Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Indulge my damp day dreams, please.

It's a rainy day out there this afternoon & having had a fabulous day out at the Silverstone Classic yesterday I'm having a lazy afternoon daydreaming with a hot brew.

What are the pros & cons of buying an older 4/4 or Plus Four and upgrading engines & running gear?

Cost effective or just daft?

Indulge me here, team..

What - as a second Morgan?
If you can do this at your leisure then fine.

The temptation might be to buy really cheap and do a full resto, but it takes a lot of effort and what was feasible when I was 30 (for example) is less so now because I would rather be out than rebuilding a car.

So a decent donor is more appealing but then it will cost more, and much of the cost of upgrading the engine will be lost on the residuals. I suppose the cheapest route is to start with a car which already has a Duratec, so then it's a very simple engine out/ engine in and a change of ECU.

What could possibly go wrong?

How old?

I'm in my fifties..

ho ho ho!

Buy the right 2nd plus 4 and it could very cost effective to your budget and would tailoured to your needs better

I'm kinda thinking of a 'rolling resto' type of thing. A fully sorted older car would be the base, but with a project fund to upgrade engine over a period of time.

Williams do a 'bespoking' build process, so may ask the question, but I'm just pondering as it's possibly the best way to actually get what I'd like rather than buy new from the factory?

Could slip in that cosworth at a later date ...

I went through this in my head in November 2013. We concluded that the best answer for us was a new car - very similar cost to change. If this will be your only Morgan, then the practicalities have to be born in mind - we were not prepared to be without a useable car for long periods while the work was done (either by me or someone else).

We did the deal with Allon White in mid December 2013, delivered the old car to them on 19th December and collected the new car on 11th February - the gap in Morgan ownership was sufficiently short for the time of year.

Like a lot of us here and yourself Steve, I've also considered this route, but I think, whilst quite feasible, it falls down on the cost basis, in that you will not only lose most of the money spent on the upgrade, but you will not even get back the value of the original car. I don't even think it is worth upgrading my current 4 Seater +4 too much, other than to make it roadable, for the same reason. I keep thinking along the lines of a blower for the GDi engine, but that would be £5k down the drain at sale time.

That's why the ARP4 is quite appealing, because it does not need much fettling, and as a factory original, will undoubtedly hold its' value pretty well.