A Single Conversation Led to Morgan’s New Midsummer Coupé

The Morgan Midsummer Coupé began with a single conversation. After the company revealed its Midsummer barchetta in 2024, a client approached the workshop on Pickersleigh Road with an idea. He wanted a fixed-head interpretation of the open-top car. Rather than simply enclose the original design, Morgan’s teams saw an opportunity to create something new, a project that would require its own design language and structural architecture.

That initial proposal soon attracted a further eight commissions. The result is a strictly limited series of nine client vehicles, each developed as a unique interpretation of the core concept. The project represents a landmark for the company’s coachbuilding expertise and continues the creative collaboration between Morgan and the Italian design house Pininfarina, who worked together on the original Midsummer.

A New Form

The addition of a roof fundamentally changed the car’s profile. The fixed-head architecture allowed designers to rethink the vehicle’s proportions, creating a dramatic glazed canopy that flows seamlessly into the rear bodywork. This gives the Coupé a sense of purpose and elegance distinct from the barchetta it evolved from.

Exterior details connect the car to its origins while establishing a new identity. Polished stainless-steel lower body panels provide a visual link to the Midsummer barchetta. New forged 19-inch aluminium wheels, Morgan’s most intricate design to date, sit at each corner. A central stainless-steel graphic runs the length of the car, creating a visual thread that ties the exterior to the interior.

Wood, Metal, and Light

Inside, the expansive glazed roof fills the cabin with natural light. Teak, a defining material of the original Midsummer, is used extensively to create visual continuity. It appears as an inlay on the newly developed aluminium gear selector and on the sun visors. These visors, along with the rear-view mirror, are mounted to a solid aluminium rail that spans the width of the cabin. The window switches are mounted directly within the roof structure.

The prototype, known as the artists' proof, features teak throughout, but the nine subsequent commissions will offer clients alternative timber finishes and material combinations. This ensures each car will have its own distinct character, developed in a close creative partnership between Morgan and the owner.

Modern Coachbuilding

Creating a fixed-head car required significant structural development. The project centers on a new system that incorporates billet-machined aluminium A-pillars and bonded structural glazing. The windscreen and roof glass are bonded directly into the aluminium structure, allowing them to contribute to the vehicle’s overall rigidity.

This modern approach works alongside traditional techniques. Each car’s centre body is hand-formed from flat aluminium sheets using an English wheel, with digital scanning and laser measurement systems providing constant reference. The traditional ash body frame remains a structural, load-bearing part of the architecture, a solution that brings aluminium, glass, and wood together. Despite the addition of a fixed roof, the Midsummer Coupé weighs only 2.5% more than a Supersport fitted with a hardtop.

Power comes from a BMW 2.0 litre engine, available with either a six-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic transmission. The project demonstrates the growing capability of Morgan's special projects programme, which operates alongside its main production line to realize highly individual commissions.

After its public debut, the artists' proof will join the Louwman Collection in The Hague, becoming part of one of the world's most significant automobile collections. It serves as the benchmark for the nine bespoke client cars that will follow, each a direct result of that first conversation.

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