GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Morgan Aero GT revealed

Niche British sports car-maker Morgan has whipped the covers off the Aero GT, a hard core rear-drive sports car that bids adieu to the Aero 8 model and its rip-sporting normally-aspirated BMW V8 engine.

The next-generation version of the Aero 8 is expected to debut later in 2018.

With a modern (for Morgan) exterior design that takes inspiration from motorsport, only eight of these vehicles will be built, each of them priced at £120,000. That's about $213,000 in Australia.

Powered by BMW's venerable 4.8-litre naturally-aspirated V8 (N62), the car generates 270kW of power and 500Nm of torque. That's a lot of twist for a car that weighs 1182kg.

With a top speed of 273km/h or 170mph in the old money, there's nothing shy or retiring about the Morgan Aero GT. It rips to 100km/h from rest in 4.5secs and there's no automatic transmission. Traditional stick-shift only here, folks.

With its linear power deliver from its non-turbo BMW V8, each of the eight Morgan Aero GT vehicles will be custom made for owners, with a build time around 10 weeks per car. Each car features adjustable suspension and every body panel on the car is hand-finished.

The Morgan Plus 8 50th anniversary model was also shown in Geneva, and just 50 models will be built at the company's Pickersleigh Road facility in Malvern, UK.

The vehicle was named after the "famous eight-cylinder engine beneath the car's hand-built body," proclaims the car-maker. More than 6000 of the Plus 8 vehicles have been built over the past 50 years.

Morgan's coupe and roadster vehicles have been officially imported and sold in Australia over the years priced between $80,000 and even above $300,000.

Morgan is also famous for building another olde-world vehicle, the 3 Wheeler. The quirky trike has had a rocky relationship in Australia but is currently sold here for around $94,000.