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

Probably.

I only saw him walking behind a talking jaens.
But that's probably for another thread.

I was poor but had an endowment policy pay out and I thought now I feel rich and so I will do something daft with it so bought a Plus 4.

Now I have am even poorer and must be as daft as a brush.

But I bet you are smiling.

After over 40 years with bikes, and getting somewhat older but maybe not wiser, sold the 1960s Triumph cafe racer owned for 30 years, the Honda Fireblade owned for 15 years and the Ducati Mk III road racer to make way for a sports car. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

A birthday present of a trip around the Malvern factory sealed the deal in Morgan’s favour against Z4, MX5, Caterham and suchlike temptations.

An extremely basic 4/4 Sport became the toe in the water to coin the phrase. A very tidy 3.7 Roadster, unfortunately the rev hang version, followed for 12 months. We now have a well behaved and equally tidy Plus 4. Happy bunny.

Bring on the Summer 😎

Another fascinating thread.
Before Morgan? Company cars in one way or another. A slew of Alfas, Guilietta, 145, Alfa 75, all of which were marvellous, totally reliable and did not fall apart culminating in a beautiful red GTV. A flirtation with a TVR Griffith which I bought off the stand at the Motor Show, a secondhand Porsche 944 which rates as the best made car I have ever driven and on to the 'Estate Car' period. Audi Quattro S2, two Subaru Legacies, A Merc C350 and currently a Subaru Forester.

Then
The Morgan decision was triggered by a conversation with friends at a barbecue. I had been up to Bedfordshire for two days working with a client, he kindly put me up in his house and we invested half a day in a 50km bike ride. Lunch was at the local dinghy sailing club where he took me, hood down, in his Jaguar F type, a wonderful car that he uses at weekends. His main transport is a big Audi hybrid SUV. Anyway, to the Point.

I mentioned the 'weekend car' idea at a barbecue with friends and my mate's wife kicked off arguing that it was a waste of money and was killing the planet, to my stunned surprise, Angie perked up and said
"I would love a little weekend sports car, a classic, an old MG or Mercedes .... "
to which I replied "OK, but I don't know how to fix them and we don't have a decent garage".
"Well, we how about a modern Morgan, and we have the old tumbledown garage that you can fix".

That was it, off we went the next weekend to Bell and Colville where on the forecourt was a four seater, just arrived that day, unprepped with our name on it. A 30 minute test drive later, a few minutes sitting in a 2 seater sealed it for Angie "Too small", a bit of haggling and finally "OK we'll have it".
Just writing this reminds me what a joy it has been.

My longing for a Morgan started at 19 years old when my then manager, a South African on secondment to London, ordered a Plus 8 (then just launched) - he was on a three + year waiting list so spent most lunch hours pouring over the brochure and insisting we junior staff admired his purchase and assisted with choosing the options! He then got assigned to the USA and then back to S Africa, so no idea if he eventually took delivery.
I was on a salary of £20 a month (plus luncheon vouchers!), so just a heady dream for me - consoled myself with a string of ancient Minis, MG Midgets and an MGB before going to Hong Kong where I had a Triumph Stag for a few years. Hong Kong is not the most sensible place for any sports car, so, after 40 years of family friendly Mazdas there, retired, came back to UK and picked up my 2003 Plus 8. Now we just need the freedom to get out more!

From my mid teenage years I wanted to get a classic car of some sort.

I decided to at 19 when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, (sieze the day and all that!), plus working on it would give me (and him) something to distract ourselves with etc, so I purchased a 75 MG Midget.

Went through that Midget to a 64 AH Sprite and ended up with a 58 Frogeye Sprite, ironically it was the only one my dad liked despite being a Ford man and having nothing good to say about BMC\BL!

When my dad died, I sold the Frogeye (started to despise it for the reminders etc) and went without for 18 months, then decided a classic style with modern underpinnings would be better for me as a true classic was just not getting the use it required. So I bought a yellow Morgan that was the demonstrator from BHM.

The future, who knows!

Back in 2011 my MGBGT was getting to be close to a re shell. Her in doors said why don’t we get a Morgan. Off we go to the dealers aiming to spend £20G. after seeing a suitable car & wanting seats changed to recliners + A few others bits, it was suggested we were getting close to the price of a new 4/4. Anyway a couple of days later having looked around a bit more I went for a test drive. It was a new +4. Oh heck the ride was awful the pedals were impossible , the indercator buzzer squeaked and the gearbox as stiff as well you can guess. As for the steering well trying to keep in a straight line well!
BUT when I got out as John Stride put it, I had the biggest grin you could imagine. So after going through everything we put in an order for a new 4/4 with hard top some £36G.

Couldn’t wait for delivery some 8 months later. That is when the troubles started which warrants a whole new thread of its own.
I still have the car used as a daily driver some 56T miles later still on original King Pins & absolutely love it. Her in doors hates it!