The original design by Pete Larson included the HD screaming eagle engine, but shortly after purchasing the rights to the M3W from Mr Larson, MMC changed the engine from a HD motor to an S&S motor. The problem was that the media kept calling it a HD motor long after it had already gone to be an S&S motor. Chances are, you may still find articles being published which will reference it as a HD motor.
Go read back and find some of the initial photos of the M3W prototypes and they all had S&S motors strapped to them. The change was extremely early and far before even prepreduction. This has been known since the Geneva launch of the M3W back in march of 2011.
Also, I dont think they are having to backtrack. To me, the Morgan company could have used a HD motor and it would have worked fine, but they took a better motor and dropped it into the Morgan. Why exactly is upgrading the motor a problem? Is any potential buyer going to be dissuaded because they changed the motor that early on in the design? Most people purchasing a M3W may not even know that the design even started with Pete Larson.
Most of the problem really stems back to the fact that Morgan keeps a very open door policy and has allowed consumers to see far more of the production stage than almost any other automotive manufacturer on the planet. A lot of people cried when the preproduction M3W had belt issues and how they wouldn't buy one due to the problem. However, Morgan has since fixed the belt issue (to the best of my knowledge).
just my 2 cents
