Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Change Belt to Chain Drive?

Is there any truth in the rumour that Morgan is engineering a 'Flintstone' drive system that does away completely with issues currently affecting engine, compensator, bevel box, and rear sprocket, by adding slightly bigger holes in the floor so that you can touch the ground and give the car reliable but shin-bashing propulsion as long as you have grippy shoes. A passenger is a big advantage as this actually increases the power:weight ratio which is almost unheard of in more traditional drive mechanisms (other than the tandem bike).

Stone tyres will be available to complete the package, and a firm recommendation that the car should only be operated down hills. Avoidance of exhaust pipe failures is a further benefit and unless the extra wide stone tyres are ordered the weight now falls below 450kg.

The DVLA is introducing a 'gravity license' to ensure that the savings in petrol duty are met for the greater good of society by another means.

I'm not convinced this is the right way to go...

Interesting opinions! Seems that I have to stick with the belt drive.

I arrived from motorbiking to the M3W.
My GoldWings had more torque, more bhp, a single sided swingarm with shaftdrive and I did not have to check anything between the service intervals of some 10 to 12000km than the wheels which were gone much earlier because of my driving style. I changed to the funny threewheeler because I wanted to get away from speeding with the 2-wheelers...
I was not aware that an established sports car producer would be unable to match nowadays technology level. Most car kit supplyers provide better standards - but the MTW looks best of all, thats for sure.

I do not need any ABS, EDS or all the other fency gimmicks, but a proper reliability was the least I expected from an over 40.000€ toy.
Lets hope aftremarket supplier find a reasonable adaption to improve the belt drive to avoid the squeeking sound.

My thoughts are that cardan (shaft ) drive is the way to go.
My basis various Hondas & a T140V followed by Moto Guzzi & BMW bikes.

Wow - I didn't know Pat was still working. I thought he'd retired after the Sinclair C5 debacle!

Great news he's at Morgan - and I'm sure he'll go with the oval wheels to get that lovely 'hair bounce' he's so proud of.

Gimme medal!!

Will it be a 'Limited Edition' model, I do hope so as its been weeks since the last one........

honest question because I dont know, but why go with a belt at all. Wouldnt it just be better to run a driveshaft? Sure it might have added a bit of weight, but were they even trying to keep the weight down in these monsters?

I suspect that in the beginning going down the "belt drive" route seemed to offer low development costs, low manufacturing cost and great relaibility.

With 20/20 hind sight perhaps they were a bit over optimistic.

Have a look at the Liberty Ace that preceded the M3W; it's passenger seat is only about wide enough for a malnourished child as the prop shaft angles over away from the driver so as to allow the final drive to clear the drive wheel. Using a short prop shaft then a bevel box plus chain or belt means that the prop shaft can be kept central through the (still narrow) cabin then the clearance for the wheel is provided by the well proven expedient of the bevel box. There is a slight problem with this statement of course!
As for chain or belt, a chain is tremendously light, narrow and efficient so is great where that really matters, say in a sports bike. The additional weight and width of the sprockets in a belt system is well suited to big, heavy, slow cornering cruiser type bikes where the additional unsprung weight isn't really an issue. Given some more development time and experience perhaps some more clearance between the belt and the tyre could have been built in along with easier wheel changing, easier alignment adjustment, better materials and so on.
Just my opinion...

True - actually if the sprocket can be made to last properly isn't that good enough? My new sprocket is behaving very well at the moment so wear does seem to be the bugbear.