Regarding ABS my thoughts are having no ABS on a racetrack in the dry is much preferred, most systems will have a tolerance margin built in and will intervene to early and cost valuable time to a professional racing driver as well as pedal judder being very annoying. However this is at the pinnacle of motorsport and thus negates much of the real world viability, on a race track the speed is built up and drivers will hit their braking points lap after lap after lap. In the real world ABS will pull up faster than any non-ABS car on the road in any conditions I believe 99% of the time, providing of course that the cars being compared are identical, have the same tyres, and the ABS system is modern and a good one (i.e. not one of the obstrusive ones you sometimes come across that activates far to early).
Let me explain why - in my experience as soon as you need the brakes on the road (lets assume dry and straight braking) you can hit them at 100% immediatly and use all of their power, with non-ABS you have to build the pressure to the point of maximum adhesion, and for most of us this will add a portion of time that the brakes are not being utilised 100% (this is why EBD exists alongside most modern ABS systems as most people do not hit the pedal hard enough to use the brakes fully). This delay will add significant stopping distance to any test with a non-ABS car.
The caveat to this is of course a professional driver who can apply non-ABS brakes to their maximum ability in a split second on a track as mentioned earlier, but even a professional will struggle to do this outside of a track environment, where the surface varies, is not constant and not-repeatable (as in lap by lap building speed and confidence). Thusly in the real world ABS will stop you faster, in pretty much any situation.
Over to the Plus 6 and I believe it is a good thing for Morgan, "change or die" is a famour phrase uttered more than once before and it is very true, me personally I don't have any interest in one from an ownership perspective - but plenty of people do and that is a fantastic thing, as it means Morgan can continue building other cars I do want such as the 3 Wheeler. With regards to the Trads legislation might well put them to bed one day, but as long as they are profitable and legal I am sure Morgan will continue to make them to cater for a wider audience. Either way I think the new chassis down the line will give rise to a smaller engined, cheaper manual version - and that will be fantastic.
