Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Expected total build time for production 3W?

I think that the M3W is a wonderous thing and i would dearly love to be able to justify one. But this is a bit like saying that BMW are the worlds authority on Bubble cars.

I would imagine that 6 months ago Morgan knew less about 3 wheelers than the one chap (Alan Layzell) who now runs Triking.

In fact, the trike project started well before the Centenary and when Gerwyn and I visited Alan, he advised us that he had built a prototype for MMC of a trike with sliding pillar front suspension. He advised that he had not dealt direct with MMC, but that the project was commissioned by BRA and there was no follow up with him once he delivered the trike to BRA.

The pedal car was substituted by MMC for the this project and launched in time for the Centenary. Incidentally, I have not bought a pedal car.

When next I visited the Works I mentioned that I was thinking of buying a Triking and also mentioned the prototype that Alan had built, and was told that the prototype was not really strong enough to take a Harley engine and that they had been looking at alternatives. I was told to hold fire on the Triking as a Morgan was coming and shortly after I was intimated about the Ace development and saw the prototype.

Thus, the project is much older than 6-months as our own visit to Triking is over a year ago and the first prototype built by Triking was before the Centenary year in 2009. The project has come to fruition basically because of the enthusiasm of the Operations Director for it and in view of its long gestation, I'm sure that the car itself will be on the money when it is launched!

As Brian has suggested, MMC have made a number of substantial changes to the Ace. Asbo, Boshly and I spent a fair bit of time having them explained to us, last Friday, but I will struggle to remember them all. However, what I can remember (and BtG and AJ can add to or correct me), Morgan have totally changed the front suspension (this was set up for American roads and driving style), repositioned the engine (further forward and in front of the suspension and steering), changed the fuel tank configuration (2-tanks, one on each side; rather than the single tank on one side, which led to some interesting handling characteristics!) and this is before we get into the changes to body design, cabin space and seating.

As a side note, the Matt Black M3W is currently being driven - almost non-stop - to test every aspect of it. For instance, the chap you can see driving in the videos I posted, had done a run to Wales (200-miles+) during the Witching-hour on Thursday night. When not being worked on and tweaked, this Morgan Three Wheeler is undergoing massive amounts of road testing and experiencing both long and short journeys day and night.

Thanks a lot for taking your time giving your view, impression and knowledge regarding this question! Looking forward to the delivery even more now!

I like many of the changes from the Ace, however the Ace had an adjustable front suspension which I don't see on the Morgan prototypes, also not sure what the purpose of moving the engine ahead of the front suspension was supposed to accomplish.

My understanding is that it was necessitated by the revision of the front suspension. I'm not technical and there was a lot going on during our chat with the development engineers; therefore, I may have misunderstood some of what was said. However, I cannot imagine these guys making a car handle or perform poorly and they certainly aren't making any cost savings.

Oh to have been a fly on the wall

Cheers,

As soon as Asbo heard the burble of the S&S engine and the whiff of petrol, wild horses wouldn't have kept him out of that part of the factory.

Truth be told, I've recounted all I could remember and none of it is top secret.

As I recall the engine move was to enable modifications to the steering rack and to allow for the install of the gearbox. The suspension mods were done to improve the road handling and judging from experience it's certainly worked. Interestingly the guys in the next workshop were working on the ACE suspension so I'd still consider this a work in progress.

We were shown the one off castings for the gearbox assembly and told how these were wax formed and how much they were each the development guys were leaving no stone unturned and on my trip around the block it was clear from speaking to my chauffeur that they were enjoying the development process.

As Simon said that guys are working 24/7 on this, running it of a night, tweaking it during the day. I think the next few weeks will see a lot of technical and cosmetic changes. I'll watch progress with interest.

One thing that hasn't been pointed out is the the current SS engine won't be the one we see in production. SS had developed one of 2000 engine for a client who no longer want the engine. So guess what, this new lump will be exclusive to the M3W.

More or less power? Chosen because of leftovers (i.e. can be had for very little)?

I'm not really feeling warm and fuzzy inside after that bombshell. Hopefully I got it all wrong