Have you ever set out to do something tricky and found it doing itself. On a Morgan?  I did!

We are long time Morgan lovers. Amongst the others in our Morgan stable, one can also find an Aero 8 Series One, bought new in 2002.  We have been wondering about the hype around the newer Aero models and how they compared..... so we happily seized the opportunity to drive the Factory pre-production Aeromax for a long weekend when offered it for eMog review.

The views expressed here are those of my wife Kate, myself, our 26 year old daughter, additional input from a farming friend well known in the Morgan community and, as will emerge, many additional unsolicited comments, spontaneously made by those we encountered.

The Aeromax is a hard top version of the Aero, styled originally as a concept car and given life by Prince Sturdza’s order which triggered a limited edition  of 100 (all sold).  It has the 4.8 litre BMW power plant and a 6 gear automatic box (described by some as a clutchless gearbox) with a manual sports mode.  Along with considering the Aeromax on its own, we also compared it to our soft top Series 1 Aero, powered by the 4.5 litre engine and a manual 6 gear Getrag box.
 

Let's talk about raw performance first.  That larger engine has to be there for a reason, and it is.  The greater horsepower really feeds through to the wheels and it is superbly handled by the auto box.  I began as an autobox sceptic. After all, surely a driver can change gears faster, smoother and more  time-effectively than any automatic.

Wake up call!  This automatic gearbox changes faster and at better times than I can manually (as I race my own Morgan I am not unfamiliar with the art of timely fast changes). The Aeromax gear changing is not handled by BMW software. Morgan has created their own version for the car and that includes the gearbox.  Although this Aeromax prototype was running the beta software, its performance was excellent. The production software is reputed to be even more responsive, smooth and especially so in the manual mode.  There were a few occasions when we noticed some slight roughness in matching revs on the change; but we were informed that has been tuned out in the production software.

The marriage of power and this gearbox give the car phenomenal performance.  For a driver, the first lesson is to know your abilities as they are the only limit here, not the car. Overtaking is a joy. The power and braking make the manoeuvre as low risk as it can be. The marriage is so good that you can use the engine to slow the car as well as speed it, which means the connection between throttle and motion is an undiluted joy.

Let's be clear – the Series 1 is very good too. The difference is one of degree. Aero power is always a pleasant surprise; there is just noticeably less of it in the Series 1. The Aero I manual gearbox needs a loving touch to keep changes smooth and its end to end drive train seems just that little bit more raw and unmanaged in its connection from power plant to wheels compared to the Aeromax’s self managing power train.

Tied up with the power is the handling. The Aeromax is a delight. Its ride is firmer and feels more controlled than the original Aero: another, small step towards an armchair on wheels.  If you like the raw feel of “in touch with everything” the Series 1 has it, yet the Aeromax retains a real feel for the road and what the car is doing.

The Series 1 conveys confidence that the car will stay under control (and on a well set up Series 1 you do have to be irresponsible or very unlucky to lose it), and yet in the Aeromax it seems even better glued to the road.

On both cars you must feed power progressively - the Series 1 wears out rear tyres more quickly than the fronts by a long way, and I suspect the issue will be even worse with the Aeromax.  Just think of feeding 300 bhp on average to the wheels of a car weighing a mere 1200 Kg.  In both these cars it is your responsibility as driver to match the power to the road conditions.

Reactions from onlookers must be noted.

As owners of traditionally shaped 2, 4 , 6 and 8 cylinder Morgans over the years, we have become accustomed to the smile factor, not just in driver and passengers but in anyone looking at the cars. Their shape appeals to all ages, men, women and children and we have all had some lovely conversations with strangers spawned by Morgan lines and beauty.

The Series 1 has had many of these happy reactions, although also just a few negative ones. Occasionally, especially on a Motorway, a boy racer insists on showing how powerful his vehicle is.  Fortunately, it is blessedly infrequent.

In the four days we had the Aeromax, we only saw positive reactions, and they were stronger and deeper than I have ever seen for any car!  From inhabitants of our local village to other road users we only met enthusiasm for the artistic styling.

This is where this review wrote itself!

When I called for fuel at the local service station, the Fiat salesman unashamedly deserted his post and rushed out to admire the car and was delighted to have encountered one in person. The cashier wanted me to part exchange his car. Four other strangers engaged me in conversation about the car when I bought my newspaper.

The most dramatic example was three Renault Sports cars who overtook us on a Motorway (and we were travelling at the legal limit [smile])....with me thinking it was a negative sign...until we saw the attractive girl leaning out of the passenger window of one of them to film us as they passed!  They then fell back and repeated the exercise several times so that they could record most aspects of the car at speed.  Something I have never experienced in any other Morgan.

So what of the styling?  The wider cockpit than the Series 1 gives more comfort, and the road noise is quieter than other Morgans with the hard top providing good final insulation from road noise.  The back of the car with its beetle shaped curve is very much personal taste.  People all admire it as a work of art, and they love it or it they don't.  I’m in the “love the style, don't want to live with it” camp, and above all I want my sports car to be a soft top for those lovely summer days of motoring that are one of the true pleasures of life.

There is no boot on the Aeromax.  Instead, luggage is stored in the space in the rear between the leather panel above the fuel tank and the opening gull wing rear windows.  To our considerable surprise, what looks like a small space actually held more with careful packing than we could fit into the Series 1 Aero.  Clever design indeed.

What would those of us who drove the Aeromax improve?  "Not a lot!" is the short answer.  The rear view through the mirror is poor, as it is mostly obstructed by the central fixing of the gull wing rear windows and if not that, by the luggage.  A simple rear view camera to a small screen high in the front would fix this and would also increase front visibility by removing the current large rear view mirror.

Another improvement would be further tuning of the software: there is a slight delay on many switch operations (perhaps half a second), such as for example the horn.  This delay is unnerving when we are used to the instant responsiveness of direct switches, and it is unnecessary with modern software.  (My guess for the technical readers is that it's too cautious a delay being used to "debounce" switches.)

One change, which would benefit the Series 1 too, would be to make the air conditioning intelligent.  On both cars the temperature depends on the speed of the car so in varying traffic in both cars we are constantly varying the temperature control to try and get a constant temperature in the car.  Real time reading a thermostat in the cockpit and tuning the heater hot water flow would be a material comfort improvement.

Finally, on the Aeromax, I would plead for steering wheel paddles for manual gear changes rather than the traditional automatic gear lever – or at least to offer it as an option.  Not only would it free valuable space between driver and passenger but my own experience is that after a few hours of familiarization, paddle operation is much simpler than reaching for a lever which might mean moving a hand off the steering wheel at a time when I most need control.  (This last may be one request too many as I understand that neither Charles Morgan nor Matthew Parkin likes paddles.)

Overall  impressions?

The Aeromax is a lovely car graced with stunning lines which many people love on sight.  It performs and handles magnificently and is a joy to drive.  Faced with a choice between Aero Series 1 and Aeromax, Kate summarized it well.  If she could have everything in the Aeromax but with the soft top she would choose the newer car.  The one key reason why?  To avoid my (frequent and undeniably) helpful advice and guidance on achieving smooth gear changes in our Aero Series One!

We have here two great cars. The Aeromax is clearly a seamless development of the Aero.  The design of the Aeromax expressed as a soft top (with the normal Aero boot) would make a fabulous new Centenary model Aero through the next decade. It would be irresistible.

© Simon J Orebi Gann, eMog August 2008