Reading the linked articles in detail, owners of pre-93 cars should check their car for remedial work and hopefully already have, but the comments on pist-93 cars are not a clean bill of health either.
Observant, Esprit. That is because the trad design (and other models) offers the petrol tank like a supplicant's gift to the Fire Gods, cantilevered as it is past the axle and with the bumpers and deck guiding a rear impact INTO the tank and therefore the axle and its brake actuator..As well, a side rear impact near the wheels, pushes the axle into the tank with the same sad result. That being said, with all such the accidents I have seen, the hoses detach and the tank is dented,
but not pierced by the offending pre-1993 bracketry.. When the MMC rebuilt my Morgan, they used post 1993-June and I have been content with that...(DO NOT TRUST ME HERE AS I LOVE TRAD MORGANS MAKING ME BIASED)
I got rid of my tank piercing bracket when I converted to rear discs and a direct acting cable handbrake. 1985 +8inj. David Byrne
I am not a fan of rear discs, but you solved a problem! The only thing necessary to avoid the problem is to spread the impact force. I have observed, in all such accidents, that the tank is dented but not pierced by the rear of the differential
which often extends further rearward than the hand brake actuator. A thin circular plate or a L-shaped rectangular one attached to the wooden floor and covering the bracket impact patch on the tank with its vertical section, will do the trick. Of course your filler hoses will detach, but that is not deadly. Should take a rank amateur a few minutes either way.
BTW, my first Plus 8 (cremated) and reborn courtesy of the old MMC, was made at the end of 1984..a L-Jetronic EFI. Whats' your VIN, B3Mog? It is amazing what one can do with that simple EFI system in an amateur's garage. I am using a tweaked LR 4.8 with that system (also tweaked).,
Curiously, Beck thought the safest place for the tank was AHEAD of the axle. I agree. It would increase capacity and create a rear area for luggage and other storage. The tank would then have the entire drivetrain, axle, telescopic prop shaft, transmission and the motor, all on rubber, to absorb a rear impact and transfer it and through the occupant cabin rather than have it slam into the tank. With the wood, that would make one hell of a safe car. Interesting to muse on.
GMG
