Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Richard Hammond Aero S1 refurb

Sounds great, he owned a bright green one so may have been his car?

Would have loved to have seen them all in production, espicially the finished "bay" where they all lined up waiting to go out - must have been quite a sight back then!

It was your spot on. I made the mistake of asking him why the complicated eibach inboard suspension set up, he the went on a bit of a tangent and lost me. Most importantly I asked him about Tok 257 and triggers broom he rolled his eyes and we ended up talking about Motorhomes of all things. Iv'e never seen that Aero again it had a different centre consol from memory maybe wood. Em

If ever conversations go back to the value of originality, I tend to ever refer to the English High Court Case relative to Bentley Old Number 1
I guess the other question might be is it better that the likes of significant vehicles still exist or not... Preserved as museum pieces... or used by their owners, perhaps to turn up at occasional events or just run out when the owner feels like it...
Always interested on comments re the differing views on the variation of thinking on originality...(-:

The value of originality can only ever be entirely subjective, since it's impossible for any car to ever be truly in original condition. When it comes to Morgans, originality is hardly a claim for addition value. As John Worrall said in his book, "No-one would be cruel enough to restore their Morgan to how it was when it left the factory". I might have paraphrased, I can't be arsed to go up to the attic to dig out his book to get the exact wording.

As far as I can see, all discussions or arguments ultimately devolve down to the owner/seller believing their car has a greater value than the market believes. So it's not really about the car, it's about money. Cars are just things, they exist to be driven.

Hamwich, spot on. When I rebuilt my MOG, I replaced the bulkhead with stainless steel, and fitted SSL suspension all around and various other things. None of that was cheap. But i haven't rebuilt it for money. I did it to improve the experience of Morgan driving and to make life easy as i mature like a good cheese! 😜

I believe I have seen that console before, I will find a pic of it somewhere..

Nick. Between series1 and two they went through a few different door cards as well. Also a few roofs were changed even different designs on the cantaliver type. My second series 1 had a rain channel 2002 model my first one had flaps same year. I think there may have been two types of consol at early build until they settled on the same one you have in the GTN. Were in anorak mode now,,,, Em

Yes there were quite a few variances, I have come across the "curvy" door card which is completely different, then the "standard" door card with an oval pleated section above the wooden bar before the later fully diagonally pleated one like on the GTN. Roofs all over the place, consoles were the same (bar the GTN carbon) but the original prototype on an X reg (you can see this car which has many differences towards the end of one of the troubleshooter episodes) and it also had a wooden centre console.

Like the prototype the Geneva car Hammond's team restored had a completely different dashboard and console to the production cars.

I guess however if Chris Lawrence liked it he could have had what he wanted on his own green car!

Also noted that later cars have a raised area in front of the doors to stop as much rain/wind intrusion, and there is a cut-out above the boot lever to make opening the boot easier.

Definately anorak mode!

Dug out a few of the interior differences, cannot find the original prototype interior though - I believe the first pic shows a custom made wooden one as you can see the original underneath. Looks very similar to the prototype one I remember though.

"Curvy" card - believe this was on very early cars but may be some crossover - my last Aero was an early car (68 I think) and that had the oval one.


Most common card on earlier S1s with the "oval" section.


Later "diagonal" as per the GTN.