Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Narrow Body / Wide Body

I think that is an occupational hazard for pub owners Giles

Perhaps I should sue myself.

But you can be sure to be a wide body of better symmetry than a Mog can ever reach.

And would it be a nice side effect if my 4/4 will become a Plus 8 over the years, just growing organically...

When I went to look at my car, a 2010 4/4 Sport, the dealer said that the previous owner's wife had sat in a Roadster and liked the extra room, so they immediately ordered one.

Is the 4/4 Sport an exception or was either the dealer wrong or I misunderstood.

David, I also had a 3.0 litre Roadster. So I know them and I can compare. Regarding the 4/4 I only know my 2014 car. The cabins of the 2010 Roadster and the 2014 4/4 are definitely of the same size.

But...there is one issue which could lead to a subjectively very different experience!
It is the width of the gearbox tunnel in the leg room.

I.e. the 2014 4/4 is „ok“ but the 2010 Roadster has in comparison such a slim tunnel that it was at once appreciable in a very positive way. You could very easily think that the cabin must be wider but it is an illusion. It is not an illusion that your legs have noticable more space in the Roadster.

I don‘t know if a 2010 4/4 with a Ford gear box has another tunnel size than a 2014 4/4 with a Mazda gear box.

I.e. the first 3,7 Roadster were so problematic in this aspect because the gearbox tunnel was extremely huge and took a lot of the leg room away.

So, are we saying that some time between my narrow bodied 1999 4/4 and Heinz's 2014, all 4/4 went to the wider body. Or is the Roadster a narrow bodied car ?

C'mon Dave, give us a sneak preview.

Yes, they went to using the same chasis and fireblock for all trads.

if I recall correctly all the cars went to the same body in circa 2005/6. Pretty much the changeover from the blacktop zetec 4/4 to the duratec 4/4. The Roadster runs on the +4 widebody chassis (T16 rover engined +4). All the cars ran with the same chassis until the 3.7 Roadster was released, that's now different because of the gearbox width. There are about 5 widths of crosshead, 3 different types of stub axle. Different hub offsets whether the car is wire or alloy wheeled.
2 rear axle widths..... More if you add the salisbury axles

Frankly it's a nightmare trying to keep up

The superform wing are all the same now and are trimmed along the bonnet edge to suit the width of the car being built. That said, the wings are not mirror images of each other, so there will always be a difference side to side

Simon @ SiFab.co.uk

From what limited information is available, the chassis and body frame were all the same from the 1997 upgrades.
The reshaped ash frame and stainless bulkhead came first, which according to the dealer notice was July. The superform wings came towards the end of the year. The front crosshead was the same across the range at that time as far as I can tell from the evidence. The 4/4 still had a steering box as standard in '97 with an optional rack.
The crosshead was widened on the Plus 4 and Roadster from 2010.

Its so complex that the only way to be definitive would be to measure every car. The stainless bulkhead was common across the range from '97 and so its reasonable to assume they were all the same.

I didn't look at the pre 1997 cars because that has already been covered in earlier books.........

Dave my short door T16 Plus 4 was wide bodied but had aluminium wings of the pre superform type.
I understood it was from long door cars that they became the same width.