Losing interest as I posted in another thread and contemplating selling the Ferrari I took advantage of a beautiful hot sunny day to visit Williams Morgan. Likely it was my third or fourth visit because every time I change my toy car, I wonder if a Morgan would fill the bill and I toddle over the river to see. During these trips, I have driven several different varieties of Trad including the Roadster, the V8 and even the Aero series.

Today I took the chance provided by Williams to drive the old trad ( 2009 Duratec plus 4) and the new BMW plus 4 manual back to back. What a difference - completely chalk and cheese. The new trad was so much more together with higher quality in every area, no rattles, nice finish, and modern facilities like aircon.

The traditional trad was if anything a bit better than I remember from past drives but with a very poor gearbox and a rubber chassis which meant that it certainly wasnt a car to drive fast on bumpy potholed infested british roads. But then the issue with my Ferrari is that it was built with one thing in mind - fast open road driving of the sort that isnt legally available in the UK and likely to become even less so in Drakeford's Wales. So I am not looking for speed any longer so much as pleasure and character. Even then, I dont think the trad I tried fitted the bill. It was simply too crude to enjoy as a drive at any speed in my view.

Immediately I returned the car I was into a manual gearbox BMW engined Plus Four. What a revelation! The gearbox was delightful. The clutch was a bit heavy and full of stiction but the car was only 70 miles from new. The steering was even faster than the Ferrari though a bit prone to wander in a straight line. The ride was hard but acceptable and the preformance was very high. I doubt that the Ferrari would be much if any faster to 100mph and any difference thereafter is irrelevant anyway. Only significant issue that I found was the seats which had a soft middle and a hard lump further back towards the backrest. Do Morgan make their own?

The comparison of the trad trad and the new trad was an illustration of just how much technology has progressed in the last 90 years and also how much better is the finish and quality of modern Morgans.Yes the CX is a character alternative to the Boxter if you like the faux classic body style. But the new trad is a fast fully modern car in an imitation 40s body style and one that wouldnt "bimble" that well at least in manual form . Too high geared for one thing. Maybe also a bit hard core by comparison with the Boxter..Its a sports car to be taken seriously

So I am still looking and will try an MX5 next. Meantime, well done Morgan. The CX plus four is an excellent modern car.