Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 HERE WE GO............tuning the S&S

It would be interesting to see an actual breakout of where the weight is. Ive quoted the weight of the tranny, the engine and the tires in the past, which left A LOT of weight still on the table with the major pieces being the frame, suspension and paneling. From what I have heard about the front hood, the paneling is well built (i.e. heavy).

Sadly at some point you will hit a diminished return where it costs a tremendous amount of money to lose a few pounds, but I feel like with a car this simplistic, that it shouldnt be hard for Morgan to lighten the weight if they are soo inclined without causing the manufacturing price to go up significantly. Its obviously not needed at this point as they are selling like hotcakes, but it may be something that gets rolled out over time.

Well...add a shaft drive and you certainly will up the weight! The BMW system is quite complex to avoid the rear end rising on acceleration and would entail a major re-engineering of the M3W rear suspension.

I did say earlier that lubrication of a chain would be a pain but then we Classic owners think nothing of greasing the front suspension every thousand miles and I read very recently about a solid graphite grease block that lubricates motorbike chains for several thousand miles before replacing. So on second thoughts, I'd go down the chain route.

If you study both cars, whilst I don't have the dimensions of the Morgan, it does appear a bit more substantial, perhaps a tad wider in the cockpit. The body is certainly more complex with fixed scuttle and just aft of the cockpit. The chassis is more complex than the Ace. If you add in the probable increase in weight of the S&S engine compared to the H-D and perhaps a different in weight of transmission components, it all adds up.

According to Mogwire:

"The engine manufacturer, S&S and Morgan state that they are developing after-sale packages for those who wish more power"

That's all very well, but firstly where have those extra horses gone? Just over 80 bhp from nearly 2 litres is ridiculous, even with only 2 cylinders. If I were S&S I would be bitterly disappointed that a modern engine like this, once installed int he car, can't do better.

Secondly, why is the car so heavy? It really isn't rocket science to make the car lighter. I've said before, that if the likes of Caterham can do it, then Morgan should be able to as well. Just think, Caterham make their R300 weigh in at 515kgs - 515kgs! Morgan 3 wheeler - 525kgs. Come on, Morgan really aren't trying are they? Frankly I am appalled that a company dedicated to light weight sports cars cannot do better. If I was in charge of development of the M3W I would hang my head in shame. It's not that the thing won't sell, I would feel that my integrity as an engineer has been laid bare. Maybe in time they will knock it out with full power and lighter weight and it will be the car it should be now, but in the meantime.......................

Am I being too harsh? For £30 big ones I don't think so!

Mogwire is an internet troll. Most of the information that is listed on this site is either speculative and/or information taken from forums such as this and used as their own "found" information. Often Mogwire puts a negative spin against MMC inside their messaging instead of reporting facts. Its terrible journalism and doesnt deserve nor gain my time.

As far as I am concerned, I never visit the site anymore. The less hits that site gets the better IMHO.

Paul

I assume you speak from experience about the lack of power in the 3 wheeler. Must say at this stage in my 3 wheeler ownership I couldn't disagree more, it seems plenty enough, and I'm sure one of us will put oe on a rolling road and independently measure the BHP. Only thing with talking pure BHP your forgetting about the torque.

The problem with putting more power in the 3 wheeler would be the lack of space for the extra large Bo**ocks you'd need to make any use of it.

I do not speak from experience of the three wheeler, apart from a half hour test drive with the salesman alongside me, but I do speak from the experience of 25 years of putting together and driving numerous Caterhams, and other lightweight 4 wheel sports cars. My current car has 260bbhp and weighs in at under 600kgs on the road with half a tank of fuel, and knocks out around 200lbs/ft, Ok it is a tad over 2 litres, and I do not expect the S&S engine to produce those figures, but 160 - 170 lbs/ft would be nice and around 135bhp. I can read the figures as well as the next man, and they do not look impressive from where I am standing, adequate yes, but not impressive. I expect to have fun in my three wheeler when it arrives in May, but I feel it could and more importantly, should be better.

I know that one tends to overlook faults with a favourite car company, the same with a favourite uncle or child, but that doesn't mean the faults aren't still there, and more importantly, it doesn't mean they should be swept under the carpet. The MMC are big enough to take a bit of constructive critism, and in the end they will benefit and more importantly, so will the paying customer, ie us.

Well I have only seen one inaccurate thing on Mogwire, and I have found out many things there that I have not seen elsewhere - check out the Roadster 3.7 thread for example. But time will tell whether you or Mogwire are correct about MMC performance packs.

Whilst i don't have a M3W, I would have thought 80bhp would give a pretty exciting ride. If more power is required I would have thought it would be sensible for the MMC and S&S to track down where the missing horses went (ECU? Cat? Silencers?), rather than further tune the engine( Big bores?, hotter cams? beefier injectors?)

Steady on Krod!! As far as I see it Mogwire seeks to inform a community as best it can. I believe it is at least as accurate as any other Morgan site -- is it 100%?? Possibly not, but is any punlication in any media 100%? - to call it a "Troll" is, IMHO way over the top.

I am happy to read it and add it to the information I get from other not 100% accurate sources!!!