Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Is The Seven Year Itch At Play?

RAMBLE ALERT...
This has been a rather interesting thread given the cross section through that which may be the past, and more importantly recent baby boomer experience in things automotive, as well as perceptions of altering values as we make our way through life with ever ageing bodies..

As ever a blue collar type, my earnings were so related. Fortunately for me, I was mechanically minded and machines ever fascinated me from my earliest days.

My first car was a frog eye Sprite and a steep lesson in the way corrosion can affect structural integrity.. As the years passed I came to own an old 60`s Lotus Elan, a Europa, all be it with a Renault engine, for sure MGB and Miget along with Soitfire, hot Mini`s, Ford Escorts and more, all mostly dragged out of scrap yards or saved from a slow death rotting quietly in back gardens and the like, all of which equated to a reasonably wide range of automotive experience gained in time.

I had ever considered the Porsche 911 to be no more than a souped up Beetle, which I suppose was pretty close to the truth..?

I guess my Porsche appreciation eventually came about as the result of reading many articles in the classic press which reported Porsche winning in sporting events as diverse as the Paris Dakar and 24hrs at Le Mans. Thus during the 70`s fuel crisis I swapped my Mk1 Jensen Interceptor (7672cc Chrysler V8..!) for a well rotted 60`s Porsche 912, which I nailed together over the period of a year or so. During that year I came to appreciate just how well engineered the Porsche was, and once on the road the hook was set, thus over the next decade and more, followed the ownership of a 77 911 and then an 82, 911 SC.. Compared to all else I had worked on before these air cooled Porsches felt as if carved out of the solid and ready to go anywhere any time... Corrosion issues...? Porsche had started galvanising the bodies circa 1977 on, though in the 90`s at ten years old I was repairing some corrosion on my SC.... and that was circa 30 years ago, what that car or any of it`s type might be like today...Buyer beware...?

Porsche has been around and ever evolving over baby boomer lifetimes, and as such it would seem nostalgia may play a part in creating our Porsche ideals relative to a particular model year or type..if we have any such,,?

As for the 993, I had the opportunity to test one such and over my favourite roads at it`s UK launch and thought it a wonderfully competent machine, though on climbing back into my then 100k mile SC, I had driven no more than a mile before I came to think that the 993 had evolved to become a GT compared to the sports car which my 911 SC was, and that the 993 required to be driven at a much higher rate of knots to provide the a similar sense of driver involvement as that of my old SC. The 993 was smoother, more comfortable, easier to drive fast, with it`s servo brakes, power steering and new front and rear suspension design, thus gone was the degree of nervousness', effort and degree of skill required to keep my old Porsche out of the hedges, all of which made the 911 a somewhat involving driving experience, more so than the 993. Who was it said relativity plays a part..? Each to their own.

I have oft typed of searching for a more involved driving experience, and ended up owning my rebuilt 85/6 +8, bought in 2002 to enjoy driving around the loch-side roads and through the glens hereabouts, though my good lady had ideas of a visit to Le Mans, then a year later driving down to Andalusia, and home via Portugal. Our next European adventure was down to Sorrento, thus in those early years of Morgan ownership I experienced quite a bit of .. err.. "driver involvement," and perhaps more importantly also learned just how reliable a pre digital Morgan can be, even on such lengthy trips, I suspect even today it could match it`s previous performance, now having owned it for circa 21years..

After those early Morgan adventures I then set about a self build home extension project, which doubled the volume of our house the major part of which took me circa 7 years, and during that time the old Mog lived in the garage surrounded by building materials of all types, and as the project eased off the effect of the works on my 60 + stiffening body, which also around that time had enjoyed the addition of a couple of stents in my heart.... Thus on blood thinners and feeling the cold more than before, the thought of trying to access and egress the +8 caused me to consider selling it and replacing it with a tin top sports car. I did half heartedly mention on here that I was interested in selling the old Mog, which never came to anything, but my tin top thinking came to a head during Covid lockdown when I bought a rather nice Porsche Carrera 4S as opposed to my initial idea of buying another 911 SC or perhaps 3.2 Carrera....

Why the C4S..? My good lady had become used to driving her automatic cars for a few years and as part of the excuse to buy a PDK equipped Porsche was that it could double up as transport for her if/when her car might be off the road... Sandra had driven my SC in the 90`s and enjoyed it, but on arriving home having spent her day with the 991, she proclaimed "this car really suits me, the seat fits perfectly and is very comfortable, I have good all round vision, even in the mirrors, and I like the performance too......RESULT..?

In time we had issues with her car, which on the first occasion took LR three weeks before they could look at it, a similar fault a month or two later and the estimate was seven weeks before they could book it in... Enough was enough. By this time My good lady had become unwell, but still determined to enjoy life, she decided that a Tesla might just be the way to go.... She put a lot of time into researching everything related to all things Tesla, unfortunately she never ever got to drive her Tesla, though we did have one run in it together.

Today I have through accident more than design come to own three cars, both the Morgan and now Porsche have varying degrees of sentimental value attached, and the Tesla suits the old man I have become... Hmm..!

The 991 is far more of a GT than the 993 ever was, and like the 993 is likely to be in comparison, in that back in the 90`s while the 993 was so much easier during braking, handling corners, and accelerating than my old SC ever could be, thus times for the 993 from A to B, even when sticking to speed limits on A and B roads would have been quite a bit less than that of my SC , however in that regard even more than the in the 993, the 991 would again be quite a bit faster A to B at road legal speeds though the 991 is also likely to be even less involved as a driver experience than my old SC as best I remember it.

If you might think the four wheel drive of the 991C4S might make it impossible to enjoy in any way, other than at the very high speeds it`s circa 400 HP can take it to.... think again (-: Should you care to beam up this vid, you might find it interesting...?



While the C4S is a wonderful machine, given the amount of sensors and wiring in it`s makeup, it is unlikely to match the reliability or build quality in some areas of my then 10 year old SC, or for that matter even my old Morgan, given the Morgan had the benefit of a nut and bolt strip down and rebuild by a renown Morgan expert, who was the chap I bought it from..

I would not have bought any water cooled 911 derivative Porsche pre 997.2, given the possible engine issues.

On the other hand, the Tesla fits well into my required usage as a "daily" and used irregularly, only ever charged at home given it`s circa 270 mile Summer usage range, and thus likely to be in use until I may no longer drive as it is so simple to use.

During more recent years the old Mog was hardly made use of from Covid on, and for obvious other reasons, however I did tax it at the start of Sept and had it out for a run on a nice warm day.... Boy did it make me feel alive again, whether driving reasonably quickly with it`s exhaust roaring, or just bumbling along narrow lanes soaking in all that was around me...If your Morgan Porsche or whatever car was once thought of as special, by you, can no longer can provide enough pleasure and sense of well being on each occasion you fire it up.... Then perhaps it is time to look elsewhere to find some sense of engagement that might better fit one`s evolving circumstances.

I wish you all the best of luck in your choices..

A thoughtful and realistic ramble, it is appreciated.

Last year I made my choice, the Boxster S meets my needs and is comfortable, quick and refined: with the hood down I can enjoy the noise of the Turbocharged flat 4! I'm not ready to give up on a roadster yet, but have to admit that the 20 second power operation is a delight after the "Easy Up" (sort of easy) Morgan hood.

The future is unknown, we both are starting to experience age related decay that nibbles away at our ease of movement, physical strength and dexterity and causes low level pain. We no longer want to drive more than about 250 miles in a day and need a quiet, comfortable bed each night. At some point we will reduce our fleet from 2 silly high performance cars to one sensible car, but it will be a reluctant decision. I hope our future is not a Funky Cat...


It niggles me somewhat that Carolines Mercedes AMG C43 Coupe exceeds the power of my Boxster by 17bhp, but the single turbo flat 4 spins in a way the twin turbo V6 cannot. Porsche are engineers it seems, in a way Mercedes are not.

I drive the Boxster as a daily drive, it makes me smile the way the Plus 8 did back in 2014.

Too true. Pal told me that he had done 600 miles in his this year and I just checked mine at 549 miles in 12 months. Absolutely ridiculous and whats more costing maybe £6 per mile in maintenance fuel and concumables. I have done way more on my bike let alone the family estate car. And way more fun in the boat.

Its got to go. Its not that I cant afford the Ferrari. Its just that its a pointless garage queen. But I will remain a member of the Ferrari Owners Club both because they are a nice bunch or people and because the cars are beautiful pieces of engineering. Just dont want to own one.

P.S. Lots of lovely old buildings in Leeds but then it was a filthy rich city in the days when wool and textiles were in their pomp. Like Bradford next door, far wealthier than London then was

That’s a shame you’re not using your Ferrari much these days, Howard, hard to say what the right move is, there’s still pleasure in simply having one of your own. It’s the kind of car which you could let the market make your mind up for you, offer it for sale at a decent price and if nobody bites, just keep it, you can give it away cheap any day.
I’d suggest you take a week off not work, jump in your Ferrari and head for Italy or Scotland, avoid all the main roads and whip every horse of that glorious engine till it screams, if nothing else it will vastly reduce your cost per mile and using man maths, save you a fortune 😂

Peter J, many thanks for taking the time to read through my ramble and for taking the time within the forum to let me know you did. I am also pleased you might have found something of interest therein.

I suspect there were quite a few reasons as to why during the air cooled years at Porsche and other German vehicle manufacturers, that the quality of their engineering was prioritised..?

It seems to me that by the time water cooled 911 derivatives appeared, Porsche may have gone through a bit of a financial crisis which may have altered their priorities to the extent that it seems engines could display expensive issues on occasion...? I suspect that Porsche may have introduced the insurance scheme (Porsche extended Warranty) which could cover manufacturing defects on Porsche maintained vehicles, provided they were maintained using only official Porsche parts and officially recognised Porsche main dealers technicians to do so.. The policy can be applied to Porsches up to 15 years old and I think circa 150k miles, provided they precisely fit within Porsches guidelines for acceptance on to the scheme, all of which which customers could take out at cost to themselves when their initial warranty ran out. I guess a cynic could perhaps perceive that the extended warranty scheme could have been conceived to support second-hand market values...?

Like many one time quality brands, in the passage of time and financial/political turmoil cutting costs seems to have been prioritised over actual end product quality. On occasion one has to look hard to find where costs seem to have been cut in terms of material choices. Unfortunately for other owners they can find out totally unexpectedly and very expensively, all despite the many years it took the combination of real world accomplishment and marketing departments waxing lyrical, to build a brand name into an automotive legend, and one so strong to carry the faithful on through seemingly problematic times...?

Logic would seem to determine that rarely if ever used machines should perhaps be turned back into cash, unless they have proven to be a wise investment addition to one`s portfolio... ? Of course one`s personal financial situation and future planning will ever take priority in that regard...and in the case of my Morgan it has reached the stage where I feel it owes me nothing. If I tried to sell my C4S now I suspect I might loose 10-20 K.

In my case it took many years of saving to buy my Morgan and circa 20 years on to buy my C4S, thus other than the sense of achievement that they represent to me while sitting in my garage, looking like two of the best examples of automotive art, either of which I can jump in and fire up should I care to do so, or not, currently justifies their existence to ME, also for reasons that I typed earlier in the thread...they were both enjoyed while creating memories for me, which now can never be replicated, thus the idea of converting them to on-screen digits in a bank or other account, holds no appeal at this time... As for next week, month or year.. who knows...? not I.

Howard, I was down at a local marina a week or so back, helping my octogenarian friend Winterise his Nicholson ketch by fitting the equivalent of two boom tents, which totally cover the vessel`s deck area from bow to stern. The tenting and associated fittings designed by my friend to hold the "tent" in place to protect the wooden decking which he over-laid on the original fibreglass some years back. His design has been well tested and proven to survive the worst of winter gales over a number of years. It took a few hours for five of us to fit and tie the tent down securely, my friend dosed up with paracetamol to numb the obvious pain while crawling about under the tent tying it down to the the fittings. All this effort, a week prior to his visit to hospital to have hip surgery... ! Both he and his good lady have sailed their ketch as a two "man" crew over many decades, and it would seem they fully intend to continue on doing so...

Another of my friends has in the last two months had open chest heart surgery, a day or so after release from hospital he suffered great chest pains, diagnosed as pneumonia. In the last week or so he has just purchased another corroded classic car on-line for him to restore, which had delivered, to add to the two he already has in bits and part way through restoration in his garage...! When I phoned to enquire on his recovery process, he was outside in the driveway, checking for a misfire on the recently acquired vehicle`s K-Jetronic system ...!!!!!

My guess is that as we evolve, if that which once provided great pleasure might now not fit as well as it once did, or worse still has no place in our current,or future lifestyle ....the answer seems to lie with the individual concerned....? Snap decisions are perhaps best avoided..?

As ever, each to their own works for me.

As we all slow down, with changing priorities and with a greater affinity for creature comforts than in our youth, often more financially affluent and astute now, backed by and had a life of experience and we slowly start to realise there are far more years behind us than ahead of us and its almost imperceptive but the glass switches from half full to half empty.............and we are looking to find things to fill the half empty glass with much more time on our hands to occupy ourselves with .

I've always had Harleys in my life, even if I never used them for periods of time, they stay in the garage waiting for that moment they fulfilled that need, just having them there to look at, was sometimes more than enough. Then 12 years ago, my knees went and with it my Harley riding days, having always ridden two up, they were just too heavy. Sue encourage me to keep them and ride solo, but it wasn't the same without her riding pillion.

Living so close to the sea, the salt air destroys everything, no matter what you do, so slowly I released the bikes the last to go was my Gray Ghost Fatboy, my favourite riding bike of all time. For a time I missed them, I would always scan the ads for another Harley but never bite the bullet, now they are just fond memories that will stay with me forever.

I was chatting with an old Harley friend I've known over 30 years, he's a just bit older than me, still has his Fatboy, but now after 3 unsuccessful knee and leg operations, is walking on crutches when he's not wheel chair bound. I count my blessings.

Sometimes its nice to keep a token of past moments and good times, be it a Ferrari, Porsche, Morgan or a Harley, to keep alive those moments, to try and perhaps rekindle them but most likely to kid ourselves we still are what we were back then. I've become a little more pragmatic, as long as I can drive a reliable car which gives me the 'open' air motoring I've always enjoyed since my youth, then I'm increasingly less fussed what form it takes. I'm creating some new memories whilst I can and sharing them with the ones that really matter to me. So as long as its an automatic, I less bothered as to what make of car it is, as looking like an silly arse (to others) driving roof down in rain or snow, is much less of an inconvenience these days when you have creature comforts like heated seats, airscarf and a bloody good heater to make it much easier on yourself these days . The spirit may not be as young, but its still as willing to have some good old fashioned fun.

A Nicholson ketch is a good solid crusing boat, built like a tank. I prefer something lighter and faster but each to his own. Why on earth he has put timber on the decks I will never understand - my current boat was chosen, amongst many reasons, because it has no wood at all on the outside of the hull. Teak decks are hideously expensive to install, and even more expensive to maintain. Yet every club / harbour / inlet has some mad soul busily repairing or renewing his wooden boat. Many never ever get their bottoms wet - they become daydreams for people who read Hornblower as a kid or even, as I did , Swallows and Amazons. Wooden boat disease where working on the boat is the object rather than sailing it.

I've been hooked on sailing, boats and the sea since I was a kid in the school naval section of the CCF. Not the slightest possibility of me ever giving that up and indeed I plan on being burried at sea, hopefully a long time in the future. We have just done that for a fellow member who sadly died on board his yacht.

My Ferrari doesnt really make any sense. It is a lovely piece of engineering and a surprisingly high quality one compared to Porsches produced at the same time with intermediate shaft issues etc. Enzo was an engine man and for many years Ferrari made only the engines and the bodies were put on by Scaglietti. But going back again to my youth which is what all old men dream about, I remember my only car being a Triumph Spitfire used winter and summer with the hood down and a proper tonneau cover with a zip between driver and passenger This was in Yorkshire where winters can get parky but the heater under the tonneau together with a decent sheepskin coat and hat worked fine. Can I use the Ferrari like that? No I cant, not least because of the damage that sort of use does to any car. Maybe an MX5 would be the answer? I doubt that the Plus Four would be given its cost. Same for a Porker and both of them would cost the 60/70k that my Ferrari is worth anyway. So they start being the sort of car you feel you need to take care of rather than just get on with using.

P.S. At 80 I am surprised that your pal hasnt discovered that boats are far less work if used through winter rather than winterised. You take ages emptying the boat, then covering it, putting in a dehumidifier, removing electronics, emptying tanks, and then making a list of what you are going to do over winter. In spring you reverse the process and the work list usually isnt much shorter . As Nelson said, both ships and crews rot in harbour.

Apologies for missing this Ewan.

I've since looked at a few and even put an offer on one that was agreed but after a brew and a think, it didn't feel right so I didn't go through with it. I kept comparing what I was looking at to my previous 90.

So, I took a punt and paid for one of those full vehicle checks various websites offer and ran it on mine to see what I can find out. Said report also included two recent sale listings from this past Feb, along with pics! It was nice to see it was clearly being well looked after. It was then I noticed an odd vanity plate so I googled it and a dealership came up. I took a punt and emailed them to see if they were in fact the seller from Feb and explained how I was a former owner and that if by chance it ever comes back to him that I would be interested in buying it. It turns out that not only was he the seller but he was the one who bought it from the Porsche dealer I did a px with. It went to his mate but then covid hit and it sat hardly used so he bought it back and ran it for two years and sold it to a good customer of his this Feb.

Well, call it fate, but the current owner had been in touch with him the previous week saying that he'd like to trade it in for a camper van. The market has cooled significantly so the current owner is not liking the pill he'd have to swallow if he did sell it and asked for a few days to mull it over. I should be happy that it wasn't an automatic NO.

I've since had a few chats with the dealer arranging it and was told he hopes to have an answer for me today. Fingers crossed this works out!

Serendipitous circumstances at play, itch satisfied, result!!!

That plus four I tried at revolution really was good, every compromise we make to live with our classic chassis cars has been addressed, I probably will buy one once I’m old….if they still make engine driven cars in fifty years😂

I hope it all falls into place Perry!