Morgan Aero 8 GTN for sale
Remember when Morgan treated just 11 of its already rare Aero 8 cars to a 4.6-litre Alpina V8? We do
If Morgan’s recent run of nine GTR specials felt like a wild and wholly unprecedented move, then that’s because history hasn’t remembered the car you see here with sufficient fondness. A number of parallels run between the Aero 8 GTN and Malvern’s most recent V8 special, not least in the pair’s shared sense of sheer madness. The Aero 8 GTN isn’t quite as rare, mind, with a princely 11 of them populating the planet. Practically mass production, huh?
Produced in 2004, the GTN applied a new blue and silver colour scheme – Mauritius Blue and Titan Silver, for those with a persuasion towards PTS pedantry – to the oddly melted face of the Aero 8. We ought to start with the styling, really, because it hijacked a few too many headlines when the Aero launched in the early Noughties. After years of wanting Morgan to move with the times and give us something modern, we all recoiled upon seeing what that actually looked like. The various AeroMax and Aero Supersports iterations that followed massively improved aesthetic matters, although, to our eyes at least, the Aero 8 hasn’t ever truly grown into its face, which resembles a sort of Bo’ Selecta! caricature of all the usual Morgan emblems.
But it’s what lies behind the mask that we’re enthralled by. The GTN wasn’t merely an excitable day for Morgan’s glorious paint and trim department, but a flight of fancy for the engineers in the building that runs parallel. Rather than a stock 4.4-litre BMW V8, like you’ll find in other eight-cylinder Mogs of the era, the GTN got a 4.6-litre Alpina unit producing a mite over 330hp while hooked up to a six-speed manual transmission and a bespoke exhaust system. Centre-lock Oz wheels came shrouded in Yokahama Advan AO48 semi-slick tyres.
Enough, all told, for a mightily impressive lap of the Top Gear test track, the contemporary Stig whipping it round quicker than an Exige or Ferrari 575, as you can see here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ3YggFKoYg], that uprated powertrain in full, scintillating battle cry. Who knew a Morgan could be driven so deftly around a track? Well, until Gambon, at least…
The carbon fibre hard-top is removable, shrouding a traditional soft-top below, while carbon adorns the dashboard too. It feels like a Morgan designed and made for people who aren’t usually on board with the idea of them. Perhaps reflective of those suspicions, all GTNs were pieced together in a cluster separate from the rest of the Malvern manufacturing flow, much like its modern-day forebear – the Plus 8 GTR – has been.
If you narrowly missed the cut for one of those, there’s a heck of a lot of its spirit bubbling through a car almost 20 years its senior, here wearing just a whisker over 17,000 expertly serviced miles. Its funky semi-slick tyres have since long gone, but unless you’re genuinely planning on taking it on track, we suspect a bit of extra tread is more than wise if you’re to utilise a decently sized portion of its Alpina-sourced power in our haphazard climate. Without making an extremely scarce car somewhat scarcer, anyhow...
Suffice to say that previous opportunities were at much lower pricing, alas £94k is far too much money for what I feel they are worth. The market also certainly well prove otherwise, but that’s the market today I suppose.
This just doesn’t possess enough of the visual wow factor I like in my cars, particularly that 1966 Marcos GT esque back end; couldn’t ever imagine looking back at that as I walked away after parking up!
(Alan if you are reading this she was the blonde and the last time we communicated she was giving birth to our son, who is now 17!)
Alan was an absolutely top man and he had prepped a GTN for me to drive and I fondly remember that one of the team had been up most of the night fixing the trim on the top of the driver’s door that had come loose.
Alan and I had a half a bitter and a sausage sandwich in the local pub to celebrate the drive and tour.
In the end he wouldn’t let me buy it as as he thought it too ragged! Cost then circa £50,000.
Always wanted an Aero 8, GTN will suffice, but my preference is a Mark 3- or is it 4- when the handbrake first became conventional.
They are GREAT cars, make no mistake, but not £94,000 of great.
When oh when will the market readjust or have I simply lost touch with reality. Perhaps. :-)
I forgot that those GTN cars were that fast on a track, thats another plus.
Agreed about the color not to everyone's taste, its not 'bad' but there are better choices I think, but since they are 'rare' would I change it?
not sure, maybe get used to it... are there btw also a few LHD GTN cars?
I wonder how fast their new Plus Six can be on the same as then, top gear track with 340+ hp and a way stiffer chassis.
btw those later build GTR V8 cars, are those on the older morgan alu chassis or on the new stiffest morgan alu chassis
Still for the Morgan aficionado, the limited nature of these means it’s pretty collectible..
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