The Midnight Sun
One final shakedown. That’s what the new Supersport 400 needs. One last long distance run before production starts in earnest.
But where should we take it? Enter Nik Berg from detour-roadtrips.com who suggests a road trip we just can’t refuse: from Malvern to the Midnight Sun of the Faroe Islands.
Author: Nik Berg
Photographer: Nick Dimbleby / Matt Jennings
It would be a round trip of 2,500 miles, taking in six countries, two 36-hour ferry crossings, endless days and extremes of weather. The isolated archipelago in the North Atlantic would serve as a stunning photographic backdrop, but also as a sound stage on which the Supersport’s Active Performance Exhaust system could perform.
Linking the islands together is a network of 23 tunnels, four of which go under the sea bed – echo chambers for the sounds of internal combustion. What’s more the Faroe Islands are also home to the only undersea roundabout in the world – and that’s something we just had to see.
“I’m half Danish, but my mother never taught me the language,” says Nik. “She always said it would only be useful in Denmark and the Faroe Islands, so ever since I was a child I’ve been fascinated to go.”
It’s 21 June when Nik and the Morgan team leave Pickersleigh Road. Not only is it the longest day of the year, the temperature is breaking records, too, so the four-hour run to catch the Eurotunnel is mainly a test of the Supersport’s cooling systems, with driver and car both thankfully arriving in Folkestone in a comfortable condition.
By evening they reach Eindhoven, having ticked off France and Belgium to enter their fourth country of the day. The overnight hotel, which was once a monastery, doesn’t have air conditioning, so climbing back into the Supersport early the next morning is a welcome relief from the heat.
Day two is a fast blast across Germany, with the autobahn giving the opportunity to exploit the Supersport’s speed. Over 150 mph is easily achievable, when the traffic permits, but – mostly to allow the support car to keep up – the team settles into a steady 100 mph and the miles fly by to the Danish border.
After a night in Denmark’s very cool second city Aarhus it’s just a short run to reach the ferry terminal at Hirtshals. Here waits Smyril Line’s Norrona, which makes twice-weekly trips to the Faroe Islands and on to Iceland. Judging by the number of rugged adventure rigs in the queue, most of the 800 vehicles that the Norrona can carry will be on board for the whole of the near-three-day crossing. For Nik and the support crew it’s ‘only’ 36 hours on this mini-cruise across the Atlantic, but that’s still plenty of time to rest and recuperate from the dash across northern Europe and enjoy some Scandinavian hospitality.
Arriving in Torshavn, the capital of the Faroes, there’s no need for passport checks as the islands are actually part of Denmark, albeit self-governing. Locals speak Faroese, which is close to Icelandic, but official business is conducted in Danish. As it happens everyone the team meets also speaks excellent English.
Base for the next few days is the Hafnia Hotel, just a stone’s throw from the harbour and town centre. Some 21,000 of the 55,000 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands live in the capital and it’s a very friendly town – especially if you drive a Matisse Blue Morgan.
Over the next three days the Supersport is as much of a tourist attraction as the fjords, waterfalls and wildlife of the islands, camera lenses following the car wherever it goes from the westernmost point of Vágar to the outer reaches of Vidoy.
Only 16 of the 18 Faroe Islands are inhabited and some, such as, the spindly Kalsoy, can still only be reached by ferry. It was here that the final sequence of No Time To Die was filmed and the demise of 007 is even marked by a tombstone.
The main islands, however, are linked by tunnels, that dive deep beneath the seabed. The bare rock walls are lit with a changing palette of colours helping to keep drivers alert. In the 11 km long Eysturoy tunnel the hues are even more spectacular at the so-called Jellyfish Roundabout where an art piece by the Faroes’ own Tróndur Patursson features the silhouettes of Faroese people, lit by a rainbow of lights. An accompanying soundscape can be heard if you tune your radio to a specific FM frequency.
The Supersport makes plenty of music of its own, especially with its exhaust baffles wide open in Sport + mode. Nik can’t resist dropping it down a few gears to hear the engine sing
There are plenty of opportunities to do this again and again as the team explores the islands, with remote communities connected by more narrow tunnels blasted through the mountains.
Every time the Morgan bursts out into the daylight Nik is greeted with another stunningly verdant vista. The Faroe Islands are a very vivid green, with thick grass everywhere – including the rooftops of many traditional houses and churches.
The roads that thread through this landscape are rarely straight, and highlight the Supersport’s agile handling. Through sequence of switchbacks or faster winding fjord-side roads the car certainly gets put through its paces, shrugging off mid-bend bumps and the tightest turns.
There are more sheep than people on the Faroe Islands and they own the roads – they have right of way – so that puts the Supersport’s brakes to a test on more than one occasion.
In the skies, which can shift from stormy grey to bright blue in a matter of moments, are millions of seabirds. Puffins, Razorbills and Gulls galore nest in the striking sea cliffs. In the rich waters live Pilot Whales, Orcas and Grey Seals who compete with the Faroese fishermen for their catch of the day. Fishing is the main industry on the Faroe Islands and no fjord is without a salmon farm, while the harbours are filled with vessels of all sizes.
Tourism is growing fast, though, and it’s no wonder for there’s much to discover from black sandy beaches to towering waterfalls, turf-topped churches, and art installations.
Three days offers the team barely a taster of what’s on offer, but that’s all the time there is before the next ferry. Nik hands the keys of the Supersport over to engineer Ben Warr, who will drive the car home to Malvern.
“What a car. What a place,” he says.
Mission accomplished.
Thanks to Visit Faroe Islands, Smyril Line and Hotel Hafnia for their assistance
