Morgan cars can seem like they would be at a significant disadvantage in a crash, still wearing a very vintage bodystyle over a slightly less vintage chassis. They’re not tested by Euro NCAP and we rarely hear about dramatic traffic accidents involving Morgans.
How such a unique car would fare in a crash with a modern one was answered recently via this rear-facing dash-cam footage in the U.K., when a 2018 Morgan Plus 4 rear-ended an Audi SUV at high speed.
Kent Online reports that Dr. Syd Hassan was behind the wheel of the Audi in slow-moving traffic on the A5 route near Shrewsbury, when a Morgan crashed into the back of the SUV.
“We were off on a four day holiday to Snowdonia and were coming back home in our Model year 2019 Audi SUV, on A5 near Shrewsbury,” the 31-year-old emergency room doctor told Kent Online.
“We slowed down with other cars at a busy roundabout when this gentleman came out of nowhere at 70 mph and rammed his car into us from behind.”
Hassan rushed to render aid to the driver immediately, who was soon taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Before paramedics arrived an off-duty nurse also stopped to help the driver, who survived the accident, out of his car.
For what it’s worth, we don’t think the Morgan actually made contact with the SUV at 70 mph — we suspect that impact would look very different, and have a very different outcome for both cars as well as the Morgan driver. The video does show the driver attempting to brake in the last few yards before the impact.
The 110-year-old Morgan Motor Company has been producing versions of the Plus 4 model since the 1950s, but the current evolution of the model features a 2.0-liter Ford engine paired with a five-speed manual transmission, in addition to greater safety tech. Of course, there is only so much safety tech that the Plus 4 offers — there are no air bags, for instance — and crumple zones are just bodywork that will crumple in a crash. In this case it was fortunately enough to prevent a far worse outcome.
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