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A circuit might not be the natural home of the £200,000 Morgan Plus Four CX-T, but despite its off-road tyres and jacked-up suspension, exactly how fast is it around Bedford Autodrome? Steve Sutcliffe finds out.
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0:00
The Morgan CXT Adventure Car is barkingly expensive at £204,000
0:23
And it's not especially powerful either, thanks to its 2.0-litre turbocharged mini-engine
0:29
It also weighs a fair bit more than you'd want it to at around 1,100 kilos
0:33
and is fitted with some of the least appropriate tyres we have ever come across for setting lap times with on a track
0:42
However, there's something about the CXT that is hard if not impossible to resist in any context
0:51
And because there are quite a few kerbs to contend with at Bedford, plus some grass that needs to trim in places
0:57
Well, we just wanted to see how quick it is relative to all the other road cars we've
1:02
timed around here recently. And if you have to ask why, then maybe the question you should be asking is, why not
1:10
I'm not sure if the Morgan CXT is quite what they were thinking of all those years ago
1:16
when they first created the first ever Morgans. But I'll tell you what
1:21
Many many decades later this thing is an absolute scream You just look at it and you start smiling In fact you look at it and you start laughing But in a good way not in a bad way
1:39
And as soon as you start driving it you just you can't help but getting the giggles. It's obviously not exactly perfectly set up to go around the track like this
1:49
But on a nice sunny day, on a nice empty bed for an autodrome, why not
1:58
It actually feels quite well sorted. Yes, there's a lot of suspension moving. Yes, it's very soft
2:01
But as I say, the chassis still feels very stiff, which it is because it's aluminium nowadays
2:07
And this engine, it doesn't sound particularly lovely, but it's still 255 horsepower's worth
2:15
of mini-engine, two-litre turbo, and it propels the CXT really quite well. I'm not sure about
2:26
the brakes. You do need to be quite smooth with your applications in order to not lock
2:32
the front tyres, because there's a lot of dive under brakes as well. But the steering
2:37
the steering is pretty good and actually the brake power is pretty good and it makes quite
2:44
a lot of pops and bangs as I'm sure you can hear. I'm not sure it's going to disturb the
2:51
top half of the leaderboard table but that kind of not the point and I still want to see how quick it is because I bet it quicker than I was expecting it just gonna need a
3:04
little bit of coaching in order to a go quickly and be stay on the track whilst
3:09
doing so so lid on let's see So it's not very fast in a straight line, has not a lot of grip, doesn't stop all that well and isn't particularly sharp near the limit
5:06
Persuading the CXT through a corner is mainly about doing whatever you can to reduce the chronic understeer it suffers from on turn-in
5:14
by giving it a huge bump, then managing the oversteer that follows
5:19
while trying to keep the throttle pedal welded to the floor at all times
5:24
As a result, the CXT Adventure car is a spectacularly silly one to drive
5:30
But look, it's also dead good fun, even though it's the slowest road car we've timed around Bedford by almost seven seconds
5:39
Take it or leave it, the world would certainly be a less good place without
5:44
the Morgan CXT Adventure Car
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