Thanks for posting the link Richard, I am not on fleecebook..
A bit of a RANT loosely related
I knew someone who bought a new Lada a few years back and specified all the extras, part of which was a set of mudflaps..... All went well until he had a couple of backseat passengers, and on hearing a noise coming from the rear of the car he took it straight back to the dealership, who diagnosed the issue as being the mud flaps dragging on the road surface. Fixed while he waited... they just roughly, and I mean ROUGHLY cut a couple of inches off the bottom of the mudflaps... Apparently the owner was upset that they had hacked off the LADA designation highlighted along the bottom edge of the flaps and which he had paid extra for...
Yeah for sure it can be interesting to look back and remember the way things were done in the past, I bet Colin, AKA spanner juggler could tell a story or two of the practices at BL, more than a few which I came across myself over the years..(-:
I had spent a decade or more messing with my old Porsches, attracted to them not by their preponderance to rot as badly as any of BL`s finest up to circa 1977/8, but by the drive to improve, allied to their ever improving quality of their engineering. By the time Porsche had produced my last air cooled Porsche in the form of an 82 911 SC, I wondered how anyone could improve on that, but Porsche did and continued to do so for quite a few years more.. before VAG took control.
By the time I thought a Morgan might be just the ticket and having been one of the first few to beam up the then new web site at the beginnings of the MSCC DG, to ask "Which Morgan," followed by circa five years of learning from the many kind Morganeers who put up with my stupid questions, I think I was well enough informed as to the realities of the likely average output of the MMC in terms of quality control, but then I was desirous of a hand built car using traditional materials and skills... up to a point, and having a smattering of knowledge of matters electromechanical and the rate of change as ever more electronics were forced upon the MMC by way of legislation and general evolutionary processes causing occasional issues... It was enough to try to resolve simple wiring issues due to corrosion etc. etc.etc on simple wiring systems but multi plugs and sensors increasing connections and variations of intermittent faults... I could well do without that.
Having searched and failed to find a +8 project, the timing being entirely wrong. I was more than fortunate that Lorne the GoMoG webmaster and without being asked, found me a Morgan that Lorne determined I must buy. I had been prepared to buy an EFI +8 but Lorne had found a carb fed one, all be it with an electronic choke system which has served us wonderfully well and for over 20 years, all be it the whole car having been nut and bolt rebuilt by a professional and Morgan enthusiast, which encouraged me to take on trips abroad in time proving that a well sorted Trad Morgan can be a very reliable machine providing a degree of vintage style motoring without all the fuss and expense of a real vintage machine with 100MPH + performance, all be it that one has to get down and dirty to grease the front suspension every once in a while..(-:
I guess Peters issues with brake light indications and modules kinda underlines for me that keeping it simple was indeed the best route for me to find the ideal era of Morgan to own.. Being around in engineering when replacing components in circuit boards was becoming old hat and replacing complete boards became the standard "repair" process, and which evolved into manufacturers sealing of circuits in resin in order that any tec could not repair the circuit, and the boards in time evolved to become completely sealed modules ever increasing in dimensions and functionality, and when info requested as to the makeup of modules, the manufacturers standard avoidance was that of "intellectual copyright" and which was all too easily accepted by purchasing departments... All of which in many cases lead to ever less understanding of the full modus operandi of all sorts of kit, and replacement parts becoming ever larger and more expensive, while tecs who may think they are high tec when plugging up programmers to motor vehicles performance and to read off fault codes, may have little to no idea of any other way to effect a repair if no fault code is generated, other than them swapping parts till it appears to work again.... for it to fail once more, a day, weak or month later with the same issue...Sigh.
On the other hand as the owner of a modern sports car with all sorts of digital technology making instant decisions keeping me safe (ish) as I might be in the process of enjoying a bit of interesting road, for sure engineering of all types has advanced in ways I and many of my age could never have imagined.. My modern sports car is currently at the dealership for a scheduled MOT, brake fluid change, and to have a new battery fitted and coded in, who knows what the bill for that might be ..? Yeah changed days for me given I did all my own work for many a decade but then there is no stopping engineering evolution or the effects of the ageing process, just that some manufacturers may provide a bit more confidence in their manufacturing processes and quality control than others, no names no pack drill...?
