Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Aero 8, 2012< Plus 8, SuperSports, Coupe & Aeromax Retro-fit ABS and traction control

- if it's anything like the S1 Aero Alistair,it begs the question 'what handbrake....?'

James

Morgan have a legacy of poor handbrakes when rear discs are involved. Even relatively new Plus Fours required careful handbrake cable routing to work effectively although I believe there have been recent upgrades to improve. This issue is not new of course, Jensen offered all round disc brakes (one of the first) on their CV8 in the early 60's but handbrake action was rubbish despite or maybe because of a dedicated mechanically operated caliper. Strangely our F54 Mini with humble single piston floating rear calipers has massive hill hold capabilities. I attribute this to the electric handbrakes powerful geared motor pulling cable equivalent to Gorilla with six foot pole

I have often typed that the early Lotus Elan was the first car I lusted after, though it too had rear discs and tiny handbrake pads, from a dull memory I think Jag were much the same, if you want a handbrake design that works with a disc brake set-up, then Porsche ever used a disc/drum set-up where the disc runs around the outside of the drum, a bit like a top hat, shoes living inside the drum as the norm, calliper acting on the disc... Simples...??

The early Aero’s had this setup - shoe in drum in the centre of the disk.

Best of both worlds but with maybe an extra unsprung weight penalty

Just checked the photos of my 2012 plus 8. ABS is already fitted, the motor sits above the electric power steering pump under the passenger front wing.

Thats what I thought - that all Aero Plus 8's have ABS fitted as standard

Thanks for everyone's contributions (and rants).

I really would like ABS and I'm not worried about the electronic side of things - I can handle that. What I don't know is whether its possible to hang ABS sensors on the suspension as fitted to this era of Aero...(I think the S4 had different front suspension arrangement)

In view of the number of Aero Plus 8's that have been written off, it might not be a bad idea to try.

Cheers all.

I'm not trying to put you off your project, but I'm not sure it's lack of brakes that was the major cause of prangs, so much as an over-enthusiastic right foot and insufficient time or skill to catch the resulting spin maybe?

Thanks guys - I'm surprised to learn that it does indeed have ABS and I've found the unit under the wing - I was told when I bought it that it didn't - but never mind. So that's a nice surprise