The Aero 8’s famous "cross-eyed" headlights weren’t designed from scratch — they’re VW Beetle lights, reversed to hit the right aerodynamic angle.
Median 315 hp across 22 similar cars
Lead trim: 4.4 BMW M62TUB44 V8 (282 hp) · up to 330 hp
Morgan Aero 8 Series 12000–2004
- 0spots by members
- Unclaimednobody has spotted one yet
- 0sets it belongs to
Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Morgan Aero 8 Series 1 yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactThe Aero 8’s famous "cross-eyed" headlights weren’t designed from scratch — they’re VW Beetle lights, reversed to hit the right aerodynamic angle.
Announced in 2000 and unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show by Charles Morgan, the Aero 8 was the first new Morgan design since 1964's +4+ and was touted as Morgan's first supercar, the result, in his words, of "the biggest development project ever undertaken by the Morgan Motor Company". It was the first Morgan with an aluminium chassis and frame, a bonded aluminium chassis with elements of an ash frame, and it does not use anti-roll bars; it is powered by a 4.4 litre BMW V8 mated to a 6-speed Getrag transmission and pushes about 1100 kg. Famous for its cross-eyed squint, courtesy of reversed VW Beetle headlamps, around 210 Series 1 cars were made. The limited-edition GTN run-out of 2004 used the 4.6 L Alpina BMW engine, with a carbon fibre roof and interior and semi-slick tyres, and just eleven were produced, all in a two-tone BMW blue/silver scheme.
Collectors Spotted in the Morgan Aero 8 Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Morgan Aero 8 yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
2 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.4 BMW M62TUB44 V8 (282 hp) | 2000–2004 | 4.4 L V8 | 282 hp | 322 lb-ft | — | RWD | — | — |
| GTN 4.6 Alpina BMW V8 (330 bhp) | 2004–2004 | 4.6 L V8 | 330 hp | — | 4.3 s | RWD | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
The Series 5 Aero 8 brought back a classic Morgan touch: a fabric roof that folds away into the rear parcel shelf, leaving a flat deck behind the seats.
Morgan priced the AeroMax over £100,000, the first Morgan ever to cross that line.
Morgan's hand-built lightness did something BMW's own saloons couldn't: the Series 4 Aero 8 passed Euro 6 emissions with the same 4.8-litre V8 that failed in heavier BMWs.
Morgan built this version specifically to fix the earlier Aero 8's infamous cross-eyed face — and then built barely 200 of the corrected cars before moving on.
To sell the hand-built Aero 8 in America, tiny British manufacturer Morgan had to move the fuel tank just to satisfy US rear-impact crash rules.
The Aero 8’s famous "cross-eyed" headlights weren’t designed from scratch — they’re VW Beetle lights, reversed to hit the right aerodynamic angle.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
This was the year the Virage's automatic finally got a fourth gear — Aston swapped in a four-speed automatic to replace the original three-speed unit for the 1993 model year.
Audi's first drop-top since 1959 barely made a dent stateside: the V6 Cabriolet sold just 5,445 units across its entire five-year run in the US market.
This Azure's V8 exists because of a corporate grudge: when VW won the fight for Bentley, BMW threatened to cut off engine supply — forcing VW to rebuild the 6.75-litre V8 itself, twin-turbos and all.
Bentley never even considered a roll-bar for the Azure's convertible top — they just reinforced the chassis instead and let the design stay pure.
The F8 Spider's folding hardtop raises or lowers in just 14 seconds, and you can do it on the move, at up to 28 mph.
Bentley hid a charging nook for iPads between the rear seats of the Continental GT Convertible — a 2015 update that quietly conceded the future was tablets, not just wood veneer.
Bentley built just 710 of these second-generation Supersports worldwide, coupe and convertible combined — one of the rarest W12 Bentleys ever made.
The Auburn Twelve's V12 outlived the car by decades — its engine design became the basis for American LaFrance fire truck powerplants that stayed in service into the 1950s.