So the Aero did represent the first move that could be seen as Premium pricing relative to the Trad.
The Plus 8s had always been seen 'til then as the MMC premium priced car with premium components and finishing.
As a matter of interest what was the cost of a +4 at that stage?
At that point in time, 2000 to 2004, there was no Plus 4 model. Its engine's production had ended. In anticipation of this, in the late 1990s, PM had directed the MMC development shed under Bill Beck, to work on a 6 cylinder Morgan using a US Ford (Lincoln) V6 3000. Nothing strange, they had developed the first Plus 8 using a Buick V8 (215) engine 30 years before the same way. But Bill decided to put it on a 4/4 chassis, (no reason not to) which was much lighter (almost 25%) than the chassis used on Plus 4 and Plus 8 chassis. I drove it. A rocket! Devastatingly quick and agile. Beck was very proud of it, totally justified. People have forgotten that the 4/4 used to be a VERY different car from the other two trad models. Yes it was less puissant but it was LIGHT. BTW, Bill Beck had been Service Manager (training the very good Mark Baldwin) and then took over from Maurice Owen as development chief when Maurice retired in 1991ish.
It was Chris Lawrence who designed the Aero. The BMW V8 was originally being fit into a trad chassis. Bill quit after an argument with Charles Morgan in 2002 later. By then, an exodus of many employees was happening, so his departure was not so remarkable. I met him when he was sent over to Quebec by the MMC on contract in early 2003 to help me finish up my cdn Morgan, a special project that had been graciously undertaken by the MMC in Malvern and that I still have to this day in garage in Canada. Bill was only at our home for a short time but I certainly learned a lot!
You see on the car's arrival in Canada, it was realized I needed someone intimately familiar with all Plus 8s from 1984 to 2002. There were only two people with that level of expertise, Mark and Bill. Both joined in, Mark remotely and Bill at our home.
Sadder still, when the Roadster drive train was outsourced by the MMC in 2003/4, the outsourcers were told by Management to use a Plus 8 chassis...leaving 200 kilos on the cars (25% of the total) Made dubious sense as the Plus 8s ended in 2004. However I see decisions in the world every day that are beyond my dubious intellect!!!
And the MMC simultaneously put the 4/4s on the same heavier chassis without changing bhp. However all trads became muchly alike and I gues that was a cost saving along with the same weight and handling, as you suggest. Only difference became bhp. I believe PMs plan was to have a 4 cylinder, a 6 cylinder and an 8 cylinder instead of what happened from 2000 to 2004, one four and two 8s. But as I wrote, the decision making at the MMC was changing.
The Llama is more for the expression than the animal. Some of my previous ones.
Love it!!
L.
