Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms If I were to buy a trad.............

Quote "The appeal of the Trad is that people talk of enjoying driving down a country lane at sensible speeds because it wont do much more".

That may be way the Sunday Lunchers talk Howard.

BUT, 18 years experiencing a Roadster says otherwise. Yes there are lots of fancy cars with bragging rights. Most are twice or three times as heavy as a Trad. So when a Plus4 Trad has, say 165bhp, any fancy car will need 330bhp to be the equivalent, and often more. Even a Polo is around 1400kg, against the sub 900kg of a Trad.

And then these lardy cars are also loaded up with driver aids to keep them on the road. and most drivers are not capable of switching off the aids, and staying alive. Driver aids slow these cars down, I've seen this so often in the Highlands and on the Fosse Way. Its always the M3/4/5 brigade who set off like a stabbed rat, when they see a Morgan in the mirror, and I just stay at a respectable distance, but they don't leave me behind. Trads corner flat. Trads are well balanced. They don't squirm. And public roads are not race tracks. When a Roadster can do the dash to 60 in under 5secs, even a fancy 3.5sec dash will not show on the road because a second and a bit in five seconds is irrelevant.

The beauty of a Trad is that very fact that people with fancy cars, and no Morgan experience, think that Morgans can't deliver, and that's what makes them fun.

Luddite, you mentioned pay for mile recording. I read somewhere the cheeky bastard government wanted it to include miles done abroad - unbelievable if they collect the cash !!
I drove just shy of 1500 kilometers yesterday . It was dear enough with crazy French tolls every few miles . French and Italian petrol prices at 2 euros (+in some cases) . Thank god for Slovenia at €1.519.
Most of our holidays involve driving or fly drives and I’m going to fight to the death to keep driving until I know I have to hand the wheel to my younger wife and accept the speed she likes to travel and longer travel times. I need somehow to feel happy with that but 50 can be a tad frustrating .
MM

Dave, I was playing tail end Charlie in the old Mog in the company of a group of Porsche pals while enjoying the French countryside in the few days before the 24hrs at LM. Your post reminded me that the the last in line Porsche was a 930 turbo, and coincedentally we became split from the group by a set of traffic lights in a village, and once out on the open road he thought to exercise his Turbo, At the lunch stop he declaired being somewhat shocked that the old Mog could keep up...... I thought it would have been sheer bad manners to overtake him..... OK, OK so he was not the best driver in the world... (-:

Yes. Even in a small sailing yacht of the sort I buy, the MPG when motoring at a giddy 5kn is typically about 12 in statute miles. For the big motor cruisers ( aka Tart Traps) you might get as high as 2mpg and as low as 2 gpm!

But lets be fair. Just like Morgans, these are toys and the running costs are lower than those of a 19 year old leggy blond, I am told!

Sorry Dave but there is a bit of self deception there! I will accept that on a smooth racing track, Morgan performance is respectable if not good. But point one of the non ally generation down a potholed UK B road with the body flexing and the wheel writhing in your hands and you wont keep up with an equally well driven modern car. Now the CX is a different issue, at least at under 80mph.

I have driven a variety of Trads and they are not cars that I would trty to thrash in the way that I used to with my Lotus. They are cars for a bimble in the sunshine.. All IMO of course

You can have lessons for that kind of stuff.

My experience of most modern cars is that they are great at going fast in a straight line, but useless at corners. Most journeys in my Mog or MG, they are leaving me for dead on the straights, but holding me up on the corners. Not sure if it is car design or driver ability, but very commonplace.

Howard as TBM suggested it is possible to proceed quite rapidly in an older machine, just that there tends to be a tad more involvement required, which is one of the reasons I gave up on 911`s and ended up buying into the idea of Morgan ownership.

I feel most fortunate to be able to enjoy interesting local (ish) roads in a rather high spec 2012 991.1 C4S as well as my mid 80`s Trad Morgan.

My Morgan is almost completely standard, other than having the vast benefit to handling that is the modification from lever arm shockers on the rear, converted to Koni tubular adjustable shockers, with matching Koni`s on the front....I have to admit to never having thought to try to adjust the shockers to improve on the ride quality..... (-: I think the engine may have at one time had 150 HP on a good day, and the LR gearbox was designed for a mud plugger as opposed to a sports car.... But as a whole package, it works wonderfully well for me, and I have enjoyed reasonable progress in it on rather poorly surfaced roads on numerous occasions... (-:

I feel most fortunate indeed to be able to choose between the 991 and the old Mog on any day I might feel the desire to head out for a drive. As for the engineering advances involved in the 991...where to start..?

While I suspect the 991 is more a GT in the sense of a grand tourer, than an out and out sports car, it does have circa 400HP available and a plethora of onboard digital decision making gizmology to aid keeping all those horses between the hedges. Also despite it`s advanced and digitally controlled suspension system, I have to admit that it does not seem to absorb the shocks and generally rough road surfaces in any way which might encourage the occupants to imagine they were being transported in luxury, compared to the old Mog..

While there is no doubt relative to the technical superiority of the 991 over the old Mog, the reality is that the Morgan is the favoured vehicle of the two over the somewhat testing roads I am so fortunate to be able to enjoy driving in my part of the world..

I don`t doubt that that if push came to shove that the 991 would be the quicker of the two over any interesting section of tarmac regardless of surface imperfections, but I suspect not by much in any meaningful measure, though I suspect the 991 driver would have had less physical and mental involvement in the process overall..?

I guess much depends upon ones priorities, and as we age it seems comfort and convenience built into vehicles may become more of a priority over increased horsepower and a roaring exhaust, but how far one might care to take that it an entirely personal decision..? I cant imagine choosing a Tesla to enjoy that which either my Morgan or 991 provide when in the frame of mind to choose between them to head out for a drive, other than were I in the mood to amble along enjoying the scenery with minimal involvement in the process of controlling the vehicle... one pedal operation works wonderfully if your habit is to read the road well enough..?

Again I feel most fortunate in mt 78th year to be able not only to access and egress my old style Trad but to be ale to enjoy driving it when ever in the frame of mind to do so, though the advantages of the extra door width on later models might ease that process somewhat.. (-: As for additional comfort and bling, I can well understand the appeal of that too while we age, and I think it is great that the MMC seem to have catered rather well for that too while retaining much of the obvious lineage of the quirky idiosyncratic vehicles that us happy few are drawn to ....? (-:

As ever, each to their own..

The beauty of the Morgan world is that it caters for a wide variety of approaches to Motoring.

Some of us regard ragging a light car with modest power as the ultimate. Others of us (myself now included) have opted for a more relaxed style with a bit more power.

4 wheeled Morgans range from around 30bhp to in excess of 300bhp. Suspension, chassis and braking has evolved since the mid 1930's and is now quite modern.

Somewhere in that wide range of cars is something to suit anyone who is serious about joining in.

18 years of experience tells me otherwise Howard, it's about finding and exploring limits. But you've already decided, and that's fine.

I built mine to be a B-road sprinter. High power-to-weight ratio, low gearing, it can be a great laugh on the twisty bits. But equally well one can bang it in fifth and bumble along at 50 without a care in the world, very relaxed. It won't demolish autobahns at a steady 100mph but that's ok, I don't do that anyway.

This afternoon I was returning from Gaydon in the afternoon sunshine, very laid back and relaxed, when I was overtaken by a white Tesla who seemed to think he had a point to prove. Jolly good for him, I thought. There do after all have to be some compensations for owning a Tesla.

And that's pretty much how I feel about all non-Morgans. They can be faster, handle better, be more reliable, and be more easy to drive than one of our cars. But they aren't Morgans. And when you pull up with your pals outside Gaydon you can't see people smiling and hear kids shouting "Wow look at those, Mum!" like you do when you're in a Morgan.

The experience of actually driving anywhere can be a pain these days pretty much whatever car you're in. But the experience of owning a Morgan and having Morgan-owning pals to natter to over coffee and bacon rolls is as good as it's always been, and is pretty bloody special if you ask me.