2026 Morgan Supersport 400 | PH Review
Did the Morgan Supersport really need more grit? Let's find out...
The Morgan Supersport is a fast car. Weighing just 1,170kg and with 340hp of BMW B58 3.0-litre six-cylinder power, it’s capable of 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds and has a 166mph top speed. It’s also a good car; Matt Bird said it was “a great Morgan”, with some caveats. But you know how it is: sometimes only too much is enough.
So this is the Supersport 400, which, as its name suggests, has (around) 400 horsepower, a healthy/unhealthy power upgrade to make it the most powerful production Morgan ever, at 408hp and 348bhp/tonne, or a little higher than a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS - which it is also priced near, given it’s £135,558.
I’m not sure you’d call the two direct rivals, mind. The Morgan isn’t a car that has many natural ones, sitting as it does in a white space between lightweight cars and mainstream roadsters, and it’ll hope to sell up to 250 a year. Morgan isn’t entirely sure what proportion of those will turn out to be core Supersports and which will be 400s.
As part of its mechanical upgrade, the 400 receives a new, freer-flowing exhaust, with a race catalytic converter and an intermediate muffler deleted. It’s lighter too. Visually, where there’s usually satin body work – bumpers and the like – they’re glossy black, and there are wing-top vents to reduce air pressure in the front wheelarches and reduce lift. Even if you deleted all the 400 badging and other visual options, those would remain, as would a subtly different grille pattern, which allows 10% more mass air flow to an uprated cooling system.
Other changes are modest, such as the option of coral-coloured front brake calipers, and standard 19x8.5J forged alloys you see on this test car – though you can option back in the 19-inch turbine wheel design, which is apparently lighter.
Chassis-wise, the 400 receives the Nitron dampers that are an option (as the Dynamic Pack) on the regular Supersport, but with their firmness turned up to just five clicks from full stiff, rather than 15. Front camber has been reduced and rear toe-in increased. Steering and springs remain the same. A limited-slip differential remains an option, but given the 400's output, you should probably tick the box.
Inside there are some Alcantara options which might or might not be at odds with the car's quasi-classical appearance depending on your outlook, and there’s a new gear lever, the first time BMW has sanctioned a powertrain customer using something other than the standard BMW shifter. It is a £1,740 option, mind. Morgan says it meets all of BMW’s internal quality and durability standards (in a similar vein BMW has signed off on Morgan having its own throttle map).
Still, the 400 largely retains the interior ambience of the regular car. It’s quite small in here, given the cabin is set significantly inboard of the body’s outer edges, and they’re only 1,805mm apart in the first place. Seats are supportive but feel quite compact. The steering adjusts for reach and rake well enough, the windscreen is close and upright, and there are plexiglass side windows which slide easily but, presumably aren’t superb from a wind noise, ahem, perspextive (sorry). These are the kinds of things that, when remembering Morgan said it wanted the Supersport to be considered as a second car rather than a third, mean you’ve got to be quite committed to regard it as one. There’s fine oddments storage though, a decent amount behind the seats with the hard top fitted, and the upper doors lift out easily and can be stowed in the 125-litre boot.
To drive, the Supersport 400 draws on the regular Supersport to the extent that, if it has been a while since you drove one (and for me has) things will feel very familiar. Which, given the 400 has the same springs, steering, Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tyres (235/40 front and 255/40 rear) as the base Supersport and only limited differences to suspension, is probably no surprise. This is a compact and lightweight roadster whose aft you sit on, with its shapely nose stretching into the near distance. Weight distribution is 50:50 yet it feels very front-engined.
Two differences stand out, though. One is the firmness of the ride, which has a knobbliness to it that can feel unreasonable around town but does result in tight control out on the open road. The other is just how much more spectacular a 20 per cent power increase makes the Supersport 400 feel. Not a slow car to begin with of course, but that 0-62mph time has come down to 3.6 seconds, which is not insignificant in a car with lightly loaded rear wheels, and top speed increased to 180mph - yet it’s what happens in the daily in-gear spaces between those two performance extremes that makes the 400 a different animal to the already very brisk Supersport. Even from low revs in medium gears on the eight-speed auto (our weather was mediocre), the 400 threatens to overpower its rear tyres, and it’s no small amount of fun to let it; pushing the car straight from corners rather than indulging in any big slide shenanigans, you understand.
The steering remains precise and it’s easy to be accurate with a car this narrow, whose extremes you can see so clearly from the cockpit. Our feeling is that the Supersport would be improved by a manual gearbox, given the auto’s preference for low revs in the normal drive mode, and overenthusiastic in Sport+. The best fun to be had is with taking control of the column-mount BMW paddles yourself, so you get a more linear and predictable idea of just how threatened traction is going to be. Put it in Sport+ at the same time and play games with the paddles and you’ll be greeted with some exhaust pops and bangs that automotive engineers spend a long time trying to tune out, then have to tune back in again.
Ultimately it’s a lot of old-school roadster-based fun. Is it, fundamentally, thirty grand – 30 per cent – better than the regular Supersport? I think that would be a difficult case to argue. But given you get some options as standard and it should be worth more if/when you come to sell it/bequeath it, perhaps it doesn’t need to be. And for the most part, that same conclusion applies here as it did to the regular Supersport. It’s a belting car that’s hard to justify by its pricing or positioning. It just has to be the sort of wild ride you really want.
Specification | 2026 Morgan Supersport 400
Engine 2998cc straight-six, turbocharged
Transmission: 8-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 408@6000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 369@1250rpm
0-62mph: 3.6sec (claimed)
Top speed: 180mph
Weight: 1170kg
MPG: TBC (35mpg est)
CO2: 180g/km (preliminary)
Price: £135,558 (price as standard; price as tested £161,553, comprising Matisse Blue paint £2700, forged Sportlite wheels in Bronze £995, Soft grain black leather £1756, contrast black Alcantara £498, Alcantara steering wheel £795, aluminium gear selector £1741, box weave dark grey carpet £746, Supersport 400 stitching £964, heated seats £435, oak smoked veneer £1550, Sennheiser audio £3731, connectivity pack £342, dark accent pack £1238, coral side graphic £354, dark stripe graphic £1075, body colour hard top £4347, limited-slip differential £2425, ceramic exhaust tips £301).
At least they finally ditched that ugly, standard BMW automatic gear lever for a cleaner custom selector.
However, the pricing is getting hard to justify. Around £100k made sense for a Morgan, but when the base price pushes past £135k and hits nearly £150k–£160k with basic options, it just feels like too much for what it is.
But being an old grump I want them to fit a manual to the back of the engine. We know that there are gearboxes out there that would work.
Now that for many, a sensible solution to propulsion is electric, if you go for petrol, go the whole hog and burden it with a manual. It is a car that is about driving, not just about transport.
All that said, despite how stunning that looks.... if I'm doing Morgan, I'm doing 3 wheels and manual.
It does look better with the top off but even then it's not easy in the eyes.
Options pack is a piss take as well.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff