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I know what Ken Hill's, and every other Morgan history book quotes.
However, there is evidence that very few cars actually had the 4-4 designation, but it stuck - a bit like the wood chassis myth. It's one of those things lost in the mists of time.

Designations

First let's get the designation of these cars correct.

It has become almost an axiom in Morgan circles to regard the pre-war cars as 4-4's and the post-war cars as 4/4's. However, this is utterly incorrect, as the cars have always been 4/4's and never 4-4's.

On their introduction, in publicity and advertising material, they were described as 4-4's and also, before World War 11, as 4/4's, Four Fours, 4.4's and in various other ways. They continued to be referred to as both 4-4's and 4/4's after the War.

However, the Factory build register for these vehicles, essentially the car's pedigree, which lists the model, the body type, the chassis, engine and gearbox numbers, the colour etc, lists every car from the very first as a 4/4. Additionally, apart from the earliest cars, the Coventry Climax-engined models carried a vehicle Identification Plate on the vertical rear right of the engine block which prefixed the chassis number as "4/4". The owner Instruction Books which came with the cars specified 4/4 both before and after the War. And the most commonly used bell housing on these cars carried "4/4" cast into the right hand flange.

So despite what the books, so-called marque experts, myriad magazine articles, including the new Factory-sponsored "Mog" magazine, and latterly a host of websites, may claim, Morgan has never actually produced a 4-4 car. The cars have always been 4/4's. Got it?

Roadster history.

The two seater roadster was first announced late in 1935 with customer supplies starting in March 1936. The last car, also a roadster, was despatched from the factory on 13 March 1951. This car survives, in beautifully restored form. The cars became known as Series 1's retrospectively when the Series 11 4/4 was introduced in the mid 1950's. There were numerous detail changes in specification and design over the production life of these cars which are outside the scope of this Manual, although some are covered to some extent under other headings and references.