Day 6 - Tuesday, August 19th -Back to England. Being saved by the 'Spaniels'.
We were greeted by a very nice, sunny, even warm Saundersfoot’s morning (picture above is taken from the Hotel’s balcony).
It’s one of those places you never heard of, you never expected to visit but somehow you ended up going there. We had a great breakfast (continental for me, of course) with a interesting surprise. In this corner of England the waiter that attended to our table was … Portuguese! Although we tried to respect his work duties it was difficult to avoid some moments of chatting, about the why’s and the how’s and the when’s of his presence there.
Anyway, after a while we were already packing all things back into the available M3W luggage space and we left, heading for Williams Morgans, with a car that was becoming noisier with every new mile.
Evidently the “mend” was giving up. I will leave to another moment my quick summary of what I think needs mentioning about the M3W, but I’ll say now that the digital fuel display is NOT to be trusted. I got two scares in this trip because of it, and the first was during the Saundersfoot – Bristol stage. I didn’t think much of it that day because fuel stations were in abundance but I really missed a good old-style fuel gauge there.
St. Peter kept his kindness towards us (not sure if he also commands the rain in England as he does in Portugal ) and we only noticed some little drops of rain for a very short period during this “morning on the road”.
Without Sat-Nav we got a bit lost in the (beautiful) countryside roads and lanes near Shipping Sodbury, so it was almost noon when we arrived to Williams Morgans courtyard.
By that time, the left exhaust was pretty much in two pieces already so I think we scared the spaniels on our arrival!
We were expected, kindly received (a nice cup of coffee was in our hands literally seconds after we got out of the car) and shortly after our arrival I had the chance of meeting another TMer, Lawrie. It was him that took my Brooklands from the yard to the shop.
Mike Edwards wasn’t there when we arrived, but did show up little later, and I took advantage of being there to ask two things: a) please check if my car is a full 2014 spec model; b) since the car has now clocked about 1000 kms, first service is due and it would be wonderful if you could do it;
He said “yes” to both and I felt - evidently - relieved.
I took the opportunity to look around, a few Morgans and Lotus were there, I got particularly interested in the “race” Morgans. How I wish I had one of those for myself!
We had a great chat also with Richard Williams, talked about many things, with a particular focus of course on Morgan (the company) and Morgans (the cars). After a while we were taken to the lovely nearby town of Shipping Sodbury where we had time for a walk around and for a late lunch at a pub called the “Beaufort Hunt”.
Here some pictures my wife took of architectonical details she found, for whatever reason, interesting.
As for me, my only interest was a bit further away. Richard Williams himself picked us up for our return to the shop and when we got there, this is all I had eyes for:
And if I could somehow get this in the M3W’s luggage I would!
But let’s not be blind to other types of beauties, I also liked this:
… and loved this!
In the final few words with Mike, he assured me the car was fully a 2014 model (centa, NVH, front suspension, reinforced chassis …) so apparently the only mistake made at the factory had been indeed the exhausts.
He also told me the Engine and BB’s oils had been changed, the car fully checked (as per the first service check list), all seemed to be ok.
We then had a funny moment. Probably embarrassing for me to share here too, but here goes (in the hope only a few are bored enough to read all this).
I mentioned to Mike that Talk Morgan was a great source of information for everything about our cars, and how to keep them. And told him that I had learned here that Trad Morgan owners do something with “grease guns” (whatever that may be) to the front suspension, or to what I read being called “kingpins”. And I asked if that was also needed for recent cars like my own 2010 Plus 4.
He widened his eyes and asked: “Are you telling me that in 4 years of ownership you never greased the front pillars (or suspension, can’t recall)? How many miles does your car have now?”
“Hum … yes, that’s what I’m telling. Close to 20.000 kms, that should be about 16.000 miles. How often should that be done anyway?"
“About every 1000 miles … you may have to deal with that urgently!”
“But why is that needed and what happens if one doesn’t do whatever it’s supposed to be done with a … grease gun?”
Then he tells me about the front elements of the direction/suspension becoming dry and therefore suffering excessive/premature wear.
And he also tells me I should feel that. But I don’t. Then he tells me that in the UK there’s this thing called MOT and the cars are checked to see if there’s any looseness in these elements. To that I say “yes, in Portugal we have that too, it’s called IPO and the same elements of direction and suspension are checked, and my car passed. Oh and I race it too in amateur hillclimbs and the direction is as fine as it ever was."
His look of disbelief made me a little uncomfortable. And then I told him.
“You know what? Peter Bradley, a TMer that knows enough to install TBKs in his own Plus 4 by himself is going to be there at Caramulo with me in a couple of weeks. I’ll check if he brings his grease gun so I can understand what it is and what I should do with it. If he doesn’t bring his grease gun with him, I’ll ask him to check my car anyway and explain what I should do.”
He nods. And says “yes, I’m sure he will be able to help you, but I suspect you’ll probably need new parts after 4 years of not greasing.”
(I am now about to leave Lisbon to the North, and I’m taking the Plus 4 with me for a 300 kms night journey, so I guess I’ll be checking the steering and front suspension behavior, trying to detect any and all “looseness” that it might suffer.
But this is strange, I consider myself quite sensitive to everything that’s happening with the car while I’m driving it)
Anyway, embarrassing intermission over!
So we parted, with a few more “Thank Yous” and a promise of returning, possibly with a certain 2010 green Plus 4 in need of a ECU remap!
After we left Williams Morgans the Mrs. suggested we visit Bath on our way to Portsmouth, so we went there, had dinner (and the mrs. took a few more pictures of flowers and churches) and only at night arrived to Portsmouth and our Hotel.
Here a few of Bath’s flowers and churches:
A beautiful city!
Day 7 - Wednesday, August 20th - Catching the Ferry to Spain. "Oh no, 24 hours without driving the 3 wheeler, better get drunk and post something in Talk Morgan!"
And our journey home would now make us travel through water, for a full period of 24 hours. I think my wife was by now pretty much welcoming the prospect of having one relaxed day, without covering a few more hundred “M3W miles”, and she surely got it.
As for me, I was feeling a bit like an animal in a cage. Now that I had the car sorted (and serviced), I was going to spend one full day doing … nothing. That was the day I wrote the post above, with a title fore every journey-day that I kept in this recap.
And that’s when my wife took a picture of me. If I wasn’t posting in TM at that moment, I surely was lurking here
And so, without nothing to do, I kept thinking on how would the “Spanish Test” go, after we got to Bilbao the next day. 800 kms to add to the about 200 I had made since the exhaust swap. That should tell me if these Mk2 are up to the job or not.
But as it were, all I could do is to doze off watching the setting sun over the Atlantic
Days 8 and 9 – Thursday and Friday, August 20th and 21st – Across Spain … Back into Portugal!
I’m glad to report, even if that may sound underwhelming for those that read so far anticipating a disaster … that the car behaved flawlessly all the way from Bilbao to my little home in the Portuguese country. And, at least regarding the exhausts, I didn’t (and don’t) notice any sign of failure, impending or effective.
We divided the Spanish trip in two parts, with the “middle” or resting place being Salamanca.
This very old city has a beautiful historical center, with some pretty impressive buildings.
Salamanca, for those that might not know, is home of one of the oldest European Universities, and it fully deserves a leisurely made visit. The scale and the detail of the stone work you can find of some of those buildings is mindblowing.
I won’t bother you all with more pictures (and the few I have wouldn’t do justice to the majestic nature of Salamanca’s center), so I’ll leave just this one as “appetizer”
Back to the car, and even if overall it all went well, I will however mention two things that are worthy of thought, be it for present owners, for future owners and for the factory.
One regards the digital fuel indicator. I had a really big scare of stopping in the middle of the Portuguese mountainous northern region, at night. (Portugal is a safe country, no worries there, and I had my cell phone to call for help, but in the particular area I’m mentioning you cannot be sure wolves won’t show up to check if there’s any food to eat).
That thing can go from 14% to 0% (yes, ZERO) in a couple of meters. Only to get back to 7%, or 11% or whatever. In climbs the fuel drops, descending the fuel rises. It’s totally useless.
So, confronted with a fuel indicator at 20% when I passed a service station (next up in 20 kms) I continued. A few corners (in a Motorway) later the indicator dropped to 11%, then to 7%, then to 4%, then to 0%.
I took the first exist available (about 10 kms on, with the fuel always saying 0%) and entered a little village, hoping some fuel station would be open at that late hour. And it was.
Nothing like a little excitement before the journey’s end. For us and for the villagers I think, the M3W is not a car to go by a little town at night without being noticed!
But really, the factory should try to improve this, and make the fuel indicator useful.
The second one is a more serious matter. It regards the compatibility of the so highly rated Suplex suspension with this car.
I’m still holding judgement, because I don’t know if there are adjustments I may do to the car (ride height? placement of the exhaust headers?) , but “as is”, the Suplex shocks don’t fit the M3W.
If the road is very smooth there’s no problem. If it isn’t I only need to press the clutch and have the engine in idle to be able to hear the “tink, tink, tink” of the exhausts rubbing or hitting the springs.
I wonder if a major bump (or hole in the road), hit under the wrong circumstances, won’t cause an immediate and fatal collapse of the exhaust headers.
And that, of course, cannot be. I wonder what kind of engineers approved the use of these shocks into this car, I wonder what kind of testers missed the simple fact that they hit the exhausts, I wonder many things that I simply cannot understand.
But I know this (as does Jay, because it was an logistical effort to do this and he was there). I specifically asked to bring with me the stock suspension of the car (paid for it anyway, why not?) and if I come to the conclusion that the Suplex shocks are just “too fat” to fit the car, then I’ll take them off and hand them back to Morgan.
To be honest, I think any prospective buyer of a M3W should stay away from this option, and indeed Morgan should stop selling it.
Here a couple of pictures that help understanding this “clearance” issue.
Back to my journey ...
All is well when all ends well. And we had a fantastic experience of what comes with Morgan ownership, with people both from Ireland and from England doing much, much more than was to be expected and doing it all just for our good journey. Thank you all. Really!
And sorry for the repost, but I can’t finish this without reposting the video that depicts the moment of our arrival, shortly after our last fuel-scare up in the mountains. Even if the dark doesn’t allow much to be seen, and the athmosphere is somewhat strange with the frantic voices of all adults in place (I had warned them, because of the little kids I knew would be there) shouting “don’t touch the car, don’t touch the car!”
) and we only noticed some little drops of rain for a very short period during this “morning on the road”.
