Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) 4/4 tyre advice

What do you run for pressure on a tight track?

I'm very happy with the Classics.

Paul I set them for Snetterton 24F 26R which performed fine. Felt firm with no felt tuck. (Two people on board)

Off topic! Or you PM me, IcePack. When I see your car and what you do with her, track days and so on, at which stage is your engine, have you done some tuning and if so which?

Another Q. When I see the rear lights your car is newer than the Ford gearbox cars. But at the same time there was also the change to another rear axle provider. So far I learned it was only easy to change the final ratio with the former Salisbury axles. Since the Mazda gear box were built in MMC also changed from Salisbury to BRT or BTR. Anyway this axles have to be exchanged completely to my knowledge or have you found a way just to swap the diff to a 4.1 ratio?

Heinz my car is Nov 2011. Unfortunately it came with the Ford gearbox despite the sales person saying Mazda. Techniques changed the ratio. New crown wheel & pinion, No comments on any difficulties so I guess it has the earlier axle. (For some reason I thought it was a BTR). I was warned the replacement parts can be noisy. Mine does have a whine at certain speeds, not on throttle or off throttle, just when cruising at constant speed. Think it is caused by poor manufacturing tolerance, rather than set up. It does make the car a whole lot more drivable on a daily basis. Use of 5th gear, even at 40mph is the norm. I had it done after 1st year of ownership which was from new. Basically due comments made by Jays on this forum.

Off topic is good Heinz - learning so much here

As for tyres I think I’m going to go 165/80 with the t-trac

Just need to find somewhere that has 5 that were reasonably recently manufactured. Need to phone around tomorrow

Thanks to everyone for their views and comments

IcePack, yes, I dimly remember that the rear axle change came later on. A German forum member had a Plus 4 Supersport with a Mazda transmission in 2011 in combination with the older Salisbury rear axle where he was able to change to 4.1 and later on even ro a 4.3 ratio. I drove his car and I remember the grinding noise or whine, but in a Morgan it was ok. That BTR axle didn't come until about 2014 when my 4/4 was built when I am right. Honestly, the 3.7 final drive is the only downside to my beloved car. It sounds crazy but I always feel like I'm in the wrong gear when driving in normal traffic or in a city.
I'm toying with the idea of putting in a Mazda MX5 NC six speed gearbox because a good used 6 speed is much cheaper than a complete new shorter rear axle when a diff ratio change is not possible.. But I need to compare the gear ratios. Somewhere I read that the first gear of the 6 speed gearbox is very short and the other gears are very similar to the 5 speed gearbox. Let's see.
One more point. In another current thread the ground clearance is discussed. DaveW has sent photos where you can see that the Mazda gearbox sticks out a lot more to the ground, he showed pics. Especially with change to 175/70/15 tyres.. Dave says that this is not the case with the slimmer Ford gearbox just in case I would also choose 175/70/15 tyres.

C2RM, I use the car as an everyday run about summer & winter. Track days are rare. Just fun. Only thing done to the engine is a re-map which gives a little more torque, with a peak 500 rpm lower. Done by a man in a van 8 years ago. However it does require higher octane fuel or it will pink.

Decided on 185/80 and the Vredestein but they were hard to source locally. I called Vredestein direct who said best place would be Blackcircles and U.K. stock of the tyre was low but more expected in November

So 5 new tyres fitted yesterday and just over 150 miles driven. Clearly need to understand how the car behaves now on different tyres but can definitely feel the grip and when it starts to slide a little so very pleased. And I think they look great on the car as well

We are away for a week at the end of the month and will be in Wales so should get to test the wet grip as well!