GREAT cars....
Honest opinion...
Except for one thing... major IMHO if you like 'driving' properly hard to use the Roadster as a 'drivers car'...
The 'Rev Hang' is horrendous!... so, accelerate WOT in any gear up to the red line, drop the clutch to change gear... and the RPM's 'hang' really high. So when you let the clutch out in the new gear, the revs are way too high to match the new 'gear ratio'... so there is a huge 'lurch'... not good for any element of the drivetrain, clutch, UJ's, passengers! It put me off ever buying a 3.7L Roadster. The 'previous' Ford motor did not have these issues, which I believe are simply related to transplanting the current Ford 'Mustang' AUTOMATIC motor/ECU combination into the manual transmission Morgan.
However... if you just want to 'cruise'... then you can wait a few seconds for the 'hang' to go away and gear changes are sweet.
The rev-hang issue with the 3.7 Cyclone engine as fitted in later Roadsters has previously been aired several times on TM.
Having owned a beautiful 3.7 Roadster for about a year, my personal experiences on the behaviour of the car are as follows:
1. Impossible to change quickly into 2nd gear from high revs in 1st gear. Solution is to either pull away from rest in 2nd gear or short shift into 2nd at low revs in 1st.
2. When changing up at above 3500 rpm ie 2nd to 3rd or 3rd to 4th there is a violent twitch at the rear wheels as the next gear tries to accelerate the car as the engine revs remain high. Solution is to short shift and not use the available power above 3500 rpm or wait for revs to subside before engaging the next gear.
3. If the rear wheels lose adhesion due to a very slippery road surface while on the accelerator, the engine revs will instantly rise due to reduced rolling resistance. If the 3500 rpm tipping point is exceeded, the engine revs will remain high for about 2 seconds or more – even though the accelerator pedal has been immediately released. Effectively the ECU takes control from the driver as it thinks the driver has declutched for changing gear. If, before the clutch can be activated, a rear wheel then finds grip and bites onto a less slippery portion of road the car will be catapulted sideways. Even on a straight and level road at 40-45 mph in 3rd gear. No ifs and no buts to coin a current catchphrase.
Not wishing to bore TM with my driving credentials on both 2 and 4 wheels on public highway and race track, I shall just confirm that I am not a novice driver.
Needless to say, the 3.7 Roadster with ECU issues is not my favourite car.
My regret is not being aware of this issue prior to buying the car. I consider myself extremely lucky to have walked away from an incident where item 3 above actually happened.
