The new Morgan sports car will be made of ‘metal’, not wood

These are ‘spy shots’ of a disguised sports car. Because of its canny camouflage, it’s almost impossible to tell what it might be.

We’re pretty sure it’s not the new Land Rover Defender. So we’ll stick our neck out, take a punt, and speculate this is actually a Morgan. The new Morgan ‘Wide Body Sports Car’, due to be revealed later in 2019.

Now, we were all set to make the obvious jokes about a ‘new Morgan’ not being on the cards since the invention of colour photography, and how appropriate that the new one should be seen in black-and-white. Har-de-har. But we’re afraid, internet, this is no laughing matter.

Intel from, er, Morgan says this new Wide Body Sports Car will be based on ‘an all-new bonded aluminium fabricated platform’. Crivens. Goodness gracious. We know Morgan’s done away with building chassis out of wood before – see the recently discontinued, aluminium-based Aero for details – but still. This is still tantamount to Porsche announcing the next 911 will be front-wheel drive and use a diesel V8.

Morgan also promises the new model “will use a powertrain never before installed in a Morgan” (understood to be a turbocharged straight-six) and “will be the most dynamically capable production Morgan ever.” Not that Morgans have ever been exactly focused on handling you understand. They make a car with three wheels, for heaven’s sake.

The Worcestershire-based company is celebrating its 110th birthday in 2019, and this new model could well be the ideal birthday present from Morgan to itself. Whatever it is. We’ve no idea. Damn that camo.