When I first collected mine I was a little concerned about this also. My personal moment was the long gap between 1st and 2nd. If I pulled away in 1st and then went up the revs it was very slow to loose revs and align naturally for the change to second. I had to do a "slow" change to let them drop back.

My answer was to convert my car to a 5 speed gearbox by ignoring 1st on all but steep hills. Given how high 6th is and low our speed limits are I think I might have a four speed....

The noise is the same, when it is cold there is a lot more noise and whine which reduces once warmer but this is a raw car. Nothing has fallen off yet and it still makes the same noises despite MOT and service so I figure its the way it is meant to be.

I did notice the S1 gearboxes are quite a bit louder than the later S2 I have when I was test driving. I don't know if this is common but the three I drove were all like this.

Everyone loves a Morgan. Even me, unless it's broken again.