Took the 4/4 into the dealer, Mike Duncan, today for its annual service and got his Three Wheeler for a courtesy car for the day! The day started clear bright and cold and the sun stayed out all day which was an unexpected bonus. The plan was to drive over to Malvern to pick up a friend and then on to one of our favourite watering holes, The Talbot at Knightwick, just off the A44 between Worcester and Bromyard with the benefit of some great motoring roads.
His three wheeler is bright red with saddle brown upholstery..not the nicest combination in my view and with the bright pack to set it all of. No graphics as Mike hates all those bullet holes etc! And you have to respect his views as he is an experienced 3W racing man as this picture shows! He's the tall one leaning out!
It was wheeled out of his wonderful 1950's style workshop for me to admire ...nice red and love the chrome grill surround but it needs black leather!
The first problem was to find somewhere to stow away my backpack with waterproofs, cameras etc......there really is very little room inside and it cries out for some storage nets on the cockpit sides at the very least. Flying helmet on...thank god I didn't bring the Davida...Mike dislikes motorcycle helmets with the car! Turn the ignition key...god its really tucked away...and stab at the start button. Two big cylinders coughed and died.....try again and reluctantly the engine burst into life and everything blurred in front of me. A touch of throttle, the vibrations smooth out and off I go with a chirp of the rear tyre.....nice torque. All very weird at first, sitting low with the steering wheel large and up in front of my face...is it really only 14 inches, seems much larger. Can just see the top of the nearside front wing and am mesmerised at the view of the offside front wheel...I really must stop leaning out so much as I'm driving! The foot pedals feel great, nicely placed accelerator and clutch in particular and I like the floor hinged pedals apart from the excessive brake travel. I am quite surprised when I get the car back to discover the pedal box is in its foreword most position...presumeably for the likes of 6 foot plus Mike and Ben to drive....its comfortable for me and I'm only 5'9"! Just nowhere to rest the left foot. Great steering feel, firm and quick and I'm liking the vintage feel of the high set wheel. Not so the indicator switch....it looks nice and dainty and nicely made in alloy but cancelling is a pain and I drive with it flashing, the warning light on the dash small and washed out by the sun.
Ah yes....the instruments! I really don't like them. I did when I first saw the car months ago...aircraft like and that lovely start button, but I found the speedometer hard to read at a glance particularly with the sun on it, the rev counter hidden by the steering wheel and the fuel gauge with is percentage remaining digital display fascinating in its variety...70% one second, 50% another!
I guess you get use to it all with familiarity.
The one thing though that outweighed all that was the noise of the Quaiffe Transfer Box. I was expecting it to be noisy and setting off I was pleasantly surprised at the low noise levels...probably hidden by the glorious beat of the exhaust. Then, getting up to around 50mph a banshee howl came up from below...noisy enough to make my eardrums vibrate. At 60 it diminished a bit but was probably just left behind! It was also very noisy at lower speeds on a trailing throttle with little load on it and for anyone like me who has a degree of mechanical sympathy it was quite hard to live with. I know that the factory says the box will quieten down as the miles build up and this car had only done 600 miles or so but I was thinking at that moment about how I'd feel if I'd just paid out thirty grand!
I was at this moment feeling a bit deflated....the noisy box and the one thing I was looking forward to...the MX5 gearbox; that didn't impress me. Stiff, close gate compared to my 4/4 box and a lever which felt too far back. I've had MX5s in the past and loved the gearboxes.
Arrived in Malvern to pick up my friend from his house up on the hills and had forgotten the steep entrance to his drive! A huge graunch from the rear and stalled the engine! The rear bodywork behind the wheel had dug into the ground...luckily soft dirt and no paint damage, but worrying all the same. I think the look on my face told my friend that it really wasn't working out how I expected it to!
Several miles down the road, out past West Malvern on some glorious hilly twisting lanes, it suddenly dawned on me that I'd not been listening to the transfer box, had been casually glancing at the speedo without thought and flicking through the gearbox whilst leaning out on corners placing the offside wheel in just the right spot and with a huge grin on my face! By the time we got to the pub, I was in love, ready to forgive it anything. It was amusing sitting in the pub, looking out of the window at the car, red paint gleaming and chrome sparkling in the sun, to watch people do a double take and then saunter over to inspect it and to listen to fragments of conversations about how Morgan use to make three-wheelers and was this a replica!
Leaving the pub we met a couple in a 2009 4/4 Sport who were looking at the car. A huge coincidence that he had it booked out next week from Mikes as a courtesy car...I hope he enjoys it as much as I did!
Leaving The Talbot, note the Biggles and Algy look!
On route back to Malvern
Driving down Ledbury High Street
A couple of hours later the car was parked up in a lay-by a couple of miles from Mike Duncans as I sat and pondered over my day out, not wanting to get back and give up the car. I'd started out struggling with the gear train noise and I think that then got me into a scenario of looking for other faults. The overriding problem for me was the noise of the transfer box and if I were to order a Threewheeler I really would want assurances that the box would quieten right down and the factory would replace boxes that remained that noisy under warranty or as a goodwill measure. The other issues, lack of storage .... easily remedied with storage nets etc, the gearbox...just getting use to it and instruments....ditto, are of no concern.
The car was delivered back with cheeks that ached through a day long grin, some great memories of super empty roads and a thought that the old black and white photograph I'd seen hanging in Mikes workshop of him and his driver hustling their Supersports around a bend many years ago really evokes what I was feeling today driving the Threewheeler along those country lanes!
PS. Apologies for the quality of the in car photos...I'd taken a video of some of the drive and these are screen grabs. When I've time, I'll pop some of the video on Youtube.
What a great car, well done all at Morgan for having the courage to produce it! 
