There's A New Sports Car With A 400-HP BMW Engine, But It Isn't From BMW

The historic British marque, renowned for blending classic design with modern engineering, has returned with a follow-up to the BMW-powered Midsummer roadster it unveiled in 2024. This time, however, it has added a fixed roof, turning the already impressive design into an even more dramatic car dubbed the Midsummer Coupe. And because both the BMW Z4 and Toyota GR Supra are dead, this (and its siblings) is now the last BMW-powered sports car on the market.

Exterior Design: Some Help From Pininfarina

Like the original roadster, the Midsummer Coupe forms part of Morgan's growing coachbuilding portfolio, pairing a bespoke body with the company's bonded-aluminum CX platform found in popular models like the Plus Four and more recent Supersport. And to shape the car's striking new look, Morgan also decided to once again enlist legendary Italian design house Pininfarina. The result is a stunning car with Morgan's signature long, flowing fenders and low-slung roofline, but this time combined with tightly drawn surfacing that lends the coupe a sense of motion even when it's standing still.

A Glass Roof Open-Air Experience
Fortunately, Morgan hasn't completely abandoned the open-top ethos that made the Midsummer roadster so appealing. For the coupe, an expansive glass roof floods the cabin with natural light and preserves much of the airy atmosphere that defined the open-top car. The new roof design also features details such as the split rear windshield, which provides a clear nod to celebrated fixed-roof Morgans of the past, such as the AeroMax, but it wasn't a straightforward process.

Morgan said the integrated glass required new production processes but added that the project has expanded the company's skills and capabilities for future designs. One of these is bonded glazing, enabling the glass roof to bond directly to the vehicle structure and, as a result, add to overall rigidity. Impressively, the overall weight is only a couple of percentage points higher than one of Morgan's standard metal-roof coupes.

Engine & Performance: One Of BMW's Most Powerful Inline-6 Engines

Beneath the Midsummer Coupe's long hood sits Morgan's most potent engine offering currently available: a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six sourced from BMW. While the same engine produces 335 horsepower in most Morgans and many BMW applications - although BMW has frequently employed 382-hp variants in the likes of thr Z4 - Morgan has turned up the wick here to 402 hp. This matches the output of the recently unveiled Supersport 400. An eight-speed automatic sends power exclusively to the rear wheels.

Morgan hasn't said whether a manual transmission will be available, but given the company's willingness to tailor cars to individual buyers, we wouldn't rule anything out for customers with sufficiently deep pockets. A manual would definitely be more fun, given outright performance has never been the primary selling point of a Morgan. These cars trade more on character, craftsmanship, and the sensation of driving something genuinely special. Since Morgan sources powertrains from BMW, and BMW already developed the Handschalter package for the Z4, the possibility is there.

Still, 402 horsepower in a lightweight aluminum-bodied machine is hardly a recipe for slow progress. Morgan hasn't released performance figures for the Midsummer Coupe, but the mechanically similar Supersport 400 goes from zero to 60 mph in just 3.6 seconds and tops out at 180 mph. We'd expect the Midsummer to deliver broadly similar pace.

Beyond the powertrain, the Midsummer Coupe packs plenty of bespoke details. Exposed wood forms a continuous ring around the cabin, a modern tribute to the ash wood frames that underpinned earlier Morgans. Unique 19-inch forged wheels, described by Morgan as its most intricate design yet, add to the car's coachbuilt character, and despite its vintage-inspired aesthetic, there's still a digital driver's display located behind a beautifully crafted steering wheel featuring a solid aluminum center.