Throwback sports car marque Morgan has thrown itself on the safari car bandwagon, teaming up with Dakar specialist Rally Raid UK to build an extremely unlikely off-roader.
The new CX-T is based on the regular Plus Four sports car, which, despite its classic looks, was comprehensively reinvented in 2020 with a bonded aluminum chassis and the B48 turbocharged four-cylinder from the BMW 330i sports sedan.
But while the Plus Four is designed for country roads, the Plus Four CX-T has been substantially modified to let you explore the bits between those roads.
Apart from the raised ride height and knobbly rubber, the CX-T’s most obvious additions are an external roll cage that can also be used to carry bikes and surfboards, and entirely new rear bodywork providing space for two waterproof Pelican luggage cases, an aluminum tool box, two fuel cans and a pair of spare wheels.
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So it looks the part, but is it all mouth and no trousers? Morgan says the EXE-TC coilover suspension gives 230 mm (9.01 inches) of ground clearance, which is more than you get in a Subaru Forester (220 mm/8.7 inches), but far less than the 274 mm/10.8 inches offered by the new ford Bronco.
A bigger potential problem might be the lack of all-wheel drive, though Morgan claims to have a workaround for that in the form of a BMW xDrive rear differential running bespoke software. ‘Road’ fully opens the diff, making it keener to turn on paved roads, while ‘All-Terrain’ applies a 45 per cent lock across the axle. And if you really get stuck, ‘All Terrain – Extreme’ locks the diff solid, providing equal torque to both rear wheels.
I remember a Ferrari test driver telling me they use a similar hack on their own 488 sports cars fitted with an active differential. If they ever binned a prototype in the gravel, a couple of laptop keystrokes would lock the rear axle solid allowing them to crawl out without assistance.
But one obstacle likely to prove insurmountable for many potential buyers is the price. At £170,000 ($236,000), the CX-T costs almost three times as much as a standard Plus Four, or twice what you’d pay for the faster, road-biased, six-cylinder Plus Six. Only eight will be built though, so if you do want one, you better get in there quick.