Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Where is the Lotus magic?

At just approaching one month and 750 cold winter miles into my CX Plus Four I thought I'd ask what other owners felt about a couple of issues I have. My comments (subjective of course) follow:

On the positive side, and there are many, the engine and gearbox (AT) are frankly tremendous. Driven smoothly in automatic mode whilst following other traffic on A and B roads it barely exceeds 1400 rpm but strong acceleration is there with minimal lag. Its certainly no slower than my previous 3.7 Roadster when fully extended and in fast/moderate driving its clearly quicker to acclerate. Having the full 400Nm of torque available from 1,000 rpm enables it to gather speed effortlessly. In manual S mode it changes gear sharply and when I want it to, and is a lot of fun.

The platform itself is also great - very rigid and not prone to the 'characterful' shakes and shudders of the classic Morgan. For me the suspension spring rates and damper settings are also very good. On patchy B roads in the Cambridegshire Fens the ride comfort is way beyond my expectations where it has enough body control for stability but is a Morgan that actually 'breathes' with the road and the suspension is allowed to move easily. If anything the comfort is less impressive on smoother A where it can feel a bit firm on sharp transverse ridges but it is still good.

So what are the downsides after the first month?

Well the slightly high seats for one. I find them comfortable but I am perched on the car rather than in it - especially compared to the traditional chassis. Not a crucial issue for me but I had to buy a new winetr jacket as I am in the cold wind flow much more than before.

The brakes are another downside. Yes they stop you, but have very poor initial bite and a long soft pedal with lots of travel. Oh, and they also squeal most of the time at slower speeds. Apparently Morgan are aware of these problems and working on a fix. All I can say at the moment is that the brakes are significantly below those of other modern cars.

The most significant downside for me however is the steering and having heard about a number of Lotus staff joining Morgan I was quite honestly expecting a bit of the Lotus magic to have rubbed off here. The steering respsonse is linear and accurate (at least on alloy wheels) but I was expecting better feel. My Plus Four is not as good as the demonstrator I drove and has a sticky feeling around the centre with stiction and high force build up in the first few degreess of lock. It feels a bit like the electric power steering systems of some years ago and detracts from the driving experince. At larger steering inputs the stiction feeling goes but you still don't get a good relationship of steering force to steer angle to yaw response. Futhermore, I always lack road contact feedback from teh front wheels esepcailly and never have a clear sense of what the grip levels are. I just assumed I was being too fussy here, especially as most of my driving of the Plus Four has been on cold and greasy winter roads. But then I got back into my daily driver (which hadn't been used much since I got the Plus Four) to take a pre-lockdown 400 mile dash just before Xmas and I had a quick reality check. For that trip I used my similarly powered 2.0l Jaguar F-Type P300, and its steering feel and effforts only highlighted to me the deficiencies of the Plus Four in terms of steering feel.
I took delivery of the F-Type just before the first lockdown (don't ask why I bought it then ... hindsight is a wonderful thing!) but due to this year's unusual working situation have only covered about 4,000 miles in it this year. However, I can honestly say that each time I drive it I end up more impressed with its dynamic behviour. Unfortunately I have to say this is not the case with the Plus Four brakes and steering, where the deficiencies simply become clearer the more you drive it.

If other CX4 owners have news of any brake modifications on the way from Morgan or have any similar issues with the steeirng I would be interested to hear.

In the meantime I'm looking forward to giving my very grimy Plus Four a good clean over the coming days. I might even get the wheels off to clean off the salty grime from below (and satisfy my OCD side!!)

Ian,
I know when I drove the demonstrator at Krazy Horse in the early part of 2020 that the seats & brakes were a disappointment and the squealing brakes especially so.

Dan was looking at other pads but at the time couldn't find any. Maybe he has now?
John

Ian. Given the cost of what is a new car chasis mechanicals etc I think its very fair to compare with what's on the market, from day one people have mentioned the seat issue an easy fix for Morgan. The brake noise is probably a pad. Morgan have upped their game as far as the product is concerned and prices I hope the owners of these new cars are not so accepting of these issues as owners of new cars have been in the past myself included. Great looking car Ian enjoy....Em

Really encouraging to hear you are pleased with the car, lets hope MMC get weaving on remedying the "missing" links soon..

Good review ,about the same with my car.Especially the
brake noise,and i when i start to run another brake noise
Coming from the rear .I thought i was from the autobox or
the bridge.But the noise disapear after 200 metres.
I have made a record of the noise with my phone.
Something is also loose in the right door and make kling,kling.
I dont have that feeling with the power steering .I am
Missing the double layer hood of the arp4. This plus four
is in every point better than the standard morgan but
in comparison the arp4 was more "special".
The brakes were a lot better and the suspension also very good.

Hi Guys


I have my car now 3 weeks and did 1300miles in it. Here you can find my findings:

- Steering is ok no comments maybe there can be a little more response but that is on my car pretty good
- brakes need a little getting used to but more than enough stopping power and good feel ( you can predict when the ABS will kick in). They squeal like you are killing a pig but this has been sorted by the dealer. Cleaned the pads and sprayed it with a special product. Now only a very light squeel the first mile and then they are ok. The mechanic at the dealer was thinking too soft brake pads.
- Seats are for me a major concern and they will be redone in the next couple of weeks. Gave feedback to MCC but no signs that they would like to solve this for me.
- I also asked the dealer to reposition the rear view mirror. I could only see 3 meter behind the car. They have dropped the mirror from the top of the windscreen to just above the dashboard and the sight is pretty good now. In my opinion makes a huge difference in driving now you have good view what happens behind you.
- Shirping from the driver side door. The dealer has made some changes. It is not completely gone but already a bit better. I will investigate here a little further.


In general I'm very happy with the car it doesn't drive as sharp as a Cayman or Lotus but you feel you are on the road with something special. Only caution is for drivers who love a spirited drive and are used to drive a normal sportscar. When you accelerate hard in dry conditions in 2th gear around 4à5 thousand RPM she is able to spin a tires ( wire wheels) and you need to be pretty quick to catch her. I have discussed this with the mechanic at the dealer and he suggested that Morgan should activate a traction controle system. Sensors are there ( ABS) but he though they would implement it later.

Same remark about the rear view mirror.
I will ask to do the same as you for the brakes.
I dont know is something can be done for the
traction control .I have read somewhere that
the weight of the plus 4 is so low that the
System in the the bmw cars has to be adapted.

For me the lack of traction controle is not a problem at all because I love the driving experience without any electronics but when somebody is driving the car who is not aware what can happen and how to cope with it, it can be really dangerous. 2nd and 5000rpm is around the 70miles/h mark and you don't want to hit a tree at that speeds.... But I love a car that doesn't tolerate idiots 😂😂😂. When I first experienced this I suddenly understood what happened with the crashed plus 6 on a straight road in Holland 🙈. Not an irresponsible driver just somebody who is used to driving a car with traction controle and a lot heavier and suddenly the back end steps out during acceleration. If the plus four can do this I can image the plus six will do it too and even faster ( all dough the wider tires will provide more grip).

Thanks for the update/thoughts PiGo
My new build starts allegedly on 8 Jan fingers crossed.... can’t wait!
HB

Thanks for the feedback guys.

PiGo, Any chance of a pciture of your new rear view mirror arrangement? Despite the cold weather I haven't used it much with the hood up but you are right. I forgot to mention it in my first post but there is very limited vision to the rear with the hood up. (obviously depends on driver height/seat position etc.).

I'm also not too bothered about the lack of traction control on the Plus Four. Even on a greasy road I find you have to be pretty heavy footed (or deliberatly trying to provoke it) to get the rear to spin up on the Plus Four although that might be due to the inherent caution on the throttle in the wet for all us old bikers :-). The Plus Six however was a different proposition and with the extra 100Nm of torque I felt it was often ready to get away from me on a fast drive unless I was in mnaual mode. Funnily enough I used to have a BMW 440i with a tuned (380hp) version of the same engine used in the Plus Six and that was a nice balance of engine and chassis - due to the 1650 kg kerb mass and traction control and ESP no doubt!

Thanks also for the feedback on brakes. I agree they do work but you just have to accept a long pedal travel and poor initial bite. I wonder if its a deliberate calibration by Morgan to stop the ABS kicking in too early on a low mass car. The poor initial reponse certainly allows a bit of mass transfer to the front axle before serious decelleration starts. Just a thought? although perhaps I am looking at it through rose tinted Morgan glasses and trying to justify why they are much worse than the mass prodcution BMWs and Jaguars that I have covered many miles in :-).