Morgan CX-T Adventure Car Review: Spectacularly Silly, Irresistibly Fun

The Morgan CX-T Adventure Car is one of those vehicles that defies the usual rules of car buying. It costs a barkingly expensive $204,000, it is not especially powerful, and it is nowhere near the quickest thing you can take around a track. And yet almost nobody who encounters it walks away without a smile.

Why the CX-T Is So Hard to Resist

On paper, the CX-T is hard to justify. It uses a 2.0-litre turbocharged Mini engine producing 255 horsepower, and it weighs a fair bit more than you would want it to, around 100 kilos over ideal. It also runs some of the least appropriate tyres for setting quick lap times that we have come across in a long while.

But there is something about the CX-T that is hard, if not impossible, to resist in any context. You just look at it and start smiling, and as soon as you start driving it, the giggles arrive on their own. Many decades after the first-ever Morgans were created, this thing is an absolute scream, in the best possible way.

How It Feels on Track

Around a track like Bedford Autodrome, with its curves and patches of grass that need a trim in places, the CX-T actually feels quite well sorted. Yes, there is a lot of suspension movement and the ride is very soft, but the chassis feels very stiff, thanks to its aluminium construction.

The engine does not sound particularly lovely, but it is still 255 horsepower of 2.0-litre turbocharged Mini unit, and it propels the CX-T really quite well. The steering is pretty good, the brake power is genuinely strong, and the exhaust makes quite a lot of pops and bangs along the way.

Limit Handling and Braking

At the limit, things get more interesting. The brakes deserve respect: you need to be quite smooth with your applications to avoid locking the front tyres, and there is a lot of dive under braking.

Persuading the CX-T through a corner is mainly about managing its chronic understeer on turn-in. The technique involves giving it a bump to rotate the car, then managing the oversteer that follows, all while trying to keep the throttle pedal welded to the floor as much as possible. The result is a spectacularly silly car to drive, but also a dead good fun one.

Buying Advice

The honest numbers first: it is not very fast in a straight line, it has not a lot of grip, it does not stop all that well, and it is not particularly sharp near the limit. In fact, it recorded the slowest road car lap time around Bedford by almost seven seconds, and it will not disturb the top half of the leaderboard.

But that is kind of not the point. If you want outright pace, there are faster and cheaper ways to get it. If you want a car that makes every sunny day at the track feel like an occasion, the CX-T is in a class of its own. Take it or leave it, the world would certainly be a less good place without the Morgan CX-T Adventure Car.

Conclusion

The Morgan CX-T Adventure Car is expensive, underpowered, and slow on a stopwatch, yet charming beyond all reason. Buy it with your heart and a very healthy bank account, and you will be rewarded with something genuinely irreplaceable.