Tally-ho! Join me for 3000 miles in the 'dreamboat' Morgan Super 3

Together the options take the price of this Super 3 from a £39,995 base price to £49,865, but none of the extra kit is essential to the enjoyment of the car. It remains, in my eyes, good value for a car hand-built in tiny volumes in the UK.

We road tested the Super 3 in 2022 and, to recap, it has a bonded aluminium monocoque with (mostly) stressed super-formed body panels. There's a Ford 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol triple engine at the front, from where it makes 118bhp and 111lb ft and drives the single rear wheel through a five-speed Mazda MX-5 gearbox.

In a change since that road test, the Super 3's final drive is no longer by rubber belt but by chain, which is said to be quieter and need less frequent adjustment, and the rear brake is now a disc, not a drum. 

There are solid discs at the front too, where the tall but narrow 3.5Jx20in wheels, wearing 130/90 Avon Speedmaster tyres, are suspended by double wishbones with pullrods. The rear is a swing arm, with the wheel and tyre combination a 6.0Jx15in alloy and 185/55 Avon AS7 winter tyre.

I don't know what designers of four-wheeled cars think of the Super 3's appearance, but I unashamedly adore the look of it, with its mix of modern, classic and optimistic jet-age themes. I like how, to keep it at 644kg (as tested, fully fuelled), some components are employed to do more than one job: the exposed castings at the front mount the engine, suspension and lights and draft air towards the radiators.

And because the Super 3 is homologated as a trike rather than a car, it can have more design freedom and doesn't need to meet such stringent impact regulations as four-wheelers. Nor does it legally need a front numberplate.

There's a panel under the bootlid (90 litres of storage under that, by the way) explaining the relevant section of the law in case you ever get quizzed by the fuzz on it.

There are two seats inside, fixed but with removable cushions, but the steering wheel adjusts for both reach and rake and the pedal box slides. The footwell is quite roomy, too, and there are more of those bungees on each side of the cabin to hold odds and ends.

There's no audio system, but there is a USB socket, and I've been meaning to find a way to mount a phone so I can see a navigation screen. More on that when I've worked it out.

I'm not long into daily-driving the Super 3, so its personality and quirks are still to be learned. One of the nice things is, for such an unusual car (if you don't mind me calling it that), how few of those quirks it has.

The driving position is excellent and visibility great, and while there's no driver assistance nor power assistance for steering or brakes, it's easy to drive thanks to perfect pedal spacing and positive, linear responses. As a back-to-basics drive, and a reasonably brisk but not outrageously fast one at that (it's about as fast as a Ford Fiesta ST), it's exceptionally refreshing.

If there's a car on sale that's as much fun at low speeds as this, I haven't driven it. I can't wait to tell you more about driving it at every daily speed possible, next time.

Update 2

How wet do you get when a Morgan Super 3 gets wet? It's a situation with which I'm becoming increasingly familiar.

That the nights have drawn in, my gutters are overflowing and the garden is soggy can mean only two things: it's officially late autumn and I've still got a hosepipe ban. This is the time of year when people tuck away classic cars for the winter and, if I ever untucked mine in summer, I suppose I would too.

My motorbike will be mostly looking at the inside of a tarpaulin until spring. But the Morgan is still sitting outside - until they come and take it back soon, boo hiss - and in regular use.

First things first on that front, then. I've said it before but I'll say it again: the tonneau cover is spectacularly good at keeping water out of the cabin when parked. I don't think I've ever tried another that's so watertight, although I'm sure the upturned hull-shaped body helps.

The tallest point of the Super 3 is its middle and it curves downwards from there, so water never pools near the central zip. This is also handy as you unbutton it because there isn't a puddle that will pour inside the car.

All of the tonneau's fasteners are, well, I don't know quite what they're officially called but online they seem to be sold as 'Lift The Dot' studs. The tonneau has loosened a little as it ages so it's now easier to do up the fasteners than when the car was brand new, but there's still an order to doing them that works best-because the ones under the wind deflectors are too hard to get to if you leave them until last.

You can pull away the driver's side ones to leave the cover half on if you're driving alone, which keeps luggage in the passenger side dry. Half a tonneau open, with some speed up, and in the rain the Super 3 is a bit like a motorbike with a good fairing in that only bits of you get wet. Your head, a right shoulder and bit of arm. I find that windproof gloves are helpful too; my right hand is exposed to a breeze.

Not moving, though, is a different matter. Last week I was stationary for about 30 minutes on the M25 in the rain. And, well, let's say I've been dryer. But the cockpit materials are marine-grade water resistant and, if you wear the right clothes, honestly it's bearable.

I love driving a Caterham with the hood up and this isn't that level of cosy, of course. But the heater is great and the heated seats are scorching.

This Super 3 has optional driving lights-the two central LED ones, a £695 extra-which sound expensive, but if you do drive into the autumn or do road trips, I'd recommend them. They come on with the high beam and turn moderately good low-beam lighting into blindingly good white lighting. Living in the sticks where deer graze verges of an evening, I really rate these.

Recently I made an autumnal trip to the Morgan factory to cover the Plus Four's 75th anniversary and, while there, the good people of Morgan had a look over the Super 3 to make sure that, like being a conductor on a ghost train, everything was tickety-boo.

They would usually do this free after 1000 miles but I'd driven twice that. The important stuff was fine but an indicator had worked a bit loose atop the nearside front mudguard, and likewise I'd already had to tighten a couple of Allen bolts that secure those guards.

It's a reminder that a Morgan is hand-built and that it's worth keeping an eye on things, although I'm told production processes have become more rigorously controlled recently, to add more integrity to the charm. I'm enjoying the Super 3's sense of both.

Update 3

I had to go to Bruges and I was left with two options: stay warm and dry in my frugal Audi A2, or take the Morgan Super 3 to see if it had any touring credentials. I opted for the Morgan, and it turned out to be a brilliant trip. 

Read the full feature here

Update 4

It doesn't matter where you go, even Goodwood or Hethel: whatever else you see, the Super 3 makes itself the centre of attention.

So how, having spent a few months almost daily-driving a Super 3, do I think one should be specced? I ask because I have been on the configurator again. And for a car that has only one mechanical specification (a 1.5-litre Ford three-cylinder engine, a manual gearbox and not even wheel or tyre options), a lot of customisation is possible.

I think it could make the difference between having a pretty nice one and the perfect fun car. And soon to be facing the terrifying situation that I won't be spending any more time with it, I think I have a better idea of what my (if not the) perfect Super 3 looks like.

This one, which some Autocar staffers and Morgan designers collaborated to create a few months ago (presumably soon to be available through your local Morgan stockist, if you're tempted), runs the sweet spot very close.

Colour and trim are, of course, almost entirely subjective. In the big display box outside Morgan's headquarters the last time I went was a bright-pink Super 3, ordered as one of a pair alongside a highlighter-yellow one. And while I appreciate the added safety that surely comes with driving a Day-Glo three-wheeler, it was a bit much.

Morgan still has an early launch car on its customer experience fleet in a kind of metallic greeny grey, which I think looks just superb. The amber fly screens really set it off, too, to my eyes.

There are three free colours (an orange, a blue and a green, all gloss-finished), and from that point onwards the world is your lobster. If you wanted to, you could spend £2495 on a pearlescent finish, but given that "basically any colour you want" is £895 (solid) or £1295 (metallic), with matt rather than gloss lacquer an added £295, I think that's what I'd choose.

If you're short on inspiration, closing your eyes and clicking on the cursor randomly within the colour swatch square yields really interesting results. Colours crop up that look great but which I wouldn't have thought to aim for. I love the contrast cowl (£495), but again your mileage may vary.

Trim is largely subjective too, although some may wear better than others. At nearly 3000 miles, the Smooth Typhoon black leather (£995) is starting to show a couple of ruffles on the driver's side. Part of the charm, I think: all Super 3s are fairly new, and owning something that patinates in your ownership is a lovely thing to me.

If you're in the UK, I'd absolutely tick the heated seat and footwell heater options, which I have found make a huge difference, on anything other than the warmest days, to how pleasing the Super 3 is. Even an evening drive in summer is made more pleasant.

I also think the side luggage racks (£695, plus the requirement of £245 accessory rails) are extremely useful. I don't think, though, that I'd spec the Exo rear rack (£1295). The time it takes to undo the two stiff knurled knobs to swing it out of the way to get access to the regular boot (an odd shape, but I can squeeze more in it than I'd imagined, and it's dry too) has meant I've found the rack unnecessary. And I prefer the elegant shape of the rear without it.

That aside, I think this spec is as good as a Super 3 gets. And that's very good indeed.

Final report 

Driving a thousand miles a month is normal for a car. It's not normal, though, for a car like a Morgan Super 3. This car (or rather tricycle) was designed for high days and holidays and fun adventures, not for hopping in and out of and integrating into one's daily routine.

Unless, that is, you just can't help yourself; can't resist spreading the joy whenever you nip to the shop. That's the kind of use I've given Autocar's Super 3 over the past few months, threading the mundane, the drizzly commutes and the business trips into the special occasions for which it was designed.

It has been to the office and Bruges, London and the Co-op, the gym and Brighton seafront via the countryside. And as a late last road trip before its return to Malvern, for a cross-country drive in the chill night autumn air from my Oxfordshire home across the Cotswolds to Bath.

Mostly just because elegantly illuminated Bath streets and this classic-modern take on motoring make for a gorgeous night-time photoshoot but also because a crisp night drive in a roadster is adorably atmospheric.

My time with the Super 3 began in the summer, when the nights were short and not so crisp - proper Super 3 territory, I'd suggest. This car has no roof, and while it does have fly screens, you're still exposed to the elements more than in perhaps any other current car.

You see, hear and smell things in a way that you don't in almost anything else, so warm is good. In some cars you're travelling through the world, as if tunnelled through it; in the Morgan, you're actively involved in the surrounding environment. (Concerning factoid: it's surprising how often one smells weed, which must mean another driver is high, on a motorway.)

The Super 3 arrived with very few miles on it and will leave us with comfortably more than 3000. Morgan gives its customers a free 1000-mile health check on each car. I couldn't arrange to take this one in until it had covered more like 2000 miles.

I'd had to tighten a couple of front mudguard bolts before that, plus one indicator had worked loose, but otherwise the Super 3 has been stress-free. Its Ford 1.5-litre engine hasn't used a drop of oil and nor has it consumed any other fluids. It seems to have an integrity to it that the old 3 Wheeler (2012 to 2021) didn't match.

To drive, the Super 3 is charmingly simple. A thrummy triple-cylinder engine up front, three pedals, a Mazda MX-5 manual gearbox and single rear-wheel drive. The sports exhaust (£745) adds an appealingly burbly rattle, with some other mechanical noise provided by the gearbox - or the transfer case that turns its rotation through 90deg, plus the chain drive to the rear wheel.

There is a whine to it that meant on motorway journeys I often wore earplugs (and I always wore a full-face helmet), but apparently it's still better than the squealy belt that was fitted to the first Super 3s, before it was swapped to a chain (at the same time, a disc brake replaced a drum at the rear).

Super 3s do undertake long journeys in owners' hands too. As isn't uncommon with lightweight roadsters, ex-motorcyclists will buy them: roadsters are safer are more sociable and don't compel you to wear armour. Three wheels are still less stable than four, of course, but it always felt secure to me.

I only ever coaxed the tail out of line in the rain. If you're used to the faff and physicality of a bike, from packing luggage carefully to getting blown by crosswinds, you will suit the Super 3 just fine. It's not the same experience as a bike, but I've ridden less these past few months because the Morgan has been around.

I haven't thought too much about its economy and never tried to eke out what I can from a tank, because it has returned nearly 50mpg, which I think is very good.

It's a terribly unaerodynamic shape but is quite small, and light too, at a claimed 635kg (and impressive 644kg on our scales, fully fuelled). I was filling it around every 300 miles, which is plenty. So it treads lightly and seems kind on its consumables too.

A couple of gentle undulations in the driver's seat fabric aside, there's no obvious wear either. Given a scrub, it looks like new, as I imagine it will be shortly before appearing on a Morgan forecourt.

There are only about 10 used Super 3s for sale in the UK today (it's probably not the time of year for it), and they seem to be holding their value as well as you would hope and expect. They don't seem to get cheaper than £35,000.

There are objectively better vehicles than that for this price of a Super 3, used or new, but anything as charming, entertaining and downright desirable? Whether for driving daily or occasionally, I'm not so sure. It's a dreamboat.

Morgan Super 3

Prices: List price new £39,995 List price now £41,995 Price as tested £49,865

Options: Rear rack £1295, black leather trim £995, footwell heater £795, sports exhaust £745, side racks £695, spotlights £695, ash dash £645, body colour wheels £595, LED headlights £595, 13in Moto-Lita steering wheel £495, Heron Grey paint £495, heated seats £495, Safari Yellow cowl £495, side accessory rails £245, Autocar logo decal £195, red cockpit bungees £175, red side bungees £125, USB charger £95

Economy and range: Claimed economy 40.0mpg Fuel tank 32 litres Test average 48.6mpg Test best 50.1mpg Test worst 42.2mpg Real-world range 342 miles

Tech highlights: 0-62mph 7.0sec Top speed 130mph Engine 3 cyls in line, 1497cc, petrol Max power 118bhp at 6500rpm Max torque 111lb ft at 4500rpm Gearbox 5-spd manual, RWD Boot 90 litres (plus racks) Wheels 20in (f) 15in (r), alloy Tyres 130/90 R20 Avon Speedmaster (f), 185/55 R15 Avon AS7 M+S (r) Kerb weight 635kg

Service and running costs: Contract hire rate na CO2 130g/km Service costs None Other costs None Fuel costs £385 Running costs including fuel £385 Cost per mile 12.5 pence Faults A couple of loose bolts