Morgan – New Aluminium Chassis

At this point, we would like to put an old prejudice to rest. “Morgan builds cars on wooden frames,” is an exclamation often heard in one way or another as soon as a vehicle of the British sports car brand appears somewhere. But this assumption is wrong. Since 1936, Morgan has relied on a box-frame chassis made of rectangular steel profile tubes, which has only been adapted to new conditions in detail ever since. However, it is correct that ash wood substructures are used for various body parts such as the fenders. At the Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) this year, the company presented a completely newly developed chassis made of glued and riveted aluminium components. The new Plus Six based on this chassis has enjoyed great popularity ever since. In the course of 2020, this so-called CX platform will now also serve as the basis for successor models of the Plus 4, 4/4 and V6 Roadster models, which are currently still based on the old steel chassis.

Over the past 83 years, the steel chassis has served as the basis for various Morgan models. It all started with the 4-4, the very first Morgan with four instead of three wheels. Compared to the steel platform, the new aluminium chassis is twice as rigid and weighs only 97 kilograms. This puts the new Plus Six with its six-cylinder turbo engine at just 1,075 kilograms dry weight. Maybe the new entry-level models with correspondingly smaller engines could even undercut this. According to Morgan, these will also be available with manual transmissions, which is not currently planned for the Plus Six. There is still no end date for the production of the old Plus 4, 4/4 and V6 Roadster models so far. For the time being, they are to be built parallel to the new vehicles in Malvern Link. Customers who would like to purchase one of the last models with a steel chassis can therefore talk to their Morgan dealer and configure the vehicle of their choice.

Images: Morgan