We want to thank again everyone for their feedback and very helpful advice on the Plus 8.
The trip to the dealer was eventful and at 6.30am with hood down encountering six inches depth and half a mile of slurry left by the local farmer's herd the night before certainly made for an interesting start. By the time I crossed the Severn via the old bridge it was also raining very hard but I was more preoccupied with the smell of baking cow dung on the exhaust and reflecting on my son's comment the day before that cleaning Cuthbert for three hours would bring certain rain irrespective of a clear weather forecast. Stopping two hours later on reaching the A3 Mrs Shakey jumped out of the support car to deliver a good telling off for driving fast to keep under the rain but suddenly stopped, " What on earth have you done to your face, it's all brown, and is that terrible smell coming from you?"
The dealership is in a very posh spot and has lots of cars and offered coffee and expensive cakes so Mrs Shakey was in her element. They now have three Plus 8's, the cream and blue models with auto, and a dark green almost new one with manual and Speedster wheels.
Inspecting the blue Plus 8 prior to the test drive she looked fatter than Cuthbert and with modern dials and air conditioning and four exhausts, but still definitely a Morgan with many of the things non Morgan owners just don't get.
Sitting in the car with Mrs Shakey relaxing in the red leather beside me my finger found that " start" button and from then on all rational thought disappeared. "Goodness" exclaimed Mrs Shakey but by then I was apparently grinning like a mad man exiting the car park like the start of the Le Man. How or who or what on earth had made this magnificent thing and yes I was James Hunt and I was at the helm of a machine that with the slightest movement of my right foot propelled us forward with such drama and noise never before encountered or imagined. Mrs Shakey also enjoyed her drive discovering if 4500 revs in auto and sport meant the same thing and she especially liked the auto because it freed up her hand to wave at the young chaps in their exotic cars coming the other way.
The Plus 8 is truly wonderful and in the sleepless nights following the drive all I think about is those ten minutes of pure raw exhilarating drama.
And no, I haven't bought one because although the part exchange was a good deal I just completely failed at any further negotiation on price especially because the dealer is confident that the asking price is spot on reflecting the current market.
We have withdrawn to muse, and sulk and plan but also to hope that other Plus 8's might appear for sale more suited to our budget. If they do, however, I guess there might well be a bit of a scrum to get there first.
