Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Morgan Aero Supercharger

Probably why I find the 1.1 Panda quite so much fun, even on the daily commute.
OK, it could do with more oooomph for overtaking out on the open road, but otherwise, work the gearbox and rev it's nuts off (it is an Italian car after all) and it will go, a bit... Very chuckable round roundabouts too. That N/S/F tyre is going to wear out quickly!!

I can't help but agree too. Much more than 100 or 110hp for a road bike is somewhat pointless. For the trad Morgan I have always felt that about 200 to 220hp with good midrange torque would be good. To my thinking the 3 litre V6 meets this criteria and so would the Omex 220hp version of the 2.5 litre Duratec.

Naturally heavier vehicles can have more power and larger engines to meet the same performance criteria.

Very few countries in the world allow you to do more than 130, or perhaps 150 kph, legally. This makes the top speed of any vehicle that can do more than 200 kph irrelevant.

You only have to do a search on YouTube to see what happens with people that overcook things a little with supercars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. And that is with traction control, ABS, and all the other electronic sophistication to try and keep them on the road.

coincidence, i'm on a Belgium forum ( private) of guys who do trackdays,rallys and Nurburgring... all kind of cars,Porsches GT3,BMW ///M ( 5,4,3 and 1 ) , Lotus etc... at one moment they also "voted" for the Toyota GT86 as a car who gives 'that" fun in daily use as you can go searching the limits...power you drive , not power that drives you.

a 500HP Aero would be as a OEM but driving Always on "wet" roads ,even in full Sunshine... i think.

I totally agree G! I've had great fun driving my Panda. It teaches you how to preserve momentum and I'd forgotten just what fun that can be.

You, me and all bikers understand very well that in the end it is thos little points of contact between rubber and road that make the difference between fun and expensive and possibly painful loss of control. The electronic stuff helps the driver, but untimately don't stop loss of cntrol, they just make the speed at which control is lost faster.
I see Triumph is now offering the Tiger 800 with ABS, Traction Control and Stability Control. Seemingly nice, but takes responsibility away from the rider, in my view.

The Morgan 4/4 is fun, to a point, but the relativly unsophisticated suspension makes driving on UK B and minor roads simply painful and hard work. On the subject of our roads I came back from Williams yesterday keeping to minor roads, there were a couple of places where the only sensible option would have been a SUV, so bad are Wiltshires roads. Thank goodness for ABS, I was able to slow from making good progress to 10 to 15mph...

The Plus 8 is a grand tourer/muscle car blend, not a true sports car. In my view the "best" (most fun and refined) open sports car available today is a Mazda MX5, but it is common and has not much personality.

The 2020 Morgan 4/4 needs to look like a Morgan but dynamically be closer to the MX5. We know that Morgan can't afford to do that and limited to 1000 cars a year probably shouldn't try.

So, I'll stick with the Plus 8, but should MMC ever offer an Aero based car with about 250bhp I could be tempted to change. But back to a Trad? Not before the Government rediscoveres road maintainance.

IMHO the Aero chassis ride quality improves at speed. It is very stiff and unforgiving in town - but flows very well on faster roads.

I think the fun of the Aero already comes from a big torque laden V8 in a light car. Adding more might well make it a wild ride. Different cars handle excessive power in different ways.

The Skyline revels in additional tuning. It can convert it to forward speed.

For my mind the over-power argument is not important, the accelerator has a wide range of positions and you don't need to push it all the way all the time. When you can then you can enjoy it all the more.

Balancing traction and acceleration is part of the fun so having more of each available is simply down to how far you wish to push it at that time. As a policeman once pointed out to me. Speed and power are not the issue, excessive application of them for the conditions are the problem.

I would love to try it as it would be interesting to see how the chassis handles it if nothing else. I suspect it will be mostly capable.

I don't see why they can't get very close to that. A redesigned steel frame chassis with double wishbone front end and independent, or at least multilink rear suspension with a live axle, should be quite easy to achieve.

To me the gap in performance between the 4/4 and the Plus 4 is too small, and between the Plus 4 and the Roadster is too great. I think the current Roadster engine would be better in the current Plus 8 platform.

At last Alistair some logic applied to the debate .

They wont like logic Simon.