It may not look like it, but the Super 3 is Morgan’s first modern car, and you know it the instant you set off. It’s far less attractive than the gorgeous 3 Wheeler it replaces, and the engaging thrum of its three-cylinder 1.5-litre Ford engine no substitute whatever for the glorious thump of the old S&S externally mounted Vee twin, but as a thing to drive? There’s no comparison at all.

If you ever wanted a lesson in torsional rigidity and how a modern monocoque can provide it in a way a traditional spaceframe never could, there’s none better than this. The Super 3 doesn’t wobble or flop about. It turns in with absolute precision and signals its grip reserves with total clarity. The car feels together like no other Morgan I’ve driven. Such is the sense of structural integrity it’s genuinely closer to something made by some vast manufacturer than in a sprawl of ancient buildings in Worcestershire.

It does have its limitations, and if you drive the Super 3 as hard as you can on a race track, you will find them: it’s really not that receptive to mid-corner changes of plan, but that is really not what it’s for. It remains the ultimate pub car and I’m sure that’s what many, if not most, will be used for. But now it has something else entirely thanks to a level of genuine driver appeal its forebear could not imagine. No longer does it merely look like a proper sports car, finally it has become one too. AF

Morgan Super 3

• Price £43,165
• Engine 1.5 litres, three cylinders, petrol
• Power 118bhp
• Torque 110lb ft
• Weight 635kg (dry)
• Power to weight  N/A
• Transmission Five-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
• 0-60mph 7.0sec
• Top speed 130mph
• Economy 130g/km
• CO2 198g/km
• Verdict Best Morgan to date.