Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Aquaplaning M3W's

Im with Rich on this one you couldnt pay me to go fast in one with the wishbone issues .. And I am not the naturally nervy type, having lived with and raced a quick 7 and an old Kawasaki H2R on chambers. Perhaps I am getting old.

If the rear end of the car moves ever so slightly sideways(a twitch) the natural reaction is to let go of the throttle, and with the strong engine brake of the M3W I guess you'll end up spinning quite rapidly.
Maybe the initial knee jerk reaction should be that of the left leg stamping on the clutch when it's wet?

I think we just have to accept this is the nature of the M3W. I’ve (and am sure many of us) have driven in torrential conditions... and survived. Aquaplane-induced spins need to be added to terminal understeer as a risk / aspect to try and drive around. I will certainly be more circumspect.

Perhaps we need a sticky thread on best driving practices for a M3W - gotchas and attention required.... and log of incidents as a reminder?

Blimey, I remember how big the "hinge" seemed in the middle of the road going H2. Racing them must have been

Not sure how I did it now, you never new what was about to occur when it cleared and hit the power band, handling was not their thing.

I can only imagine - I had a '69 H1 for a while, and the power curve had a vertical line when it came on the pipes that made it near impossible to keep the front end down. That and the scary handling made it the most "exciting" bike I've ever owned. I remember taking a good friend for a ride, telling him to hang on, him either not hearing me or not paying attention. I nailed it on the first long stretch of road, and next thing I knew his legs were up under my arm pits and he was laying flat out over the rear fender. Thankfully, it was funny, not tragic, and we laugh about it still.

Must be the understatement of the year - both H1 and H2

Just to add that I agree with everyone on the rear tyre being the aquaplaning culprit, but all this huge instability is not only from being driven under power from the rear, but the car is also phenomenally unstable if the rear loses traction under lift-off engine braking. I had a monster of a moment last year when lifting off at about 30mph down a mud and leaf-mulch covered lane where the centre of the road was covered in thick clag. The car tried to swap ends like a b4stard with nothing more than a gentle lift..... Took a decent few handfuls of oppo to get it back in shape.

So over-riding rule is to be very wary of sudden changes of grip with respect to the rear wheel. Slow spin turns and all that mucking about is fine, but higher speed stuff needs careful management, for sure.

One fix would be to put a sticky motorcycle tyre on the back instead of the fat car tyre, much as those early 2- and 3-speeders have when racing and sprinting etc. A nice narrow, rounded profile which wouldn't suffer anything like as badly in big wet.

My view as well if it were possible. It might wear out quicker than stock but I believe would give more grip across a variety of surfaces. Whatever would be an interesting experiment ..
Just had a thought this would be one step to reverse engineering back to the 30's Morgans.

This is a very good idea.

I do not know enough about specialist bike tyres to know.

I guess the FIM chairs use a car tyre?