As ever, just thinking in type to pass the time.. (-:
When I was sharing thoughts in the topic relating to the Morgan marketplace at the time I stumbled into the area of "restomods" as a seemingly natural evolutionary process for petrol head baby boomers, and suggested that Morgan had inadvertently or otherwise been ahead of the game in that respect..? It was not till a while later that it came to me that perhaps Rob Wells was WELL ahead of the game with his creation of a Morgan lookalike with performance upgrades in power, chassis, driveline, suspension and brakes...I think there was perhaps some discussion or involvement with the MMC in Robs creation of his machine registered for the road as ROB 80 R There was an article in Miscellany a few years back detailing the spec of Rob`s machine.
Around the time of the Miscellany article on Robs creation, I remember discussing on eMog as to quite how such a machine might be categorised, I was of the mindset that it might be thought of as a "special," which perhaps reflects back to 1950`s terminology that I grew up adopting and that which might have been the description applied to many machines that were not products of main line manufacturers back then..?
As ever evolution in much plays a part in terms of influencing public opinion in so many ways, and I suspect petrol heads and investors alike have come to adopt the term "restomod," as the descriptor for vehicles that look to be of "original" design and have been modified, not so much in sheds as in times past, but by companies which seem to have grown considerably to match the market for their bespoke and somewhat expensive machinery...?
Expensive restomods...Hmm..? Yeah new Morgans seem expensive compared to the circa £20k I paid for my restomod +8 back in 2002.... My +8 a restomod..? Well perhaps just partly so as it had been a low mileage "barn find" (circa 8K miles) and subjected to a nut and bolt strip down and rebuild by a garage business owning Morgan enthusiast who set about recreating his ideal +8 to be free of all the usual foibles expected to be found in a mid 80`s Morgan... In time Kevin created that which at circa 35k miles today, has proven it`s self in terms of it`s abilities over the years to be more reliable as transport of foreign forays than I ever expected, and again today, it fires up at first time of asking, ready to go anywhere, what`s more to want....? Good old Morgan. (-:
As for it`s value today, I suspect it would be only that which someone might be prepared to pay for it, and that will be no more than whatever the average +8 of that era might be worth in the marketplace at any one time, despite what must have been hundreds of man (and woman) hours put into my Mog`s strip down and rebuild, or the extra cost of all the stainless kit and fixings and replaced parts utilised in the process, which I find somewhat interesting.
As for the Trad`s evolution, I guess had the MMC halted Trad production around the time the Aero 8 arrived on scene, and someone like Kevin taken the trad design and expanded it in the way that the MMC had done and much more, perhaps along the lines of Singer, RUF, Rennsport and others have done with the 911... I guess my old +8 might be in a whole different league of market appreciation as one of the early Kevin`s... (-:
Whadayafink...? (-:
