The Morgan Supersport is Heading to the US, But It’s Missing Two Important Things

Ever-stricter European emissions regulations mean it’s become a fact of life that performance cars sold here often get less power than their overseas equivalents. Take the Ford Mustang Dark Horse: it makes 500bhp in the US, but ‘only’ 453bhp in European guise. It’s the same story with the Toyota GR Yaris: 276bhp in Europe, vs 300bhp in Japan.

The excellent Morgan Supersport, though, is bucking the trend. The Worcestershire company has just announced that it’s gained approval to sell its latest, and most serious, sports car, in the US. This is via a slightly arcane law that allows companies to bypass the US’s usual car approval process if selling up to 325 annual examples of a car “intended to resemble the body” of an older car. Despite technically being an all-new design, the Supersport’s throwback looks allow it to qualify.

It’s doubtless exciting news for America’s small but passionate Morgan fanbase, but there is a catch: Morgan hasn’t been able to homologate the engine used in the European Supersport, BMW’s 3.0-litre turbocharged B58 straight-six in 335bhp guise. Instead, the US-market Supersport is getting the B46, a modified version of BMW’s 2.0-litre B48 four-cylinder designed to comply with the strict emissions rules of states like California.

This sees power drop from 335 to 255bhp, and torque from 369 to 258lb ft. Morgan hasn’t said how much this’ll impact performance, but the smaller, lighter engine also sees the US Supersport’s kerbweight drop to 1,143kg, versus 1,170kg in the European version. That still gives it a handy 223bhp per tonne.

Apart from the fairly obvious difference under the bonnet, the Supersport the US is getting is identical to the European one. That means an all-aluminium, wood free chassis (although there are still bits of tree in the frame), a ZF eight-speed automatic sending power to the rear wheels, and an optional limited-slip diff and handling package with adjustable Nitron dampers. 

As standard, US-market cars also get the bespoke aluminium gear selector recently introduced as an option on the hardcore Supersport 400, in place of the rather incongruous off-the-shelf BMW unit.

Pricing for the US-market Supersport at $119,995 (plus taxes and destination charges), or around £88,750. That’s a chunk less than the £105,160 it starts at in the UK, but then for once, we’re not the ones getting short-changed in the power department.