Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) the definition of a classic sports car

In truth I do not have a dream car, though I ever tended to set my sights on long term reasonably achievable goals in matters automotive and much else.. Long term at my age is without doubt shorter than it has been in past times, therefore adjustment is best made to suit..? (-:

Yeah it was following a pre war open top Bentley down the road at the side of Loch Tay that initially fired up my imagination. When practicality set in, a Morgan was decided upon as a reasonable substitute for a true vintage and performant car.

On one of our trips down to LeMans we met up with a group of chaps from Ayrshire who shared their tale of the trip down in their well used Vintage Bentley, (pics of it exist on the forum) definitely not concours and perhaps all the better for it..(-: Apparently the old thing was drinking oil like it was going out of fashion, they were lucky to make the distance between service areas on the m/way before topping it up yet again, at which stage they decided to take to the back roads where the old thing settled into it`s pace and gave no problems whatsoever for the rest of the trip...(-:

I take doff my cap to adventurers such as the Bentley boys and anybody who drives a three wheel Morgan....

Yes an amazing car and the S600 with the chain drive was very interesting, I learnt to use the slack in the chains for very smooth take offs and gear changes but if anyone else drove it they bunny hopped the thing all over the place. Also even back in the 1980's it was virtually impossible to get parts for the cars, even things you think wouldn't be that hard being metric. For example there is a oil seal in the distributor that is very important to stop oil getting on the points and while you can get a seal with the right inside and outside diameters you can't get one thin enough to fit

Back on topic this sums it up reasonably well.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a28225/sports-car-definition/

I like that.

Tell me about it, mine was a 1968 S800 I bought in 1971 to learn to drive in.......it hadn't done many miles and within weeks of it having a regularly good thrashing (as learner driver)it developed an oil leak from a head gasket that allowed oil to collect in the spark plug valley......an interesting fire hazard. When the head was taken off I had a few slightly bent inlet and outlet exhaust valves, I remember waiting about 2 months for them to come from Japan and they cost what seemed a princely sum at the time of over £10 each when a BL valve would be a couple of pounds by comparison. The chain sprockets has also lost a few teeth and new chains etc cost me a kings ransom, the engine rebuilt was about £400, but on reflection worth every penny. Often tempted to buy one again but realise the parts were difficult to get just after production had ended in the early 70's, goodness knows what its like today. This was the only car that came close to matching my Norton 850 motorcycle race time from Bridgnorth (favourite pubs)to my house some 19.5 miles away half and half countryside and 30mph urban conurbation of with lots of traffic lights in 17 minutes late at night. Those were the days.

Coming back to topic one brand I rarely get excited about is Ferrari, having driven quite a few older models including the twin headlamp 330GT 2+2 ruined new pair of new shoes with cramped footwell and tight pedals. the Dino 246, the Testarossa ((thrashed by Mercedes CLK 500 on M58) and had a terrible cramped cockpit. 348 and 355.I understand why people like them, but for me I can find more enjoyable ways of burning my money than on maintenance charges and questionable reliability but when in the sweet spot can be a joy to drive.

Mine was a 1965 S600 I bought in 1982 that I learnt to drive a manual in, had a MiniMatic before that. The previous owner had the engine built but didn't drive it much so I thought I was getting a good car. I found out he had filled the carbies with petrol trying to get it to start and hydrauliced the engine with fuel bending the crank. So I spent $2,500 rebuilding the engine after only owning it a few weeks and that was doing it myself with assistance from a trained mechanic to put the pistons and crank back in.

I sold it in 1987 and soon after got a letter from Honda Japan saying from their records I owned a car, they are about to throw out all the tooling so if I want any parts visit the dealer now and place an order. Once they do a final production run of ordered parts nothing for the S600 or S800 will be available. So yes I don't think any parts would be easy to find now.