It seems all to easy for us to decide upon a marque and adopt somewhat fundamentalist views thereon, where our adopted faith causes us to acquire a blinkered attitude to that marques failings, or if you prefer, foibles..?

In terms of the original question if not a Morgan what...That has been a bit of a dilemma I have been struggling with for a while, just as it took me quite a while to answer a similar question circa twenty five years ago as a 911 enthusiast, "If not a Porsche then what."

It seemed that as I aged and began to ever more appreciate machines that had likewise survived the ageing process, t`was a pre-war LM Bentley that captured my imagination, though any vintage sports cars that were reliable ish, and could cope well in modern-day traffic situations were somewhat beyond my self imposed spending limitations, even after applying a bit of man maths... It did not take long before a Morgan came to the fore as I racked my brain searching for an ideal substitute for a true vintage sports car.

Now some twenty years into Morgan ownership the ageing process has determined that a tin top might just be a better option to allow continuance of a bit of fun motoring, and as a long time Porsche fan of the hands-on type, and with Luddite tendencies an air cooled 911 seemed an ideal target. However I know well the effect of the ageing proceses on machinery and as no stranger to keeping an old Porsche together bodily and mechanically, and the current market evaluation of air cooled, just does not fit well with my own cost benefit analysis, and more importantly does not ideally fit into my current lifestyle... Though in terms of performance physical dimensions and the need for driver concentration/input perhaps the last of the air cooled Porsches with it`s extra comfort and ease of driving given it`s power steering, multi link suspension, anti-lock brakes, might better suit these days, than earlier air cooled of the 60`s, 70`s and 80`s that I had been fortunate enough to own....Hmm..?

Yeah the cat is out of the bag, I have splashed out on a C4S a Porsche of the modern variety, whether I will manage to squeeze it down my local "B" roads in the occasional mist of early mornings, and enjoy it as I have done with my earlier Porsches, and my Morgan in more recent times, seems doubtful at least to some degree, but I will give it my best shot. Also it has another ...err...drawback, it has an auto box, even if it has high speed manually instructed gear change options with auto rev matching via flappy paddles. I make the excuse to myself that my good lady has become all to used to auto boxes to justify not buying a manual..!

For sure, I could have bought one of the the last of the 993 Porsches for similar money to the C4S and hoped it might be as good as it looked, sounded and drove, but it is an old machine and yet far more complex/expensive to repair than the comparative simplicity of the Porsches I had previously owned and run..? Another important aspect in my evaluation was that in general, machines do not benefit from long periods of time standing still, and I suspect complex machines that the 911 derivatives in the shape of the 964 and 993 had become, even less so when suddenly awakened and perhaps taken out for a Sunday Morning blast..? Yeah sports cars can suffer less than ideal treatment, and old sports cars perhaps more so...? Thus a water cooled Porsche became the choice though how that decision will stand the test of time with Greece on fire, Venice in flood and the media full of Climate change warnings... expenditure on another ICE seems unlikely to be the wisest investment I have ever made.... ?