Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Driving a Plus 4 GDI

The factory demonstrator with 9,500 miles on the clock was a great drive, far more responsive than the one with a handful of miles under its belt. Like the other, third and fourth were where it excelled but 2nd didn't disappoint either. Looks like an order will be going in.

I quite like the thought of the 16" wheels with what I assume would be a slightly wider Roadster style body. It would be good if anyone who has had the experience of this could give an idea of the difference in handling/drive between the 6" x 15" and 7" x 16" as an extra £1,100 is a lot to pay on a "punt".

Cheers

I have a roadster with 16" x 7" MWS wheels.
I've driven a narrow body 4/4.
The difference?

The 4/4 leans towards Caterham, the Roadster more towards a comfortable tourer. But the difference isn't massive.

Thanks for your reply. I drove a Roadster 3.0 which was very impressive but not as much fun as the 4/4. The new plus 4 was nearer to the 4/4 than the Roadster but I am concerned that the 16" wheels will would detract from that and turn it into your comfortable tourer (we all want different things from our cars). There was a stunning RR Garnet plus 4 at the factory yesterday with the wider wheels and it really did make it something special.

I know that I may be being a tad pedantic but I want to get it right first time.

Hmm, I'm interested in the 15" alloys!
Does anyone know if the GDI +4 has the same Mazda gearbox as the recent Duratec +4?

The same gearbox. I approve of the alloys! I'm not a great fan of the widest wires on the lower powered cars, I think it detracts from the handling....and they are very heavy.

Scratched my plus 4 in RR Garnet Red was at the factory on Sunday parked in the first row on the grass she has 185X15X70 Avon CRZZ6 tyres. I don't know if that was the one you saw but it is a comfortable but firm ride and corners like a GoCart. She has now got 10,000 Miles on her and has just loosened up so I think the GDI with the 9,500 miles is probably more representative.

There were two similar cars, both standing out from the crowd (in my humble opinion), one was presumably yours, with the hood up at the time, but the one I was referring to was almost diagonally behind yours with the hood down and had the wide wheels/body. That garnet is a very Regal colour!

Yes mine had the hood up as it was raining when I arrived, mine had the narrow body and taller narrow wheels. Damn I missed the other one

Be careful about the tyre sizes you order if ground clearance may be a problem- The standard tyres fitted to the Plus 4 have the lowest radius of the whole series of trads and make the car 16 mm lower than the 4/4. Doesn't seem like much but it may have you grounding out on speed humps. See the attached table where I proposed to fit different tyres to the Plus 4.

For what it's worth, we are finding the narrow bodied Plus 4 (aka Mr Bumble) to be the ideal touring car. Lighter on its feet than our Roadster, and with 40mpg. Quite honestly I don't miss the extra power on the road - it's only in about 5% of overtaking that the Roadster would be better, and as I've noted before, on the Motorway the experience is exactly the same. The 2L Duratec has plenty of mid range grunt and the torque is perfectly adequate. That's why a Supersport is 'tempting' - the nimble handling and 200bhp would be a great combination, and in the end that's probably the only combination which would tempt me - but not at present. And it would have to have a spare wheel and over-riders, and easy up hood.