Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Am I going mad? One for those with good eyes..

Morning all!

So as I can't drive the GTN at the moment I have been doing some research, and something popped up when I was going through my old photos/adverts that has confused me (not difficult!).

A bit of background, the first GTN #1 was built on a widebody by special request, this has been confirmed by the factory and is well documented. I believe it has an S2 body grafted onto the S1, or something similar.
As a result the soft-top can be left in place whilst the hardtop is fitted (as per the S2's).

Here is a link to the car for sale:
https://rtcc.co.uk/cars/2004-morgan-aero-8-gtn-limited-edition/

Now I have been trying to figure out what is wider (yes I clearly am suffering from not being able to drive a Morgan ), but I just cannot see it - its even worse as I have some photos of my old S1 parked next to this exact car, and it looks identical width wise.

So I have looked at the cowl which is the same, and the relation of the bonnet to the wings, the width of the running boards, the width of the bootlid to body and so on and so on.. all I can tell is the hardtop looks different to other GTN's, it doesn't have the logo on the side or the same lines around the window aperture - so something definately is different - but surely if the roof/body is wider it would be noticeable as it is on the S2.

So either my eyes don't work, or Morgan has somehow warped the space time continuum..






Thoughts?

Hard to tell on my phone but look at the rear wing width. The blue wing looks marginally narrower, so if the overall width is the same, the cockpit will be wider, but if this is only a couple of cm, only a tape measure will prove it.

Could it be that the rear of the hood frame is narrower than the S1 to allow it to fit into the hardtop?

Isn't the S2 body something like 6" wider at the occupants shoulders?
Which would mean 3" wider per side, which i thought would be visible...

I think someone could write an academic paper titled “The Varying Widths of Comparable Morgan Vehicles”
Only a tape measure will give the answer.

I know from the experience of comparing both Jays 4/4 and his later Roadster with my modest ‘poverty model’ 4/4.
All part of owning a hand built car.


Bud
4/4 - Stanley

ps. 2 fabulous Aeros -

To clarify the blue car (my old S1) is the narrow body, the GTN (silver/blue) next to it should be (well it is) a wide body - yet I am really struggling to see!

Usually on S2s it is quite visible - so I am completely perplexed as this particular GTN has an S2 body I am led to believe.

For information purposes the GTN's all have the later pram style soft-top, and having had a hard-top on my blue S1 (with the smaller gangster roof) there is no way it would fit under the hard-top, so the pram roof would have no chance. To the afforementioned GTN above must have a bigger hard-top and therefore surely body..

From memory the Gtn was a S1 with the alpina. it was more or less the last push before the factory made the fedralized model for the usa wider with the stainless side vents these were nearly all shipped to the states.They did make at least one series3 squinty headlights and swept up boot in metallic red i remember seeing it in dispatch and a couple of years later at Newton motors.The series 2 being the rarest of production runs. The Gtn i drove at the factory had a hard top and was told it was a bit of a faff to swap and droned a bit but that could have been me not used to the side pipes. Hindsight is a wonderfull thing as it was within budget at the time and only about 4k difference in price. Em

Correct Em, they have an uprated 4.6 Alpina tuned engne, side pipes, brake ducts, carbon roof, carbon interior, and semi-slick tyres with a different wheel colour and perforated leather interior, a custom steering wheel and probably other bits I have forgot.

They were also built off the production line by Aero racing (I imagine part of the homologation rules as Aero racing was setup to be a separate entity from MMC to protect them from the racing), I believe they are lighter due to the roof as well.

Only 11 built, but for some reason #1 (the car I am questioning above) was built with a different body - although it appears almost invisible!

Nick, I think the easiest way to tell if the body is wider is by looking at the bulkhead ,viewed from the engine bay.

The aluminium panels at the side clearly show the extra width...

James

I must admit when your both strapped in a seriies1 with flying jacket on the Motalita up on your chest there ain't much room . But was there ever a better place to be. Our car interior was much smaller when we sold it I put it down to Ali shrinkage over the years a well known fact......Em