I’ve seen a few Plus Four Super Sports for sale, and one has the SSL five link rear suspension. I wonder if this improves the car or just takes away a bit of its character?
I'd say the Plus Four Super Sports is a bit of a modern Trad Morgan sweet spot, it uses the engine from the updated Mk3 Mazda MX5 known as the NC2, the NC2 got several upgrades including a forged steel crankshaft, forged steel connecting rods with floating wrist pins, revised pistons with stronger wrist pin bosses, and stiffer valve springs. As a result the engine in the NC2 produces it’s maximum output of 158hp at 6,700 rpm with the fuel cut at 7,200 rpm, in simple terms it's the best 2.0 Duratec, Morgan then added a really good long tube equal length exhaust manifold and a set of individual throttle bodies, fuel and ignition was controlled by an Omex ECU, this all took the output from 158hp to 200hp.
TBH the Duratec is a fantastic engine full stop in any guise, its super easy to tune and very strong, Morgan only produced 60 Duratec Super Sports, they're quite rare and comand a significant premium over a standard Duratec Plus 4 so I took a standard Plus 4 that had benefited from a Mulfab front wishbone conversion and created my own Super Sports. I commissioned a talented local fabricator to build me a Super Sports replica exhaust manifold, a freer flowing exhaust system, and a long runner inlet as an alternative to the ITBs Morgan used as I wanted torque.
ITBs can be fussy to setup and keep balanced, cold starts are also nearly always poor with throttle bodies in my experience, instead of the old Omex ECU which is a bit outdated these days I went with the latest EMU Black from ECU Masters, I then fitted a set of 440cc Bosch Green Giant injectors a pair of Newman Phase 2 cams and 80lb beehive valve springs. The result being more power and better drivability than an SS for less money than an SS, peak power now arrives at 7,250rpm with the fuel cut coming in at 7,500 rpm.
So don't discount taking a standard Duratec Plus 4 and tuning it as I did, I must say I got lucky with the previous owner shelling out £6k on the Mulfab front wishbone conversion which replaces Morgan's rather vintage sliding pillar front end, if you can find a Trad Morgan with this set up I can highly recommend it. I've not tried a Morgan with the SSL five link rear end, its another £6k fitted so if you're looking at an SS with it already fitted it'll probably offer a good saving. However, while I'm sure coils will give a better ride than leaf springs, at the end of the day it doesn't get rid of the old beam axle so I decided to take a different path. I fitted BCC anti-tramp leaf springs pairing them with a set of quality Bilstein dampers from SSL, a Pahard rod stopped the axle lateral movement and a lowering kit from SiFab was fitted and dialed in by Techniques Morgan.
I'm super happy with the results and saved myself a good chunk of cash over a Super Sports, so perhaps taking a standard Duratec Plus 4 and tuning it to create your own SS is another option to consider?
