Blog

It took 115 years for venerable British sports car maker Morgan (also known for its three-wheeled models) to collaborate with another company on the exterior design of one of its idiosyncratic vehicles, but its first joint effort is with a partner almost as old and perhaps with an even richer heritage.

The new Morgan Midsummer was created with the legendary Italian design house Pininfarina, established 94 years ago and perhaps best known for its work with Ferrari. The new car encapsulates the best qualities of both its parents. Its “barchetta” body style (which translates as “small boat”) is reminiscent of cloudless summer vacations on the Italian Riviera and is traditionally applied to small-volume two-seater sports cars with no roof at all and wind deflectors rather than full windshields . Light, beautiful, but extremely impractical, they were often a highly discretionary summer purchase by savvy motorists who had plenty of other options when it rained.

If the Italians brought the visual inspiration and glamor to Midsummer, the British brought engineering and coachwork skills. The new car shares its bonded aluminum chassis with the Morgan Plus Six, but the lack of a roof and other changes, including the use of lightweight forged wheels, cut about 330 pounds from the Plus Six’s already slim weight. That brings the Midsummer under 2,200 pounds of the supposed performance and handling benefit. The new vehicle uses the same 335 hp turbocharged BMW six-cylinder engine. as a Plus Six mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. Acceleration figures haven’t been released, but the Midsummer is said to better the Plus Six’s 4.2-second zero-to-62 mph time.

The wood paneling that surrounds and runs through the Midsummer’s cabin is one of the car’s most impressive features. They are hand-formed from over 400 layers of teak, each no more than 0.6mm thick, and make a subtle reference to traditional Morgan bodywork, which uses wooden dollars hidden from view to support the exterior panels.

But there are some other, more subtle design tricks at work here that make the Midsummer one of the most instantly desirable cars Morgan has ever produced. The stunning wheels are more tightly and concentrically embraced by the arches, giving the car a more rigid and purposeful stance. A longer tail adds elegance. The lower sills are made of mirror-polished stainless steel, lightening the Midsummer’s visual mass as it reflects the surface below. And instead of the ‘designed by Pininfarina’ badge that adorns the flanks of some of the most desirable Ferraris, the Midsummer gets the much rarer ‘Fuoriserie’ badge, reserved for very low-volume, ‘off-production’ versions of already highly distinctive sports cars. This is the first time Pininfarina has implemented it in a production model.

If you want Midsummer, you’re already too late. Only 50 examples will be made and they sold out during secret previews to top customers of both Morgan and Pininfarina. Pricing hasn’t been officially revealed, but it’s likely to start around $215,000, with each buyer expected to add significant customization — and price — to their cars. Built-in luggage, external luggage racks and larger removable windscreens have been requested by customers intending to take their cars on long journeys. One person even requested that the entire body of the car be mirror finished.

Speaking exclusively about Report by Rob, Jonathan Wells, chief designer at Morgan, said the decision to limit the Midsummer to 50 examples was not an easy one. “Because the cars require so much hand-crafting, we can only produce one and a half or two cars a week, and we want to be able to satisfy our customers within a respectable timeframe,” he says.

Yet despite the rarity of the design partnership it represents, the Midsummer is no outlier when it comes to Morgan’s overall automotive approach. “Every car we build is built for a customer, and every Morgan is different, so it’s really an extension of what we do anyway,” Wells says. “The difference can be anything from a simple headrest emblem to a coupe with a custom-made coupe. We are open to all of this and after the success of this collaboration I would certainly like to do more.”

Click here for more photos of the Pininfarina-designed Morgan Midsummer.