show once the virus scare dies down? Neither of those options was going to do for a company that prides itself on doing things its own way.
With head of design Jon Wells behind the wheel, the brand new Morgan is currently en route between Switzerland and Malvern, the town in Worcestershire where the marque was born. Rather than being shown to the public for the first time on a stand in a Swiss convention center, the new Morgan will have its debut in the original 1914 shed where so much of the brand’s history began.
For a company trying its damned to bridge the gap between its wood-framed heritage and contemporary driving, it’s hard to find a better setting for a debut and when you consider the hundreds of miles between Geneva and a small town not far from Birmingham, I have to think that this is a lot more interesting than your usual press conference format.
As Morgan’s team drives the. car back to England, they’re sharing updates from the road. Driving a pre-production aluminum-and-wood roadster across Europe is a lot different than a bolt across the continent in an S-Class or even an A3 so there’s actually a lot to learn. They’re giving little teases of the new car’s bodywork and interior along the way as well, carefully saving the full view for the full reveal later this week on Tuesday (and anyone that happens to come. across the car as it makes its way back home, I guess).
As of press time, the Morgan team had made it to Calais and were on their way across the channel, making excellent time as they finish their journey home with one final stretch across England to go. We’ll have the full scoop on the new Morgan on Tuesday, but until then, enjoy what Morgan has been posting to its Twitter account here. I’m sure there’ll be a bunch more teases of the new car there before its official reveal.