Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Sentiment in the Trad market.

When a lot younger I had a Morrie 1000 van with the 1100 engine (ex post office) it was wonderful fun going to work on wet concrete roads and crossply tyres , later when I heard James Hunts comments I fully understood. I have also seen a Morrie van with a Toyota 4AGE 20 valve and 5 speed fitted, looked standard externally ...

If you have the money and can afford it, then enjoy the status of a Ferrari, Porsche etc, they are at the cutting edge of engineering and design with speed and travelling fast in mind. Practicality in everyday use on todays UK roads is another debate.

I've always fancied a Minor convertible with a larger engine, uprated suspension, 5 speed box, putting a larger B series engine in was the norm back in the day, which made for quite a fast car.

Memories
In my youth my friend and I had Ford 100Es into which we had fitted 1500cc Cortina GT engines, 4 speed box, 105e van back axle and Corsair front suspension with 9inch discs. For their day they were very quick. My friend did shoe in a 3litre V6 engine for a bit before he moved it into a Lotus Cortina. Wheel spin in fourth wasn't unknown.

John .... Once when I was competing at Craigantlet there was a guy with a K-series in a Midget ... seriously quick (lifted the front wheels off the line )... that motor in a Morris Thou convertible with readily available handling/braking mods would indeed make a fun and surprising runabout 🙂

K

I spent much of my yoof trying to make my ratty old m/cycles go faster, and once into cars I carried out a continuation of that process, though as I "matured" I began to appreciate a degree of originality and that of balance that tended to be engineered into machinery to make it more reliable in a wider range of circumstances, where my previous attempts at improvement tended to considerably reduce the original wide range of balance honed down to a pin point, outside of which the thing would be a pig in any set of circumstances, other than those I had prioritised.... Around that time my uncle, a m/cycle racer advised that if you want a fast machine buy one designed to go fast.. It took quite a while to admit to myself he was entirely correct, however having typed that I would not discourage anyone from spending their cash and learning much in terms of trying to make an old dog perform new tricks... (-:

I have a friend who has a garage full of his projects, one of which has been in build for some time is a fifties (?) Ford F100 pick up truck into which he has fitted a Coyote engine, not satisfied with that degree of craziness, he has bought a blower to strap onto the thing, Nuts or what...? My friend has the full range of skills and the determination to turn out a very special machine every now an then... Who am I to judge the end product of his efforts, when they in no way match my somewhat more base automotive ideals...?

From the above paragraph it seems things may have moved on a tad from an A35 with an oversized engine...(-: As for the test of car control that might be required by an A35 on and interesting country road, I suspect that A 35`s driver input can perhaps be more than matched over the same road in my Trad Morgan given it`s pseudo vintage construction which is decades behind that of the A 35, all be it not with crossply tyres.. but then the old Mogs engine output has enough in it to make the radials almost feel like crossply`s.... (-:

Yesterday I drove the C4S then the Mog back to back... Once in the Mog I extended the drive as I was enjoying it so much more. The Porsche is a wonderful machine designed by highly skilled engineers to adapt to any of the many different operational requirements it`s owner may require it to perform, and to my eyes it`s curves are beautiful indeed, the quality of it`s engineering etc.etc.etc. Yeah it is a great pity that envy in others can create issues for owners of Porsches and their likes, but then that is life is it not..?

Bottom line for me was that on arrival back home in the old Mog yesterday, I felt more alive than I had done in some considerable time, making the old Mog feel quite a bit more special to me than the 991, though on a cold wet typical West of Scotland day, that degree of emotional involvement could all swap back round in an instant...(-:

Back in the 70's one of our members ordered a +8 in BRG. It arrived in New York, but painted red. He called the factory to ask about it, and Peter Morgan answered the phone. He told our member that they must have painted a lot of red cars that day.

So he kept the car. Over the years the red faded to a bright orange. He fell in love with the color and when he had it restored, he had it painted to match the orange.

In the early 60's my works van was an A35 I hooned around London in it when on night breakdowns, great fun superb road holding.

I dont think that A to B is relevant to this discussion. If thats all you are using a car for, as indeed is the case most of the time, then all you need is some saloon with decent seats , good aircon and some sort of audio. Auto of course since there really is no point in messing with gears in a 20mph queue.

I never take my toy car out if the journey involves town centres or motorways - they can never be fun. But B roads and even roundabouts are a different thing altogether. I used to really enjoy overtaking cars on a roundabout in my Lotus or seeing how much I could exceed the silly advisory limits they put on many bends. Yes I know its a bit childish but the actual speeds involved are low - despite modern tech and dualised roads, I can never match the average speed I use to achieve in my Spitfire in the 60s on the way cross country to university. No motorways then but also no traffic and de-restricted meant just that.

You dont have to drive a fast car fast. You dont ( or at least I dont) buy one for its max speed - what use is the 185mph of my Ferrari? Instead you buy it for a variety of personal reasons from the badge, the heritage, the camaraderie of the owners club, the beauty of the engineering involved and indeed the sheer driving pleasure of spending time in magnificent machine. You do get some occasional snide comments from ignorant / envious people but way more smiles and waves.

Nevertheless I have never exceeded or even closely approached 100 mph on the public roads. They simply arent suitable for such things.

I'm starting to get an itch I need to scratch. Always enjoyed my Minor, suffered terribly from terminal rot, but a good fun car whilst the welding lasted and all my Midgets were great fun, an uprated engine would increase the enjoyment.