This is the new Morgan Aero 8

Be grateful that you live in an age where the expertise to build such a thing still exists.

Look, we know Morgan’s an easy target for the world’s motoring press to rag on. We’re not exactly averse to it ourselves. In a world obsessed with packing all the latest tech into its cars, you’re always going to seem a little backward when some of your models still use wood as a major building material.

With the updated Aero 8 though, it appears to have built something special.

According to the specialist British auto-maker, the car is meant to hearken back to the glory days of 1960s open top driving. From above meanwhile, the view is meant to echo that of a boat deck.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a real Morgan if there wasn’t any wood. Luckily then, the Aero 8’s interior features “real wood surrounds”, textured box-woven carpets and “fine leather trim”. It’s not all designed to make you feel like you’ve gone back in time though.

There’s air-con, so you can drive it in countries which aren’t Great Britain and optional touch screen media systems.

Underneath that very special body, there’s an aluminium chassis that benefits from improved torsional stiffness, a revised front end, all new suspension, anti-roll bars and a new BMW limited slip differential.

BMW also supplies the 4.8 litre V8 engine which powers the Aero 8, capable of producing 367bhp engine. When the car is made available to the wider public towards the end of the year, it will do so with six speed manual or automatic transmission (with paddle shift).