By Colin Wood
May 16, 2024
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Morgan,
Pininfarina
Photography Courtesy Pininfarina
Morgan and Pininfarina today announced the Midsummer, a “celebration of coachbuilding by two of the longest established coachbuilders in the world.”
Built on the Morgan CX chassis–which underpins the current Plus Four and Plus Six–the Midsummer is powered by a turbocharged inline-six that’s mated to an 8-speed automatic. (Both engine and transmission are sourced from BMW.)
[Morgan Ends 84 Years of Steel Chassis Production]
Removable hard top or folding soft top? Neither. The Midsummer is strictly a barchetta, a design choice meant to both celebrate the unique, open-top body style and demonstrate the flexibility of the current Morgan silhouette.
Speaking of silhouette, over 250 hours were required to fabricate the Midsummer’s hand-formed aluminum body panels, and over 400 individual layers of laminated teak wood were used to produce the exposed woodwork.
The Midsummer isn’t just a concept or a one-off, however, as 50 examples are planned to be produced–though, unfortunately, all 50 have already been spoken for.
“We are incredibly proud to present Midsummer,” said Massimo Fumarola, Chief Executive Officer, Morgan Motor Company, “a limited-run special project that celebrates two centuries of coachbuilding and represents the embodiment of Morgan’s core values and the pinnacle of craft skills of its talented workforce.”
The Midsummer is also the very first production car to feature a first-of-its-kind “Pininfarina Fuoriserie” badge:
Typically, vehicles designed by Pininfarina will feature the ‘Design by Pininfarina’ emblem. Due to the unique nature of Midsummer, and the collaborative approach that has contributed to its existence, Pininfarina selected the ‘Fuoriserie’ brand mark. Meaning ‘out of series’ Fuoriserie’s application to Midsummer represents its first application to a production car in Pininfarina’s history, and denotes the nature of the vehicle which has been produced ‘out of series’.
Although all 50 examples have already been sold, the Midsummer will make its first public debut at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, July 11-14. (And, for anyone interested in their own Morgan special project, they are encouraged to “submit their proposal to Morgan.”)
Ugly and impractical - an expensive car for buyers with more money than sense. And I have always liked traditional Morgans.
I even loved the very limited production SLR back in the early 60s (a guy I know owned and raced one in my class) even though it as a departure from tradition - but at least it looked nice.
Currently, only the 3-wheel Morgans are legally imported into the USA, and it's been that way for about 3 years.
Glenn in Brooklyn, NY.
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