Your posts on Monty remind me very much of a bygone era of Morgan, whereby there was ever quite a number of owners who were modification minded in search of more performance, since things in terms of vehicle control systems became ever more digitally controlled it seems the drop off in those keen to get the tools out and get in amongst it all in search of "improved" engine and other aspects of handling at least in Morgan circles had dropped off a cliff...? All of which seems perfectly logical for a multitude of reasons, all that aside it is good to see that someone seemingly keeps the spirit of Morganeers of the past alive and kicking.... Thanks for the degree of detail in all your posts to date, not that I may understand it all or even much of it these days, but a big thanks just the same..Power to your elbow... and your Morgan of course..
What a lovely post Luddite, since joining the Morgan community so many people have made me welcome like this the whole ownership experience has been massively enhanced, I've learnt an enormous amount from all you guys which I am eternally grateful for.
Tuning Monty is just a bit of fun, and all I'm really doing is taking elements of Duratec knowledge from the ST150 world and Caterham, and applying them to Monty with a bit of my stand alone ECU and mapping knowledge thrown in.
Actually that reminds me, I couldn't connect my phone to Monty's EMU Black bluetooth system because so many of the guys there turned up with cars running on an ECU Masters system the network was crammed with addresses. Having worked with many engine management systems I can see why too, the EMU Black is by far the best stand alone ECU I've ever experienced. Better still, the Duratec Morgan Plus 4 Plug & Play system from Greg at Road Race & Rally makes installation a 10 minute job, its comically easy so I'm surprised more people on the TM forum haven’t adopted it?
Anyway, for me owning a hobby car is all about tweaking and tuning to make it your own, I come from a background of improving British classics long before the ghastly 'Resto-Mod' was invented. My TVR delivered this ownership experience more than any other for me, talk about a flawed diamond! My Chimaera would tease me constantly by being beyond brilliant one week and then returning to its default dreadful the next.
After that I then went a bit mental in the lockdown and changed it for a 2013 Ason Martin V8 Vantage with 470hp and all the bells and whistles, not long after scratching my James Bond itch I realisied I was in a vacuous relationship, I felt like Donald with Ivana, beauty and power isn't all it's cracked up to be folks. With more power comes bigger tyres, and with bigger tyres comes dull steering, as the horsepower goes up further the brakes must be bigger too and that means more unsprung weight demanding bigger dampers and springs, before you know it you're driving around in a very fast but also very heavy cruiser.
To ruin it further the safety police then pop up and try to tame all that power with driver aids like ABS, traction control, stability control etc etc etc, my Aston Martin had the lot. And honestly, what's the point in owning a hobby car that can't be improved upon? My uncontrollable addiction for bad electronics and iffy handling I'd carefully cultivated over years of TVR ownership needed feeding, enter stage left Monty with his untempered rear leaf springs and temperamental PCB behind the dash.
Suddenly I was a happy man again, but Monty just needed a bit more power
