Why comparing a Morgan to a £300k V12 Ferrari is easier than you think
His first evo Car of the Year, so what did Ashraf make of it all?
How the hell is that Morgan keeping up? A pattern was emerging here. I couldn’t shake it in the Revuelto the night before, and the next morning the Supersport was humbling me again, this time in the GT3 as I led the group to our first location. Road closures had diverted us to a mountain pass wide enough for one car, occasionally two, with fallen rocks and debris lining the road like boobytraps, ready to pop a tyre or scuff a splitter. We navigated these carefully, Dickie in tow in the Supersport, but as soon as we got back on the main route the GT3 was free – in its happy place somewhere near 9000rpm, picking the road apart with stunning grip and precision. I wouldn’t see the Morgan again until we reached our stop, I thought. Except that it stayed right with me for the next half an hour with seemingly no effort as I hustled the Porsche and whap-whapped through the gears, befuddled that the Supersport’s round headlamps were still in my mirrors.
The ‘Dickie effect’ should never be underestimated, but there was clearly some special sauce in the Supersport, because others were repeating the trick. Sure enough it came to light as I spent time in it and found it really got under my skin. It’s just so refreshing to drive something that isn’t all about outright speed or grip: that’s what makes the Morgan so approachable and ironically so easy to drive quickly and able to hang onto the back of a GT3 on a technical road. I thought the Supersport would trade on novelty factor and style more than anything else, but, just as with the way it looks, there’s modern sophistication expertly blended in with its old-school charm. This is the first Morgan I’d actually want to own, perhaps more than I would a new 911 Carrera. Yes, really.
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Judging something like the Morgan against a V12 Ferrari or a Corvette sounds impossible, but in some ways it’s actually easier than comparing like-for-like cars in a conventional group test. eCoty isn’t so much about objective measures but how well each contender nails its brief and, most of all, how badly you want to jump in and go for a drive, just for the sake of it. You instinctively know when a car gets under your skin, and from the very beginning the Alpine was one of those for me. I love the standard A110 and was apprehensive about whether its unique appeal could survive such a stark character change, but the Ultime is a different and even more delicious kind of dish. It’s a cliché, but no other car I’ve driven takes me back to my days of racing karts like this one, even down to the engine vibration that fizzes through the cabin, and the driving position, on the deck in a carbon seat with the top of the wheel tilted away from you. I absolutely adored every minute I spent in it, and it’s fantastic to see the A110 go out on such a high.
But the Ultime tends to ruin other cars for you, particularly if said car is a two-and-a-half-ton-plus Land Rover Defender. My first go in the Octa came immediately after the Alpine – probably not the best idea – and by the end I wondered why we’d bothered bringing it. It felt like a school bus, way out of its depth on the fast, flowing route back to the hotel, and I couldn’t find the merest flicker of the thrill of driving in it. But later it clicked in a big way, on one of the very best drives I had across the entire test. Following John in the Ferrari on more winding roads, the Octa came to life like a big Ariel Nomad, dipping wheels in the grass and throwing its weight around as I tried to keep up. Baguettes, crisp bags and Lion bars were slapping around in the boot (it had become our de facto sandwhich bar) and I don’t think I laughed as much all week. That’s one of the fascinating elements of eCoty. A particular drive, a certain road or even a specific corner can colour your perspective of a car, which is why we take so much time to explore each contender in every environment we can. Even if you have absolutely no desire to drive it again, as was initially the case with the Octa.
This was my first eCoty and it was a real privilege to judge such a high-quality field of cars and make unforgettable memories with the team. ‘Pinch me’ moments seemed to happen every few minutes, whether it was the Maserati pulling up against an impossibly beautiful backdrop for a photograph, or the Vanquish lighting up its tyres in the most absurd prolonged burnout you’ve ever seen for the video crew. There were other rare spectacles too, like turning around to find Andy Morgan wading into a lake in his boxers to frame the perfect shot. eCoty is as mad and wonderful as you’d expect, plus a bit more.
This story was first featured in evo issue 341.
