Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) SSL 5L Suspension on a Plus Four Super Sport

Tedsowner,
As someone who has an Elan and a Plus4 I would say just buy one. The contrast between a Lotus and a Mogan is large but they both have their good and bad points. Enjoy your cars, for me some days it's the Lotus other days it's the Mog.
Cheers
John.

Teds Owner

You won’t be disappointed with Supersport, so go for it

Thanks Montegue,
Some really good advice here. I actually drove that one at Williams, it is indeed hilarious fun, I was really impressed with them and ideally I’d like to buy a car from them. That one is stock and doesn’t have the SSL 5L suspension, it drives really nicely though. Another one on the market has SSL 5L.

I’ve also had a few fast cars; a V12 Vantage, Alfa Quadrifoglio, 992 GTS. The Quadrifoglio being the best by a country mile. I consider cars have just become too fast and too wide, especially in the Cotswold lanes, where I live. My 135bhp Lotus provides many more smiles per mile. I like drive a car I have to work, change gear often, even rev match.

I have to say, your car looks stunning.

I notice your test drive was at Williams, from memory they benefit from decent fairly well maintained & quiet roads around them, my advice is find some poor surfaces and potholes, then you'll notice the benefit of SSL (some owners only fit the front) and if fitted the 5 link rear

Hi SBP, I love the fact you use your Supersport as your daily, in my book that makes you a true Morganeer

Have you ever had your SS on the rolling road to confirm the 200hp quoted by Morgan?

I wouldn't be surprised if a good SS made a bit more

Were clearly on the same page Ted's Owner, all the fun in a hobby car is had driving on A & B roads so what I've only recently realised after all these years of chasing horsepower is, a car that's fun on A & B roads is what I really want.

I've also only recently realised motorways are just a necessary tool to take me quickly and directly to the fun roads, as long as my hobby car can comfortably sit at motorway speeds it doesn't actually need to be much faster than that. After making the mistake of buying a coupe Vantage, I’ve also realised my hobby car should also be a convertible. A hobby car is for high days and holidays, and high days and holidays are mostly sunny.

After finally admiting all this to myself and turning my back on the horsepower arms race, I bought a Duratec Plus 4 Morgan, tweaked it a bit and got it handling right, the result being I've never been happier with my hobby car

Hello Montegue

I like what you have done with Monty it was my intention to do something similar with either a plus 4 or a 4/4 sport but I managed to acquire a plus 4 supersport. On the suspension my supersport is fitted with the standard rear but it does benefit from the tramp bar, panhard rod, adjustable shocks and LSD. I have driven a Supersport fitted with SSL 5l rear and there is not a lot difference between them, if anything the SSL didn’t feel as planted on the road. My opinion is it’s not the rear end that’s the problem it’s the front end and your car has the multifab suspension which I assume makes the most significant difference to the handling. The Supersport has all the necessary modifications to front end but that’s as far as you can go on sliding pillar suspension.

I have not put the supersport on a rolling road so couldn’t tell you whether it is producing the 200hp quoted, but the performance is blistering I have never reached the redline or brought up the shift light, surprising you can quickly run out of road.

My supersport lives outside so I have just refitted the hardtop just to provide some extra protection during the winter but it’s used without its side screens fitted.

A very usable car
I w

That's interesting SBP, I haven't driven a Morgan fitted with SSL 5l rear but I'm not surprised after trying both arrangements your opinion is that "there's not a lot difference between them". The elephant in the room as I see it is the beam axle, if the SSL 5l rear gave us fully independent rear suspension I could be tempted, but a price of £6k fitted for what amounts to a pair of trailing arms and the move to coil springs seems a little strong to me given the beam axle remains.

Ok, so a beam axle suspended by a couple of cart springs is hardly ground breaking tech, but it's not like you can't make a car handle on a well pinned down leaf spring solid axle setup, a gazillion rally Escorts are proof of that. However, what you'll always struggle to achieve is refined ride quality, but with decent leaf springs that are rated correctly for the vehicles mass paired with the best possible dampers that are well matched to the spring rates, and as long at you're not expecting Citroen DS levels of ride quality the antiquated arrangement can work just fine.

My personal opinion is the. SSL 5l rear definitely has its place, but you've really got to value the small improvement in ride quality coil springs offer to shell out £6k on the setup. It's also worth remembering as crude as a solid axle is, it does offer one clear advantage, unlike a fully independent rear there is no camber change. This actually makes the handling of my Morgan more predictable than that of my TVR Chimaera, and predictability gives you confidence to press on. The TVR certainly had much better ride quality, but that rear end could also bite, coversley the Morgan bangs and crashes about a bit but the handling on the limit is so much more predictable and confidence inspiring I can really play with Monty safe in the knowledge if I push it too far recovery is just a touch of opposite lock away.

Ultimately, while I could never argue Monty's rear end offers the last word in ride quality, it absolutely does deliver a really wonderful connected driving experience and safe predictable handling thats super fun to play with.




I genuinely think the Mulfab front wishbone conversion is a Trad Morgan game changer, having now sampled the delights of the sliding pillar setup I can hand on heart say if I had a standard Plus 4 and £6k burning a hole in my pocket, I'd choose the front wishbone conversion over the SSL 5l rear every time. I got lucky with Monty as the previous owner coughed up the money for the excellent Mulfab front end, all I really needed to do was throw a further couple of grand at the best possible leaf springs, dampers, a Panhard rod, lowering kit and Techniques Morgan setup to bring the rear end up a standard to match the front end handling, if not its ride quality. To be fair most of that sum was labour as the parts were very reasonable.

In summary, I doubt very much that spending the additional £4k on a SSL 5l rear would have been worth the considerable extra outlay.

It's a shame that the only commonly available example of the factory 5 link rear is the April 2018 to end of production Roadsters. I haven't seen a back to back comparison of same model v SSL conversion from leaf sprung Roadster. Certainly the factory ones have the four trailing links connected to substantial brackets welded to axle. A Morgan race car specialist has however driven my car and pronounced it more planted than SSL version despite the considerably greater torque of this model, which doesn't surprise me given above.

Ironically perhaps mine has been further improved by SSL dual rate and fully adjustable coil overs dedicated to the factory 5 link. The factory ones having too higher spring rate for comfort IMO but chosen to limit roll I understand. The SSL units as well as being softer on initial compression, limit roll to a greater degree, both of which are immediately felt after fitting.

Richard,
we have then in the GEG all 3 variants of the 3.7l Roadster suspension.
I have MMC standard fit for a Brooklands so with adjustable shocks.
Tony has SSL front & rear.
You have the MMC rear & SSL.

We should test it out sometime.