Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) A SMASHing time

That's the story thanks! Some of my detail was not right after a lot of years!

On the subject of food in cars ! A mate in Northumberland had a 1982 +8 strapped two steaks to the manifold while waiting for his son to do a mountain bike do . Mike said they tasted nice but his son was to fussy so Mike ate them both .

What would younger people do with manual chokes? Surely we have all used the two clothes pegs reducing to one as the engine heated up. No manual chokes were nog for hanging handbags on!

I seem to remember that some years ago at a local to me airfield, a young lady passenger sitting in the right hand seat of a light aircraft full of fuel 4 up on a hot summers day caused the aircraft to crash shortly after take of by pulling out the carb heat to hang her handbag on. Didn't quite make it over the trees. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt.

I once had a rather tatty Morris J van that I used as support vehicle for our motorcycle club. The engine was under a cover between the driver and the passenger seats. On the way from Sydney to the Bathurst races I had a fuel problem and it kept cutting out on the hills due to fuel starvation. Did half the trip with one of the girls holding a 4 gallon drum of petrol sitting on top of the engine cover and a plastic tube siphoning fuel to the carburettor.

Once at Bathurst I re-fitted the tube from the tank to the fuel pump. Before the race weekend the Mount Panorama track was open at times as a one way road for traffic to access the camping areas at the top of the "mountain". To be sure of getting up I decided to go in reverse, from memory a distance of about 1 km.

I still remember the look on the face of the cop, who was stationed on the inside of the hairpin bend, as he turned his whole body to watch me go past.

The problem turned out to be an exhaust leak and the hot gas was causing vaporisation in the fuel line. Once fixed the trip home was uneventful, but for some reason two of the three girls I had taken up decided to return on the back of motorbikes

Someone I once knew in Shropshire used to reverse up the Long Mynd in her Morris Minor when carrying her eggs to market as the car just couldn't make it up the hill otherwise.

Still got a choke on mine , the kids today think a choke is the effect of drinking a can of coke to quickly behind the wheel.I get plenty of lip off Jnr taunts the hell out of me till she has no idea whats wrong . Then I hear the words DAD in a soft tone and know she is stuck AGAIN.

On several occasions used the Florida to Washington DC Autotrain with the Morgans. (Saves the back side from a very long drive.)

The cars get driven onto the train, and then driven off again, by the train operator's drivers. On one occasion, they couldn't start my friend's 1970 Plus 8, and ran the battery down trying. Had to push the car off the train. Well, they didn't know about the choke. Next time we had a big sign attached to the steering wheel. No problems after that.

Cheers,