Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Ideal sports car

If I may quote from Jeremy Clarkson in today's Sunday Times.

"I am consumed by an overwhelming need to drive about in a sports car. But there's a problem with that. You can't actually buy such a thing these days.

The Mazda MX5 comes close, but over the years it has swollen and been given a bigger engine and a retractable metal roof, so that while it's delightful, it's a bit too fast, and a bit too sensible, and a bit too grippy in corners.

The Caterham Seven isn't bad either, but these days it's aimed at the adenoidal track day enthusiast rather than the chap who simply wants to slither about Oxfordshire in the sunshine. And it's extremely ugly.

The new Jaguar F type is not ugly, but it's too expensive and too powerful. Which brings me on to the BMW Z4, a machine that is neither of those things. But it is too smooth and too polished. It is lovely behold and lovely to own, but it is not a sports car.

An Alfa Romeo spider. That was a sports car, so was a Fiat 124 Spider, and the MG. The Triumph TR6 was a sports car too, as was the Sunbeam Alpine. These cars were built for fun. Ha-ha, ha-ha. You could keep them by the racehorse the Aga Khan bought you for Xmas. Even by the standards of the day they were not especially fast, but they were pretty and they all came with simple canvas roofs. They were like tenting, but without dysentery. And I miss them all.

I miss the days when handling mattered and grip didn't. Today cars are designed to go round corners as quickly as possible . Which means you can't indulge in a four wheel drift, at 20mph. And they have to be safe, which means they have to be heavy. And the one thing which a sports car cannot be is heavy.

Sports cars are for long, warm summer afternoons. And on a long, warm summer afternoon, you want a light salad, not a dirty great meat pie."

Mmm. Indeed. Now I know that the Clarkson is officially a Morgan hater, but can any of you think of a model which ticks all of the boxes he claims are the definition of "a sports car" ?

I most certainly can. And I most vigorously challenge his assertion that such a thing no longer exists.....

Should send him an email

He is almost surreptitiously driving a Mog frequently to get that sort of fun, his job, which is about driving so called super cars deprives him to do so. He gets the point in his article when he states that we don't want always want to go faster, higher etc without any feel, but we want to have some fun which is - to quote him - more about balance and behave than about grip and numbers.

Sadly Morgans are not on his Radar.

Actually, I quite like the fact that he is not keen on Morgans.

Bud

+1

Why should we be influenced at all by a media buffoon who loves doing silly things with motor cars. Like all of us he occasionally has a point but I would rather talk Morganese to Coco the Clown than likeable Jeremy.

Very well put Sir,

The Morgan is a true sports car but not the sort of machine a media buffoon like Clarkson could possibly understand.

His world is an open toyshop full of almost every exotic motor car made. He is paid to be silly - not serious - He should not be read seriously even in a broadsheet Sunday paper.

Well said - it ceased to be an informative Motoring programme about 5 years ago for me, about the same time as it became a lack lustre comedy programme ;-).

Yours
Grumpy old man.

Keep quiet folks - an idiot like Clarkson in a Mog?!! - the day he gets one I shall probably either have to sell mine or slit my wrists - probably the latter as it would be less painful.