Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Morgan's future

I was wondering, with Lotus moving away from the light is right mojo with its new elise there is a huge gap to be filled in, could morgan venture there to complete it's line up?

The 4/4 Sport is lighter than a base Elise. To be honest it's my favourite car in the whole range. Although having said that it's not really a competitor due to its somewhat antiquated construction (although therein lies the charm and originality).

I have no idea how flexible the Aero 8 platform is but the Elise (and other models) all come from the same platform which was designed to be as flexible as possible - capable of producing a four-door saloon as much as a small sports car.

I think a light, aluminium chassis sports car powered by the 1.6 PSA/BMW engine (as seen in the Cooper S/elsewhere) would be a riot (and running costs/co2 would be low), I guess the problem would be keeping costs down and production capability.

that's my thought too, the 1.6 THP flexible enough to give 150ish and 200 bhp, a smaller version of the Eva, a weight below 850kg and it's game on as long as price starts around the 30k mark.

I think cracking the £30k price point would be a major task due to the hand-built nature of Morgans and the fact you'd use aluminium panels (presumably) to clothe it; yet at more than 30k I think it may have difficulty selling in good numbers.

The 1.6 is a cracking engine, easily capable of 200bhp and 200lb/ft. If you had a target weight of 800kg I imagine performance would be rather spritely - a Cooper S will do 0-100 in 16.5 seconds (thereabouts) and that weighs 400kg+ more. Given how chuckable that is it would be a LOT of fun.

The current Elise is more like 1000 kgs if some options are included, 951 kgs without options, to be precise.

The point seems to be that new light sports cars are increasingly difficult to build to conform with EC rules. It might be an interesting option to shorten an Aero, take out some of the high performance components and stuff a four cylinder engine into it. Lotus customers also don´t really appreciate the brightwork, woodwork and the leather quality, so cost could be cut in that sector.

But beware: Lotus customers are used to some level of build quality and reliability

Are they!?

Morgan 4/4 Sport vs Lotus Eco Elise .

Sounds like a given seeing as how I'm posting on a Morgan forum but I do find the 4/4 far more appealing. More special, more of an event, better to look at, better interior, a feeling real heritage. I really do like that 4/4 Sport. A lot.

Come on, raffle ticket!

So where did the moniker - Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious come from then?

The days of Elans, Europas, Elites, Esprit (particularly turbo), Eclat, K-series Elise &c... Most of them!

Some years ago, when I still had my Tassie I parked up outside what used to be our local, just as a lady who used to work for Colin Chapman exited. "Oohh, a TVR" she said. "We were always jealous of their quality and solid build"! She used to tell some interesting little anecdotes from her days at Lotus .

Cheers,