Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Which Handles Better: Plus 4 or Plus 8?

Does anyone have any first hand experience of which Plus handles better? Does the extra weight of the V8 affect the handling on the Plus 8? Does the lighter 4 mean the handling is more precise and that the Plus 4 is more agile?

Conventional wisdom is that the Plus 4 (and now the Roadster) is more nimble and lighter to throw around than the Plus 8. Plus 8s have been built on Plus 4 chassis to achieve this effect.

Of course adding wider, lower profile tyres, smaller steering wheels and quick racks have a big effect on the feel of the car too, and the Plus 8 can need broad shoulders if you do all that.

Experience:
1. "normal" +8
2. wide body +8 with 16" ww
3. narrow 4/4 165/80X15
4. +4 Tourer

The second car was great on Autobahnen but it handled like a lorry. I knew before but bought it for the looks. The normal +8 handled much better. (A friend changed from 16" ww to 16" alloys. That was in between.) Best handling car was the 4/4.
Never drove a Roadster but everybody who drove one told me it handles much better than a +8. As there are two versions available I would choose the smaller version with alloys if I was interested in a good handling car. As all classic Morgans have got the same chassis now, there are only small differrences between them, depending on the tire size.

Hope this helped to confuse you,

Roderich

My experience is exactly the same. I have had a Class B ex race Plus 8 (just like Chris races today) and a well sorted 4/4. Tried them back to back at the MSCC track day a couple of years ago. The 4/4 was definetly the better handler although the Plus 8 was way faster per lap due to grunt and absolute roadholding due to wide tyres on 7" rims.

Significantly the 4/4 although a 1999 car was on the 'narrow' chassis. If you want a well handling Morgan (fun to drive but not necessarily the ultimate roadholding) then the best (in my humble opinion) is a narrow chassis car with narrow tyres (Avon CR6ZZ are the best narrow choice).

BTW the latest production cars are on a wide chassis. The front end is narrower than the Plus 8 and hence the better handling comments about the Roadster. There is a view by some that putting wide tyres on a trad Morgan is a bad thing as it has a negative effect on both ride and handling (albeit not ultimate roadholding).

As my answer is biased, I will just agree with Phil's posting.

One of the reasons I believe the 4/4 is the 'Best Handling' of 'all' the Mogs, is that the power to weight ratio has remained true to the original chassis/suspension design. Increase the power available dramatically and the current 'finesse' will be lost.

Robert

I have no experience of trad Morgans having only driven the V6 factory roadster once in the rain but I am thinking of buying a used plus 4 which would slow me down when not in my Aero.

I was told by someone at Morgan that he favoured the plus 4 on handling who knows.

In order, I would rate the models with the best handling (ie most agile) first as:

4/4, Plus 4, Roadster, Aero, Plus 8, Flat Rad and, somewhere off the scale, the 3 wheeler ...

But, of course, there are different flavours within each model - and they will drive differently. The earlier, narrower Plus 8 on skinnier tyres for example is more agile than the later wider version. So just keep trying them out and find one that brings a smile to your face.

Hi Michael, you might not need a plus 4 to curb your speeding, saviour is just around 300GBP away

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/208716/loss_of_licence_insurance.html

I have to say, I expected to hear that the Plus 4 was more agile and handled better than the heavier engined cars.

Does/did anyone who has driven a Plus 4 find them under powered at all?

I tried a +4 Demo Car and a recent Pre - Owned 4/4 before opting for another 4/4. Roadster was luckily not available; Madame had already vetoed one on cost... There appeared to be very little between the two cars to me. Admittedly, the 4/4 was Run - In, whilst the +4 was still fairly new.

There was more Mid Range Punch on the +4, but certainly nothing that made you feel that it was a 'performance' car compared to the 4/4. I came away feeling the +4 was a bit of a Con.

A 'Con' that seems to be drawing in the Punters as 4/4 production has dropped from 3 to 2 a week.