Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) 50 greatest sportcars

My all-time favourite pre-war sports car - The Squire Vanden Plas Sports Tourer What a shame it was so short-lived.

Brian, I know you and I have discussed how much we both rate Adrian Squire's work ( Adrian Morgan Squire to give him his full name!) but whenever I see a picture of this car I just never cease to think what a great design it is.

A view shared by others if rumours are to be believed

Regards,
G

Didn't know about the 'Morgan' middle name G, do we know why he was named thus?

I've been Googling about him and came across this site which I found interesting: Squire

I remember a replica offered in the late 80's (from memory), which was a reasonably accurate facsimile of the Squire, though with IFS and disc-brakes. Powered by an Alfa Romeo engine, it was made by either Vicarage, or someone similar, but I have not been able to find anything about this on the web. Only a Squire that is apparently supposed to be an SS100 Replica of some sort - what an abortion of the original design.

It seems that we are on our own in our enthusiasm for this marque, but if anyone knows more please let us hear from you.

B


P.S. Found one of the replicas here (third car down), don't know where it is now?

The problem I have with lists is that often there are racing cars rather than just road cars. This always bugs me a bit because it's a different skill making something for the road and then maybe going racing later, rather than making something for the track and it being seen as 'the best car ever made' (I'm looking at you 250 GTO).

I once did my own list of my 50 favourite road cars with nary a race special in sight - I thought it was rather good...

Difficult to be enthusiastic about something you know nothing about!

The photo posted is attractive but to the untrained eye looks very similar to a myriad of cars from that era. This isn't to say it isn't nice but rather I'd love to be informed as to what makes this more special than some of the others?

Fair point Your Honour and the fault is mine because I couldn't find a better one.
The best one I have come across ( which does do the car justice) is to be found in Jonathan Wood's book, " Morgan- Performance Plus Tradition" (2004)Yeovil: Haynes Publishing p38
My puny IT and desktop skils don't run to scanning that pic butif anybody has access to it and can do so, it makes a very interesting comparison with the traditional Morgan shape

For additional info, the car had all metal construction, hydraulic brakes, a supercharged 1496cc DOHC 4 cylinder Anzani engine and a Wilson pre-selector box. Tested top speed was 100mph, so no slouch in the performance stakes.

Cheers,
G

I'm a big fan of the SS100 in terms of pre-war because Jaguar from the start made something as quick as anything but at a more competitive cost. Set the tone for everything since and IMO the new XK is quite possibly the best value sports car on sale. (Not that I have £75k kicking about but hey - just look at it next to a Vantage.)

In terms of other stuff I really like Voisins, Alfa 8Cs (Tazio Nuvolari being a hero of mine), Talbot Lagos and Bugattis (well, who doesn't?). Can't forget the Bentley Speed Six either...

Caught in the classifieds:

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1845199.htm

Absolutely stunning. Wondrous. Beautiful.

Looks very nice, but
"precision built by ... using original parts where possible"

So a few bolts then???

Cheers,

No such thing as an 'original' T35 though, that's probably got more 'original' bits than a lot of 'genuine' ones.