I remember when I bought my first Morgan, the 44 Sport. The literature remained blank or "to be confirmed" when it came to performance figures. I don't think they ever got round to declaring a figure, never mind detailed performance. I firmly believe the figures that have appeared over the years are questionable, my roadster was described as 4.9s to 60. More closer to 6 I would think. 5th Gear did a comparison with performance v the manufacturers literature and big margins were apparent. So the interesting answer is "would you believe it if it was in print"
This is a good point. Manufacturers' test cars are still, shall we say, well prepared...
However, I do not believe that the exaggerated preparation methods of the past, such as Jaguar's first 3.8-type which could do a genuine 150mph (unlike the cars that the public bought) or Lotus's practice of installing blueprinted engines in press cars, etc, etc, are as widespread these days. For one thing, manufacturing tolerances are much tighter now than they were only a couple of decades ago.
Anyway, if a reputable magazine produced a full set of figures, at least that would give an idea.
