Our writer pens a 'letter' to Morgan as he reflects on his encounter with their bespoke supercar, the one and only, defectively flawless, Morgan Aero 8.

Photos: Low Fai Ming

Would you believe me if I told you that I saw one of your soft-top supercars today? It was that particular designer model with a retro-looking frame. It has been a long time back since 1948 when I caught sight of your last production. You sure took your time well.

But I think your car has strabismus. Your engineers said that it helps to provide better aerodynamics and apparently they are the only ones who think so. And I reckon I’m right because your blokes at Malvern Link rectified the eye problem four years ago. We were all spot-on except you because being cross-eyed was never a gift especially when you have a recessed nose. It makes driving in the night a grueling task and you can’t have auto headlights as a factory option. That’s the precision you get with hand-built cars.

You are learning, however. You finally decided to make your car safer by deploying the alloy chassis structure with the help of the “Mad Monk” race engineer Christopher Lawrence, even though I have failed to appreciate your British humour of making your customers sit in an aluminum-clad wooden tub that rested on a steel chassis. There must be some personal reasons for being oxymoronic but it’s all right, simply because you had managed to breathe life into one of the antiquated looking super cars in the world.

I remembered it came with a 4.4 litre double “VANOS” valvetronic V8 dishing 325bhp and 448Nm of torque under the hood previously that was done up by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG which was later upgraded to a 4.8 litre V8 boasting over 367bhp. You showed the world that The War was never really in remembrance by the people because they realized it was so much more fun stroking a Brit with a German Getrag six-speed. I have no doubt that Richard Hammond would have driven over 270km/h on it in one piece without crashing the airfield. He knows anything that hits 0-100km/h in four sub seconds should be driven safely, considering that it weighs lighter than a Ferrari Enzo FXX and just over a hundred kilogrammes heavier than a certain Rolls Royce Orpheus powered jet car.

The CAD designed aluminum alloy chassis is exquisitely bonded with Gurrit Essex adhesive and reinforced with Bollhoff rivets. Your choice of all-round Eibach coil springs with Koni shock absorbers ensures more feedback with the tyre-wrapped 18-inch SL Corses. I kind of appreciate that even though the Beatles can now hardly be heard on the stereo but I decided to let it be because the V8 sounds much better in person. The AP Racing six-pot calipers at the front are ideal but my wish list is to scrap the rear two-pots for a four.

Coincidentally I construed that the rear boot appears suspiciously analogous to that of a BMW Z4. I’m not trying to say that your designers ran out of ideas but I guess we could procrastinate with an improvement on that. The actuality is, I’ll obviously desire a V8 Morgan with the butt of a Z4 rather than driving a straight-six Z4 with a revolting rear-end.

It was a shame that you had to allow it to be raced competitively at Le Mans and the British GT. Like you, I thought it was fast enough but still it hasn’t won anything in the world. It leaves behind a sense of guilt and uneasiness, just like when people first thought that the Koup was expressively quick but it was disappointing.

The interior wood trimmings are a slumbering effect but the aluminum details roused my attention to the immaculately refined leather seats. The cabin is a luxury that oozes undoubted quality and class. It comes with cruise control, a tyre pressure display and an airbag more than the Geely MK. And there is the purposeful decision of relocating the heated windscreen to the front for whatever reasons.

For all the extravagance devoted to the watchful observers, you forgot about the logic of seating your passengers comfortably. I supposed you forgot about my tummy. I spend most of my free time in Singapore doing three things. Eat, Play, Love. This explains why I’m horizontally challenged and there is no way that I’ll be able to ease into that driver’s seat respectfully without getting my belly sandwiched between the steering wheel and the seat. There is good legroom but my legs are short so it doesn’t help at all. I’m barely six inches away from my passenger’s shoulders so I can only desperately hope she’s attractive.

Did I tell you about my “I-speed-because-I-possess-godlike-driving-skills” theory? I know you are amazed by my extraordinary flair in driving but now I can’t toe-heel this FR machine because the pedals are far apart and I have to scout for size 10s.

But overall, your car is gorgeously imperfect and defectively flawless. It is one of the rare cars in the world where I get to behave like an andropausing middle-aged entity and act like a pubertal kid at the wheel terrorizing the local road-hoggers at the same time. It has an overpowering ability of drawing inquisitive scans and looks a stunning peace-maker even with me in the car.

With the rag-top down, this vintage super car would be sinfully impeccable with Marilyn Monroe six inches away from me and I don’t care even if I’m fat for the reason that beauty has its flaws sometimes.

Oh Morgan, I’m referring to the Aero 8...