In many ways it's astonishing that you can still buy a brand new car on the market that has a bonnet attached to the car with a centre hinge and no actual side windows. Incredible that there's a car anywhere on sale that includes a glovebox lid amongst the cost options. But then Morgans are astonishing cars - poetically impractical tributes to British craftsmanship.
The standard Roadster is a strict two-seater, but there's a four-seater version of the Roadster should you want one with oddly elevated rear seats that make the car look like a sporting Popemobile. Roof up, the four-seater model will make you look like you're in the middle of some sort of Top Gear challenge, so much does the roof strain to meet the windscreen.
The interior is cramped, but amusingly so - the driver's seat doesn't adjust, the steering wheel is fixed in place, there's not a great deal of headroom with the roof in place and the transmission tunnel really cramps your style. This car's idea of ceding to modernity is to screw a stereo in underneath the dashboard, should you order one.There's so much wrong with the Morgan - it has leaf spring suspension and drum brakes on the rear and a frame that's made of wood for goodness' sake. There is nothing conventional about the Morgan Roadster.
And yet for all of the car's anachronisms it has a 3.0-litre V6 Ford engine that is Euro IV compliant and produces 226bhp and 280lb ft of torque. 0-60mph comes in 4.9 seconds, which feels awesomely fast when you've stowed the roof and stashed the window panels somewhere.
You feel every bit of the road through the Jurassic suspension setup, and the steering is wonderfully communicative - this is every bit a true sports car, but in a sedate kind of way. You know it would be much more fun on a Sunday drive through the countryside than on a track day with all manner of uncouth TVRs and hot hatches.
At around £40,000, the price seems fairly outrageous, but then you realise that Morgans hold onto their value in an extremely stubborn fashion, and that what you're buying is not really a car but a labour of love, caressed from birth in a rural British factory by master craftsmen. What you're buying is a slice of history, and all the romance and excitement that that entails.