If you’re in the market for a British sports car, you’ve got a few pretty good options here in America. But if you want that slick runaround to be made of wood and designed more than 70 years ago, your options were severely limited… until now.
After more than 20 years away from these fair shores, the Morgan Plus Four is making a triumphant return to America, reports the Drive. The car, which was launched in 2020 based on the original +4 that was sold from 1950, will be available in the Land of the Free from 2025.
Morgan has been selling its three-wheeled model here in America for around a decade, but until now has been unable to offer its four-wheeled models like the Plus Four and Plus Six. Thankfully, the British brand has now cleared the regulatory hurdles that were preventing it from offering an American-spec Plus Four:
Morgan took advantage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act’s replica-car rule to bring the Plus Four to the U.S. The law allows brands to sell a replica of any car that was available in our market over 25 years ago. The old Plus Four was sporadically offered stateside until 2005, so it’s good to go. Getting the proverbial nod of approval from regulators was difficult, however, and the green light came with a catch.
On the plus side, it’s fully street-legal, wasn’t thrown into the Show and Display vortex, and can even be registered in CARB states as long as production stays below 325 units. If, say, 326 examples end up in the U.S. next year, Morgan would need to make the Plus Four compliant with federal safety norms.
Yes you read that right, Morgan will only be able to sell a maximum of 325 Plus Fours in the U.S. every year, which it will do so out of its 12 American dealers. The 325 Plus Fours it sells in America will start at $84,995 excluding applicable taxes and destination fees, adds the Drive.
Each Plus Four that makes it to America will be hand-built with aluminum body panels formed around a hand-cut ash frame, explained Road & Track. Underneath those aluminum panels will sit a BMW-sourced two-liter engine, which has provided issues of its own for the British brand as a new onboard diagnostics system was needed for it to meet California’s Air Resources Board requirements.
Thankfully, Morgan was able to navigate the bureaucratic nightmare of importing cars into the U.S. and now has a genuine range of models on offer Stateside. When it hits the highway next year, the Plus Four will be sold alongside the Super Three, which made it to America through it’s own maze of loopholes and is sold as a motorcycle in the U.S.