Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Polar opposite Morgans

Losing interest as I posted in another thread and contemplating selling the Ferrari I took advantage of a beautiful hot sunny day to visit Williams Morgan. Likely it was my third or fourth visit because every time I change my toy car, I wonder if a Morgan would fill the bill and I toddle over the river to see. During these trips, I have driven several different varieties of Trad including the Roadster, the V8 and even the Aero series.

Today I took the chance provided by Williams to drive the old trad ( 2009 Duratec plus 4) and the new BMW plus 4 manual back to back. What a difference - completely chalk and cheese. The new trad was so much more together with higher quality in every area, no rattles, nice finish, and modern facilities like aircon.

The traditional trad was if anything a bit better than I remember from past drives but with a very poor gearbox and a rubber chassis which meant that it certainly wasnt a car to drive fast on bumpy potholed infested british roads. But then the issue with my Ferrari is that it was built with one thing in mind - fast open road driving of the sort that isnt legally available in the UK and likely to become even less so in Drakeford's Wales. So I am not looking for speed any longer so much as pleasure and character. Even then, I dont think the trad I tried fitted the bill. It was simply too crude to enjoy as a drive at any speed in my view.

Immediately I returned the car I was into a manual gearbox BMW engined Plus Four. What a revelation! The gearbox was delightful. The clutch was a bit heavy and full of stiction but the car was only 70 miles from new. The steering was even faster than the Ferrari though a bit prone to wander in a straight line. The ride was hard but acceptable and the preformance was very high. I doubt that the Ferrari would be much if any faster to 100mph and any difference thereafter is irrelevant anyway. Only significant issue that I found was the seats which had a soft middle and a hard lump further back towards the backrest. Do Morgan make their own?

The comparison of the trad trad and the new trad was an illustration of just how much technology has progressed in the last 90 years and also how much better is the finish and quality of modern Morgans.Yes the CX is a character alternative to the Boxter if you like the faux classic body style. But the new trad is a fast fully modern car in an imitation 40s body style and one that wouldnt "bimble" that well at least in manual form . Too high geared for one thing. Maybe also a bit hard core by comparison with the Boxter..Its a sports car to be taken seriously

So I am still looking and will try an MX5 next. Meantime, well done Morgan. The CX plus four is an excellent modern car.

Pity the trad was a 2009 as it wouldn’t have the MX5 gearbox, which is so much better.

I drove a manual plus four the other year and was amazed by it. It is better all round than a trad car.
I've had a lot of trads so whilst I'm not an expert in anything at all, I've driven and owned a lot of what MMC produce.....🙃

The issue (in my opinion) with the CX cars is that for the price of them, they are competing with a lot of very good, highly developed opposition.
But it is still a Morgan.
I can see why the 'trad' shaped body is on the CX chassis, but I wonder if something a bit more daring is being designed.........

The Mazda gearbox is good, but it's still in a car designed a100 years ago or so, so it's really like polishing a turd.............😁

Nice post Howard and good to read/hear.

Especially as my wife is hopefully taking delivery of her new Plus 4 later this month.
She’s not driven one so is jumping in at the deep end. Her theory is that it can’t be any worse than her Defender

I found the old defender an ideal training for a trad .... the plus 4 should be a good step up from that.

As regards Howard's post .... each to their own... there are probably about as many reasons for owning a Morgan as there are Morgans ... my personal desire was exactly that of wanting the old seat of the pants motoring feel, warts and all ... If I had wanted a swish, efficient modern experience there were other cars that would have filled the bill. Horses for courses and the trad does what it does better than anything this side of WW2 ... 🙂

K

Howard, why not visit Frontline as well and see if they will let you drive one of their MGB's. It might have the old character with a mix of new you are looking for and the old build date being in the 1960's might help with some of the UK road rules/ insurance I occasionally read about on here.

On either Talk Morgan or another forum I read about Frontline have a new prototype that is going to be very exciting but no details, maybe you could see it as well.

Thanks Chris but NO!! There were many cars better than the MGB even in its heyday and in any case I was a Lotus and Triumph man. If I went the old banger route ( and any of them were better cars than the Morgan of the same era) then it likely would be an Elan. Maybe a TR 5 or 6. Certainly not a Stag ( I had one) .

The problem is age - me not the cars. Bit old for the "get out and get under" routine but they do offer more interest and more useability than supercars.

My purpose in writing the report was to praise the competence and togetherness of the latest MMC effort which is light years away even from the Aero. Only the price is problematic though even then it is in the same bracket as the much less interesting Porkers.