Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax So have you driven your Aero today?

Love seeing your car James, always another detail to watch out for..I like the towing eye cover!

Had a great drive down to Goodwood yesterday from Reading- a little damp- but not enough to bother about. Lovely stay at The Royal Oak Lavant, then a blast back up the fabulous road from Midhurst to Petersfield shadowed by a TVR Chimaera. Both V8s sounded great.

Hard to not enjoy life. Sun out. Pipes blasting. Remains of hair blowing in the slipstream.

I have been out in Shiny several times this week and enjoyed every minute.

A company I am working with is doing a rebrand with a small fun local agency.

The boss is a petrol head as well so I took the opportunity to bring the Coupe to their lovely converted church offices.


Here is the article on his car, a very rare Invicta 320 https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-...ith-the-ultra-rare-invicta-s1-320-coupe/

I’m guessing that Shiny is parked in Woodley?

Indeed it is.

I took dusty out today for a run around the area.

Ended up spending 30 mins stuck in a traffic jam on the A36, caused by an HGV braking down on the A36 between the Tesco roundabout and the College roundabout. Some years ago they put a central reservation up on a normal single carriageway A Road. This means that if anything brakes down there is no way round. Genius.

It rather took the edge off what was otherwise a delightful run.

Yesterday I had the opportunity, thanks to a friend, to make a private tour (no huge difference from the organised ones, just the fact that there was no time pressure and that the guy was not really a "guide" but a very passionate guy working there for an internship and owner of a few Pagani's, well, his father).
What to say. Obviously pieces of art. No discussion about that. Superhigh quality in each single detail. All superb. But... just one thought. Of course I was mentally comparing this atelier with the MOG workshop. Both are "buying" engines. But Morgan take the as-is from BMW and Pagani is having fully customized AMG engines, built with a very strict partnership. But then, all other parts except carbon fibre are purchased/built by third parties companies (high end manufacturer and Pagani assemply them. From the subframe, to che axles and the leather interiors (shall we talk about a lovely huayra with ostrich leather? Superb) together with the aluminum parts. In this Morgan is different. They may not be (well they aren't) perfect but they try to build almost everything in house. And again these random thoughts are not on "which one is better or which one has the best value for money, but just how two small manufacturers, with a similar size, can approach the concept of hand built car from complete different angles.
Ah, for the records, from a size perspective, Pagani has 150 employees and they build 40 cars per year.

Here the pic in the "customer" parking lot. No pics were allowed in the factory to protect customers privacy and there was no fun in taking pics in the museum.

Drove from Salisbury to York, via London Airport, where I collected a colleague. Then returned: 618 totally uneventful miles, overall average was 27.9mpg.

The ride up on Tuesday afternoon was a delight, a bright sunny day with puffy white clouds, almost a pastiche of a late summer day. We stayed in the Parsonage Hotel, a stone's throw from Kev.
On Wednesday we went over to Sandhutton for a meeting, The drive back was with the hood up, at times on the M1 visibility was down to a few car's lengths, so heavy was the rain and spray.
Tarka was warm, dry and leak free, other than the usual one round the driver's door lock. I must follow DW's instructions from a while back and apply leather and neoprene.
The new LED Lights certainly illuminate the way ahead and are a massive improvement over the standard lights.

Would the trip have been any nicer/easier in either of the Mercedes? I'm not sure, and for certain no one would have photographed the car: we noticed at least 3, possibly 4 times people taking a photo of this seemingly "old timer" keeping up with modern traffic.
A Morgan Plus 8 is a perfectly viable long haul drive, very comfortable....other than getting in and out with the hood up, which my ribs didn't appreciate.

So all I have to do is wash the car.....!!

- gorgeous day here today so we set off for a drive along the coast.We ended up in the Port of Blyth...



spotted this cable laying (?) ship at berth -



I had parked up parallel with the quay to take some photos of the car with said ship in the background.We were talking to three of the port workers who were admiring the car ;

"I wouldn't leave her there " they said.

"How so ?" I asked

" You see that big black ship sailing towards us; it's going to berth right next to where you are parked......!!"









- all in all , a grand day out.....

James

Year after year I like the S1 more and more!