Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Before I bought my first Morgan...........

I organised a ride in Plus8 via the local MSCC...................

No side-screens, and no windscreen.......it was memorable.

I then was allowed to drive (with the owner), a customer's Roadster at Ledgerwoods. Then I knew Trads were for me.

I didn't drive my Roadster before I bought it, but I did take a passenger ride.

Five years earlier I joined the MSCC so that I could suss it all out in advance.

I made a testdrive with a roadster demo in April 2005. I arrived at the dealer with my Honda S2000. That was an ambivalent and very different experience, driving a Morgan for the first time. At the beginning, the agility and acceleration were a given, a strange feeling, so agile but at the same time not so impressive, but as if it could not be otherwise. The chassis and roadholding took some time of getting used to, of course.
I wasn't even 100% convinced after the test drive, which lasted an hr. But when I was back in the Honda, it quickly became clear in contrast how great the roadster was. Suddenly it felt like sitting in a plastic bathtub in the S2000. The acceleration and agility was so sluggish in comparison. I got used to the Roadster very quickly. That's how it all started. In October, the car arrived...after endless sleepless nights about the right color choice and all the reading I could find.

Made decision to sell my 7 and steady up a bit as really wanted a Mog for ages but concerned about handling/slow speed of Mogs , so test drove a one off supercharged 2.3 litre plus 4 at Allon Whites , great Mog with lots of character and reasonable speed( but didn't have any proof of engine work ) , ended up getting a plus 4 with TB's from a private owner a couple of months later after seeing ad in back of Miscellany , very lucky to get the Mog as it was massive fun but looked sensible !

I put a deposit down on my 4/4 Sport as soon as I set eyes on it here at Williams Automobiles - March 2017

My first test ride was in a 4/4,which I bought from Life's in Southport The test drive , as I realised later when driving it home, had been on all the smoothest roads around Southport. The undulating coastal road from Southport quickly introduced me to the Morgan suspension shortcomings.

Within weeks we were touring the west coast of Ireland at Easter during which it rained constantly, filling the car with water that sloshed backwards and forwards as I accelerated and braked..........and I never forget the damp patch on my left leg from most likely the water dripping from around the water jet nozzle. Having said that it was difficult to point to where it wasn't leaking/pouring in from. It was the first open topped car I had owned that required wearing wax cotton jackets even when with the hood up and side screens in when it was raining.

A few months later, the first sunny drive around Scotland's west coast r with the roof down and side screens removed, put all the other annoyances to bed once and for all. Whilst I do enjoy the 2 seater intimacy, I had more fun with my 4 seater, more comfortable to drive just extremely annoying with the extra side screens flapping in the breeze at higher speeds. My latest Morgan does so far seem much more water tight then my previous cars (touching wood),

regards

I bought my first 4/4 ( which I think lives in Norfolk now ) with only one ride as a passenger several years previously. I sold my Lotus Elan and my MGB to do stand thought that I had made a dreadful mistake: that was in 1983 and I'm still driving one.

My first spin was in a Morgan Runabout around 2002 brand new under 20k no louvres no door handles and black velour interior. I had to ask how to get in, slide the window across and put your arm in was the answer and that was it hooked.......Em

In 2003 I finally had enough money to realise a long term dream of owning a Morgan. At some point in June or July, we visited a local steam show and there was a Morgan dealer exhibiting (one of the ones that appeared and then disappeared just as quickly). Mrs F got to sit in a new Runabout. She was easily convinced that this was a good idea. At the time, we had the funds for second hand but a new Runabout would have required a loan.

I spent loads of time scanning the MMC used car finder and discovered a red 1985 4/4 at Allon White. I managed a quick visit one lunch time (we live just south of Nottingham but at the time, I spent 3-4 days a week in Milton Keynes) and decided that it wasn't the car for us.

Then I found a 1985 4/4 in metallic grey (Jaguar gunmetal ??) at Mike Duncan's. A phone call to Ben Duncan went along the lines of "Is the car as nice as your pictures make it look". Ben told me that there was a split in one of the seats but otherwise the car was in excellent order. We arranged to see it on the Saturday. Ben handed us the keys and suggested a route of mixed roads. We were both hooked. Then we started to negotiate - that split seat! By the time we shook hands, the car was due to get the seats re-covered, have a walnut dashboard and inertia reel seatbelts fitted together with a luggage rack. We arranged collection on the first Saturday in August and promptly joined the MSCC and DonMog.

We missed the August Noggin but made it to the September one - sans Morgan. 30th August 2003, I had an unplanned dismount from a horse (not Teddy) and ended up with a broken collar bone, broken ribs and a punctured lung. While I was out of action, I persuaded Mrs F to take me out for a drive in the Morgan but she found it too stressful with me in the passenger seat imploring her to go faster!

We kept that car from 2003 to December 2013 when it went to Allon White in part/ex for our current car. Phil told me that it was bought by another first-timer. My understanding is that it was again traded in at Allon White and is now in Eire. B31HWP has disappeared off the DVLA database.

My geology (well palaeontology actually) lecturer who was into Alvis (a TD21 and a Grey Lady) asked me about Morgans when he heard I was born there.

On my recommendation he bought a 1955 +4 4 seater (YDV 286?) in 1967. One summer when he was alway on a field trip he asked me to take it to Malvern for him and get a new hood made by MMC. Well I was hooked from then on and I scoured the mags for anything that I could afford to buy.

The week that the +8 was announced a +4 was advertised in Exchange and Mart for £100 , I went to see it , and it was in a rather sorry state regarding the woodwork, so I got it for £85 and had to sell my Morris Minor convertible immediately and borrow some money from my parents.

That car was a flat rad with a TR3 engine , LWK 517 , which is currently owned by Sid Madrid. I rebuilt as best I could, and learned much while doing so. It was never reliable , but its was great fun and I must have covered quite a few thousand miles whilst living in the N East.

Eventually I sold it in order to buy a faster car , this time a +4 with a Daimler 2.5 litre V8 engine (no not Basil Fielding's car a home brewed job) that had been campaigned on the Cornish and Devonian hills.

I graduated from that to the ex Mike Duncan +4 (MVJ 101) which I kept for 32 years racing it across the UK and Europe , with great fun if not always very successful.

After realising that I was better retiring with my reputation intact rather than making a comeback and ruining for ever, I bought my current +8, and even that I have now owned for 20 years.

Mog615 .... I'd be interested in more info about the Morgan with the Daimler engine ..... that was a cracking Edward Turner designed lump ....a gem of an engine and readily tuneable for 200+bhp .... other than being 30kg heavier than the Rover V8 (lots of heavy bits on the Daimler so I reckon a lot of that weight could be lopped off with some judicious slimming work) I have often wondered what would have happened if Morgan had chosen it instead (unfortunately around that time the engine fell foul of being too much competition for the Jag straight six so was being phased out in a 'model rationalisation' ) .... that engine developed, and with an alloy block could have been up there with the all time great British powerplants .... would be interested in your experience of the actual over my imaginings.


As for my (still in restoration) car .... well, I did see it at a hillclimb (but was racing myself so only from trackside) ... went and viewed its well used carcass, put it on a trailer and bought it home .... other than a tootle round the yard before I stripped it I've never driven one ... have had plenty of old motors so know roughly what to expect .... have no illusions of faultless handling or smooth and quiet cruising!! .... have always liked Morgans and fell in love with it .... fortunately I've always been on the side of quirk and character over efficiency so I don't expect to be disappointed. I've never gone the sensible route but have rarely regretted following my heart

K

Ps Geology graduate myself! .... tho my lecturer in palaeontology was an MG man!