Morgan Cars, Sales, Imports, Isis Imports Ltd.
Reprinted from Mayfair
Magazine Vol 13 #1 1978
The gears were changed
by a nice little stub of a lever protruding between the seats, from the propeller
shaft tunnel. The Morgan 4/4 was shod with 5.00 x 16 tyres on four-bolt disc wheels.
It had a wheelbase of 7 feet 8 inches and it weighed fractionally over 14 cwt
without the driver and girlfriend.
Here then was a neat little number, with a deep plated radiator shell, a luggage
well aft the two seats, closed by a fabric tonneau cover, with behind that a nine-gallon
petrol tank faired into the sloping tail. Into this tail two spare wheels were
embedded, upright and unprotected. They were there for two good reasons. Mud-storming
trials demanded changing the normal rear wheels for a pair shod with grippy, knobbly
tyres. Placing these in the tail added useful weight for reducing wheel spin up
such hills, or 'observed sections' as they were called. Exposed Lucas headlamps,
cut-away sides to the doors, a concealed hood, a quick-action fuel-filler cap
and a spring-spoke steering wheel gave the low-hung Morgan 4/4 a desirably sporting
appearance. Just the kind of car in which to thrash round Brooklands with the
windscreen folded forward, flat on the scuttle, the wind plucking at your helmet
and goggles and the girl passenger's bobbed hair plastered down in the slipstream.
The price of the Morgan 4/4 in 1936 was a modest £194 5s. and with its 9.8 hp
engine it could be taxed for £7 10s a year. It would do better than 77 mph under
favourable conditions (oh, those 'favourable conditions'!), accelerate through
the gears from rest to 60 mph in 28.4 seconds (today's MG Midget 1500 does this
in 12.3 seconds), and return some 35 mpg of petrol.
The modest Morgan Motor Company was set for another success. Soon the new 4/4
was appearing in all forms of competition motoring. By 1938 a four-seater had
been added, priced at £205, and there was also a snug drop-head coupe at the attractive
price of £225, the original two-seater having been reduced to £190 - oh happy
days! Moreover, a 1,098 cc Le Mans Replica using 'replica' in the nicest sense,
had been made available, pepped-up and with cycle-type mudguards, radiator stoneguard,
etc, one of which, driven by Enid Fawcett and a male partner, averaged 57.2 mph
for 1,372.8 miles in the 1938 Le Mans 24-hour marathon race.
A snag arose when H F S Morgan suddenly found that the supply of Coventry-Climax
engines was drying up. What he did was substitute an ohv Standard Ten engine,
of 1,267 cc, altered to his requirements. The next stage, as the tricylcle market
also dried up, was a real eyebrow raiser. For the Malvern men somehow shoe-horned
into an only moderately expanded 4/4 type chassis the two-litre Standard Vanguard
engine. This gave 68 bhp at 4,300 rpm in an 8 feet wheelbase car weighing only
17 cwt, which was an impressive performance breakthrough. Bigger tyres (5.25 x
16) were fitted, the petrol tank capacity went up to 11 gallons, and the same
independent front springing system was used, but now lubricated with engine oil,
rather messily, by foot button. The floor was of untreated planks and it is a
fact that the bench seat on the original two-seaters was non-adjustable. I had
one, which luckily fitted me like a glove. It blew my hair and cheeks about (that
fold-flat screen) and exasperated me as often as it thrilled me. It looked like
an inflated 4/4, still with exposed headlamps, those twin spare wheels and a seldom
used claustrophobic hood.
Because the Vanguard gearbox was full of the wrong ratios, Morgan retained a separate
gearbox, by Moss, giving four instead of three forward speeds. And whereas the
4/4 was retarded by cable-operated Girlings, the bigger car, known as the Morgan
Plus-Four, had hydraulic Girlings. As with the 4/4, a coupe version was soon offered,
to those who might have commenced their Morganing with an air-cooled trike (air-cooled
in more senses than one!) but who had aged into wanting proper protection from
the weather. All this happened in 1951 and government purchase tax brought the
price of this coupe to £880. It wasn't long before this Morgan Plus-Four was endowed
with the 1,991 cc Triumph-developed Vanguard engine, as used for the TR3 and TR4.
Giving 90 bph at 4,800 rpm, this pushed the Morgan two-seater Plus-Four along
at over 100 mph in 13.3 seconds. An exciting buy at £830 in 1954. The price didn't
include a heater.
Not only had Morgan now a genuine 100 mph motorcar but tuned versions went far
faster than that. They won races, especially the Lawrence-Tune team cars. At Le
Mans in 1962 a Plus-Four shared by Chris Lawrence and Shepherd-Barron came home
in 13th place, just as a 4/4 Morgan had in 1928. Before you sneer, let me remind
you, if I may, that by 1962 the great French race was thoroughly professional,
won that year by Phil Hill and Gendebien in a four-litre Ferrari at 115.2 mph,
and that the Malvern-made sportscar managed to win its class, in a race in which
37 starters failed to finish, ten Ferraris among them. The tiny, small-output
factory far from the hub of the big time motor industry had no reason to be ashamed
of its products.
All along the years, however, the problem facing first H F S Morgan, and now his
son Peter, has been finding suitable ready-made engines. After the Standard Ten
era, the 4/4 was given a side-valve Ford Ten motor, the same 1,172 cc Dagenham-built
power unit you find in those Perpendicular Pops that grind up the gradient in
MCC long-distance trials and still take impoverished farmers to market. The Ford
unit gearbox was used, which meant three forward speeds and a nasty bent wire
cranked gear lever to add to the faired-in headlamps, fixed windscreen, and single
spare wheel, now recessed in the tail, of the 1956 Series II £714 Morgan 4/4.
It also dragged top pace down to 70 mph and 0-60 pick-up (I can't bring myself
to call it acceleration) to 29.4 seconds. But out of evil came good, because this
gave Morgan a long run of Ford-powered cars. They went on to fit the successive
Ford Consul and Cortina power packs, and the current 4/4 benefits from the excellent
Ford 1600 engine, and costs £3,645, or £3,943 if you want room for mother-in-law
and her cats. However, the Plus-Four is the top Morgan model. After finding a
Plus-Four-Plus plastic coupe a mistake, only 50 being made, Peter Morgan has concentrated
more and more on it. After Triumph went to a six-cylinder engine that was too
long for his purpose, he again had to find a new prime mover. He sensibly opted
for Rover's Buick-inspired, light alloy 3 1/2-liter V8. This gives over 160 bph
at 5,200 rpm and bags of torque, old boy. Fortunately the Plus-Four had been given
disc front brakes before this exciting engine transplant was contemplated. The
Plus-Four chassis is virtually unchanged and the 17.7 cwt two-seater spells plus-performance
in the order of 125 mph, 0-60 mph in 6.7 seconds, and watch for the radar traps!
This Plus-Eight is every inch, if not every half-inch, a Morgan. At first Rover
only made their V8 with automatic transmission, so the Buick Rover engine had
to be mated to a remote Moss gearbox, in former Morgan fashion. But now that the
fine British Leyland five-speed gearbox is available, Morgan has at last discarded
a separate gearbox for the bigger chassis and you get it in five speed form, an
outwardly old fashioned £5,417 road burner.
You see, there are still the die-hards who tame, maintain and enjoy real pre-1931
sports cars. Others like the idea and the glamour, but not the hard ride, the
hard work, and the scarcity of spares; they are catered for by the 'Replica' manufacturers.
If you regard the vintage car as too fraught, and such replicas as impossibly,
horridly bogus, you buy a Morgan. I would, if I could afford to.
Because I have a few treasured Morgan memories. Like the front end of a Plus-Four
folding up and so saving my life when it skidded on black ice into a parked truck.
Like experiencing fresh air and excitement from a Plus-Eight. Like savouring history
whenever I look at the 1927 Family Model (three-wheels, two JAP cylinders, two-speeds
and no reverse) which is collecting owl-droppings in my barn. You know, the short
word for Morgan is: FUN.
Isis Imports Ltd
PO Box 2290 Gateway Station
San Francisco, CA 94126
(415) 433-1344
FAX (415) 788-1850
billfink@morgancars-usa.com
