Mkiss, I am pleased that you found something you could relate to in the ramble through my mindset.. (-: As I have often typed (too often perhaps) When I purchased my Morgan it was as a substitute for a big old LM Bentley, having decided I was desirous of something close to a large engined vintage driving experience and within my budget.
For sure any owner of a vintage car could point out that my 86 +8 Morgan is so much more advanced that a real vintage machine, listing hydraulic and disc brakes, synchromesh gears, alternator fed electrics, Halogen lighting, flashing direction indicators radial tyres, and hydraulic shock absorbers, not only that but they are tubular and not lever arm... and even a RADIO... whatever next.....!!!! (-:
Yeah well, so my Morgan is but a pastiche in terms of it`s initial vintage appearance, but then I do have to crawl about greasing the dirty bits, which caused wonder and amazement to an American who saw me performing that necessary duty in the car park of an Agritourismo establishment near Cortona early one morning many years back... (-:
In regard to all the above, as a wiser man than I once said "Everything is relative " and on that basis relative to my introduction and experience of things automotive, my Morgan has provided as much of a vintage driving experience as I have desired, and I felt no need to modernise it any further to match the ever evolving comforts or performance of mundanemobiles to the extent that so many of us seem to require or desire. I did all that kind of stuff in my younger years, when dragging old machinery back to life to make it go faster... Brakes, Suspension..? Nah spent all the available and limited cash spent on making it go faster, and of course the result was ..err..interesting. Don`t ask me how we survived creating such imbalanced machines in terms of sensible automotive engineering....!!!
Some years later when I first discovered the interweb and Morgan discussion groups it was interesting to discover a "mature" group of folk who had in later life, perhaps as the result of having more free time, had set out to find a project of some kind, and nothing too complex bodily or mechanically on which to exercise and perhaps extend their automotive skills, real or imagined.. (-: On that basis it seems many a Baby Boomer may have been attracted into Morgan ownership... I am one such.. though in my case I also wanted a non digital dependant machine that I could have some confidence in my own ability to maintain and repair when necessary. I was not looking for more power or better brakes softer suspension, or air conditioning though in my 20 years of ownership the older man I have become can appreciate such..err..refinements. BUT, on a good weather day and when my bones are not so stiff and my stents are not feeling strained.... JEEZ, is it great to skip hop bounce and countersteer the old thing round a few back road bends...(-:
After any outing in the Morgan and when later driving the family barge, I still find myself returning to the habit, learned as a young m/cyclist and carried on into Morganeering, of watching the road surface carefully for uneven repairs or a change in surface material, bumps, holes, and the likes, avoiding them when possible...Yeah in a modern 4x4, it seems such is the possible isolation from all around that there is no need of such ancient "roadcraft," or awareness....Where is the FUN or sense of adventure or test of skills in that which modern vehicles provide, unless when burning rubber, or at ballistic speeds, or both....HMM..?
