Morgan Plus 8 Speedster is a gorgeous, stripped-down centennial celebration

It doesn't take much to transform a Morgan from an already cool car to the coolest Morgan -- nay, the coolest car ever to traverse British B-roads. Chop the windshield, lose the luggage rack. Add Dunlop-style telephone dial alloys, paint 'em black. Morgan describes these as "eccentric styling features." The result, available in a multitude of colors, wheels, and bonnet-strap leathers, isn't so much cranky and weird as it is stunning.

The Plus 8 Speedster is a celebration of the last 100 years of Morgan. Its chopped windshield is reminiscent of the stripped-down look from, say, the Austin-Healey 100M Le Mans; vents and straps and a lack of bumpers create a sense of purpose. Power remains unchanged from the Plus 8 specification: a 4.8-liter V8, sourced from BMW and shared with the Aero models. 367-hp, 370 "torques," in the vernacular of the Pale King himself. At 2,425 lbs, the Plus 8 offers "a power-to-weight ratio to rival any vehicle in its class," Morgan proclaims with thorough modesty. It might be a bit better than that.

A six-speed manual is standard. You can get an automatic, but it's, uh, rather unseemly. Either way, a Plus 8 will see 60 mph in 4.2 seconds on its way to 148 mph. With that chopped windshield, it'll get windy. Bring your flea market surplus RAF goggles.

The Pickersleigh Road factory ramps up assembly this June, just in time to capture the 15 minutes of sunlight the British Isles will see all year. Production is "limited" to whenever the boffins at Morgan run out of ash or the Nag's Head down the street runs out of Speckled Hen. It'll start at

By Blake Z. Rong