1985 Morgan Plus Eight

Although Rover's attempts to acquire Morgan in 1966 had proved fruitless, it nevertheless granted the sports car manufacturer access to its newly acquired, ex-Buick lightweight aluminium V8 engine with a view to cementing a supply contract. Hired by the Malvern works to assess the powerplant's merits/suitability, race engineer Maurice Owen lost little time in shoehorning one into a Morgan Plus 4 chassis. With trials of the resultant prototype successfully undertaken in 1967, the Plus 8 debuted at the following year's Earls Court Motor Show. Built along familiar Morgan lines, its ladder frame chassis was equipped with independent 'sliding pillar' front suspension, a leaf-sprung rear axle, and disc/drum brakes. Supported by an ash frame, its swooping bodywork looked as traditional as ever but gave no clues as to the new model's extraordinary performance potential. Backed by a four-speed Moss gearbox (Rover's own engineers had only experimented with automatic transmission up to that point), the 3.5-litre unit was credited with some 160.5bhp and 190lbft of torque. In a car weighing comfortably less than 900kg, 'Autocar' magazine found that these outputs translated into 0-60mph in 6.7 seconds and 124mph. Known for their handling, traction and braking on smooth surfaces, it was not long before Plus 8s started to appear in motor racing.

The 1985 Morgan Plus Eight offered here is finished in Nutmeg with black Ambla interior trim and has only covered 7,500 miles in the hands of two owners. It's the later 5-speed model running on SU Carburettors, in remarkably original condition and obviously appears to have been cherished. The history file contains delivery letters from Morgan at the time when the waiting list was five years. The tools are still wrapped in their protective brown greaseproof paper and a complete service record with all the previous MOTs can be found in the history file.

This fabulous Plus Eight has covered less than 7,500 miles in thirty years and its condition is absolutely commensurate with that. The introduction of the Plus Eight elevated Morgan into the real performance league and the joy of driving an earlier V8 needs to be experienced and transcends just the Morgan enthusiast.