Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Trad Plus 8

And as featured in the c.1996 Plus 8 brochure

There is also a very nice +8 coming up for Auction.
https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1512397

That’s Emog Plus 8 is a very nice car, there is allot on the Emog site about the build, no expense spared. Would be interesting to see the estimate, it was owned by a dealer that was looking for 50k from memory.

The main difference is the short door vs long door as some of the older folk do struggle getting in and mount of the short door cars.

Edit:
https://www.gomog.com/phoenix/phoenix.html
It’s the UK RHD one not so complimentary to TM..

Sold at Brightwells previously:

http://classiccars.brightwells.com/viewdetails.php?id=3867

I'll get back to you a second time. Sometimes I think I get an impression of ads very quickly. It's a bit of my intuition. I got 9 out of 10 very much good results this way when I bought old Porsches from the US 8 years ago, also based on a good acquaintance in SF, of course. In the case of this Morgan, my intuition tells me that it would be a great oversight not to visit this car. A huge advantage compared to my situation in 2014 where I unfortunately could only rely on descriptions of others and pictures. Even if you get about 150 pictures per car, underbody etc. included. If this Plus 8 were a LHD car, I might be tempted.

To my mind that one is very much overdone. If you like bling and chrome everywhere great , if not then the New Elms car will be a much better bet.

A great friend went to see that car many moons ago , and hated it . He bought a 1993 pre-cat short door car in preference.

Kevin Vernon seemed to know how to take a Morgan apart and rebuild it taking care and paying more attention to detail than one might expect to see exiting the MMC works on an average basis.

That this car (if it is indeed the one I think it might be) was modified to suit the ideals of a true Morgan enthusiast who also knew his way around Morgans, having a fair bit of hands-on experience of the marque over many decades, covering more miles in his Morgans than most, and on a variety of continents, all of which would seem to suggest this Morgan may well be quite special compared to most others.

My Kevin Vernon rebuilt +8 is still running well and looking smart today, some 20 years after I bought it from him.

I agree with Andy, it’s a very good spec apart from the roll bar, puts mine to shame, though I’ve done double the mileage of that one:)

If you can get Tim Ayres or someone to look at the engine spec in advance of a visit , let us know what it says.

The Rover V8 (of that era) was designed to lug around a 2500 kilo 4x4 and produce a lot of low down torque , which is great for that purpose , but for a light sports car it doesn't really make for a free revving engine.

The John Eales mods generally use some intake and head modifications plus a better cam, better clutch and everything nicely balanced and lightened. I won't say it transforms the car , but you will notice an immediate difference . It revs much more quickly and cleanly, and will pull right up to 6000 rpm (but peak torque is somewhat lower of course) Many of your ex TVR colleagues will probably have had similar work done.

Also make sure that the electronics have had 2 chips , one for fuelling and one for electronics, not cheap but so worthwhile.

A couple of Kiwis have purchased through New Elms trad plus 8 lately and all have been as described and good cars.

Warning. LONG

Hi Andy,

Hope this finds you well!

For some reason, this car has not been treated well on this forum, either this or other times. No malice, just deadly confusion of different varieties. And it is often confused with my other Plus 8s. (Lorne seems to drop Plus 8s everywhere he goes, must be related canines and fire hydrants) Though its spec and the people who have worked on it should speak for it, they don't. The non-mechanical elements are dealt with on gomog here. The article was requested and used by Tudor Motors to act as their public example of what they could do. Kevin is an amazing guy. He just retired a couple of months ago after some years as a private race car preparer for a single client.

Tim Ayres is a VERY fine fellow, but I have never heard him promoted as Plus 8 expert at this level. In fact, when it was enjoying its first long test run in 2006 (I bought the car used in 2005), it was taken to tiny pieces over that winter you were one of the first to see it when I invited you to the eMog weekend at the Elms Hotel in 2006. I used to call it Humpty Dumpty on eMog. Remember now? If you had read the spec I don't think you would not have made the comments you have in your post below.

Asa short list, the vehicle was totally disassembled and put back together with 2006 brake hydraulics. Caparo installed their last and best calipers in 2008. It has Porterfield pads and shoes at all corners, the best such stuff I have ever tried and I have tried everything. It has privately sourced GME 4 leaf rear springs and a Mulberry front end, with his springs and roller bearings. It rides on Rutherdord AVOs back and front. The LR Rover engine type was personal decision. I build my Morgans for the environment and usage I intend to use them. The present engine was new when installed in 2007, a UK military lower compression 4.6. I was tired of the higher compression original 3.5 engine stumbling with the dubious petrol quality one found in backroads Europe (We dislike autoroute/autobahn/autostrasse/motorway/interstate driving). Yet I wanted a bit more power and flexibility than stock. Low down torque allows one to cruise at 45 mph in 5th. (soundless!) I installed a Piper fast road cam, Superflare trumpets, and the bigger and adjustable Jaguar flapper AFM with an (also adjustable) FSE fuel pressure regulator, all of which more than compensate for the 8.5 compression as can be seen from the bhp indicted...6% more than LR 4.6 stock/. Stage One heads. The car can be tweaked in minute from 230bhp to 252bhp but no one with it now could do that without speaking with me for 5 minutes. It has a late 1999 R380, made after the modification early that year corrected some sad features of R380s made before. When I rebuilt the cdn car, I installed the very last R380 made (from John Ea;es) and rebuilt/sent the older 1999 one to the UK into this car.

When not competing, I leave my cars a bit under-tuned for reliability and less stress.They have too much bhp as it is. All of these changes are well within the range of an advanced flapper engine person and the tuning takes a flat head screwdriver. IMHO, the joy of Morgans is their light weight,not the bhp. As we see often, the latter merely makes these hyper light cars deadly in untrained hands. Their comportment and reactivity at is why so many famous racers buy them.

John Eales, a good and chatty supplier of mine and very close with dear Peter (Mulberry), did not supply any parts for THIS car. Not sure why you mentioned him. And it does not use the Hotwire system you speak of. Hitachi Hotwires are not easily owners- adjustable. Nor are GEMS. New chips/eproms, ideally programmed individually on a rolling road, are required. Carb'ed Plus 8s & Flappers (Bosch L-Jetronics) are easily adjustable by owners. Can even be done roadside. They were designed for a less onerous regulatoryera..unlike the reg encroachment days that began in earnest in the 1970/80s. And I have no regs I need follow on any of my Morgans. Sometimes regs can work in a car's favour. And it has no "chips" let alone two. The computer is analogue, not digital. Of the Plus 8s, only the later GEMS variant has two. If you have moved to a Tornado chip, you have one chip and a piggy-backed encoder to protect Mark Adams' genius and hard work.

With the cam, new unstressed engine and other cherry picked components,this one became an ideal sports car made for touring, iffy fuel and French/Italian/Spanish and eastern European backroads. But it can easily out accelerate and top speed any stock LR/Rover Plus 8 or Aeros for that matter. Power-to-weight is everything. My UK racing friends would introduce it to their colleagues as a Class A though the true Class A cars were far more potent than this car. I did not design it as a racing car. That being said I have had on the M4 at 142mph before I became scared.

It is/was one of the best +8s Audrey and I have ever had the pleasure to experience. A super plush tuned ride and capable of taking on all comers with dignity. We miss it..though the +8 we have remaining, still in Canada, is FAR more potent. The car has 3 times the money in it than the asking price. Its market died after a chance Talk Morgan comment, But I don't regret a single penny. Of your number, George Dow would know the most about it as it spent some time running with his Plus 8 in 2012 when we toured Scotland. I offered him a test drive, but I don't recall him using it or the Cdn car, though offered it to him to experience when HE visited us. A deep pity in retrospect. One thing we can confirm to you, as all others familiar with Tudor Motors can, there is NOTHING like a Kevin Vernon restored Morgan. Kevin restored John Worrall's Concours-competing 4/4. It rose until ranked #3, all Europe, all marques, all years. No mean achievement for our lowly Morgans. In that field of automobile competition, the equivalent of the TOK win.

This car became bullet-proof. Astounding for a Morgan used on two 12 week trips each year. I kept it virtually new with constant re-spraying and maintenance every year. It was garaged indoors at Mike Duncan's when we commuted back and forth cross the Atlantic.

BTW, I do not favour "upgraded" clutches for our engines and gearboxes..even with my upgraded R380s. I have tried a number of such clutches and they all increase leg effort without altering anything else. Who needs a sore leg on a long trip? A stock Borg & Beck is fine for me. What are you using? I am very interested.[/b ] But I agree with you about Morgan LR/Rover V8 engines and the 4x4 variants. Pre-1986 Plus 8s used Rover sedan engines, not LR 4x4s and all but the very last Plus 8s (post 1995) have different cams and very different fuel maps and computers made for Morgans and TVRs. Would you like the part # of your computer? That being said, the LT77s and R380s ratios are a chore. I do not use 1st gear...ever. I can only use it when I swap back in my original 3.5, which I kept. It is screamer and can get up to 7000 rpmmon the cam I put in. Very exciting. Though only my reluctance to stray too far from the fold prevents me from switching to something more appropriate like a T-5, a Getrag or somesuch. Our old friend David Poole had a bespoke gear set made for his R380, but he cannot be found now. Dave Ashcroft of Ashcroft Transmissions near Heathrow, another fine supplier, had 25 or so close ratio sets made for R380s made for TVR and Morgan crowd but they are long gone.I should have bought one.

As for revving high, the Phoenix can rev to 6200. This car here make 5800 IIRC It can rev up to 5800 IIRC. But as you say, the best torque is way below that. It reaches its best torque around 2600 rpm. This standard 1999 engine produces a maximum power of 185 PS (182 bhp - 136 kW) at 4750 rpm and [b]a maximum torque of 340 Nm (250 lb.ft) at 2600 rpm. https://www.ultimatespecs.com/car-specs/Land-Rover/7347/Land-Rover-Discovery-Series-II-40-V8i.html That being said, they are referring to a GEMS variant. Morgan kept using Howwires in the UK supplied through John Eales until 2000ish.

In short, your comments do not apply to this car. I was warned to send the record straight.

Be well.

Lorne