Author Archives: Mark Braunstein

WHEN ALLAN DUFFY SEARCHED FOR A CAR THAT WAS OLDER THAN HE WAS, A 1933 MORGAN SUPER SPORTS THREE-WHEELER SEEMED TO MAKE THE MOST SENSE

Once, all car companies were like the 110-year-old Morgan Motor Company, a small family-owned affair pumping out a few hundred cars each year. Yet while contemporary early 20th Century garage-land start-ups like Ford and Morris grew to become huge multinational corporations, Morgan remained pretty much the same for more than a century.

Heck, it even still uses wood to frame the bodywork on the cars that it builds today, the chassis stiffness handled by the steel backbone that has also defined the brand since 1909. So Morgan isn’t just a survivor of a once mighty British motor-manufacturing empire, it’s also a preserver of tried-and-tested construction methods, finest craftsmanship, and a relaxed attitude to production targets.

In good years, the number of Morgans produced by the company’s 170 employees approaches 1000 units, but the customers ordering those cars could sometimes wait up to six years before taking delivery. As with a certain brand of cheese, it appears that good things take time. It was this company culture that inspired Allan Duffy’s purchase of this beautiful beetle-back 1933 Morgan Super Sports.

“Back in 1998, when I turned 50, I was looking to buy a car that was older than I was, but while searching books of all the cars made before 1948, I decided that most of them were rubbish. “Then I came across Morgan – I hadn’t heard of them before.” The distinctive Super Sports tri-car is arguably the Morgan that instantly springs to mind whenever anyone thinks of the Malvern Link-based company, especially the prettier ‘beetle-back’ version, with its gracefully-tapered tail and frivolous cooling gills.

The other body style for the SS trike is the ‘barrel-back’, which looks like some backyard mechanic has rudely grafted a beer keg to the rear of the car.

The latter offers the same token luggage stowage, but it comes at considerable cost to the crowd-pleasing visual appeal of a Morgan trike. “I mostly get lots of waves from other drivers when I’m at the wheel,” says Duffy. “The occasional one gives me a look like I’m from another planet.”

THE EXPOSED ROCKERS OF THE V-TWIN’S PUSHROD-ACTIVATED VALVETRAIN ARE DOING A FRENETIC DANCE TO THE WHINE OF THE GEARTRAIN DOWN NEAR MY RIGHT KNEE, AND THE EXPLOSIVE EXHAUST PIPES EXITING BEHIND ME.

The Super Sports was a big leap forward for Morgan when it first appeared in 1930. That was 21 years after the debut of the first tri-car, powered by a Peugeot V-twin engine in 1909, and Morgan would commission power-plant supply from a number of other motorcycle engine manufacturers in those two decades, including Anzani, Blackburne, and J.A.P. Duffy says that often it was a question of getting an engine at the right price that led to so many different motors being employed by Morgan.

“It was the key to their survival as a low volume manufacturer for they didn’t have to invest large sums in developing their own mechanical components.” The J.A.P. is considered by some classic car enthusiasts to be the best of the engines, possibly because of the successes of the John Alfred Prestwich-designed engine in racing throughout the 1920s, and its connection to the then premier motorcycle brand, Brough Superior. These longitudinally-mounted V-twin engines all drove the rear wheel through a crude two-speed transmission consisting of two primary sprockets, two drive chains, and two final sprockets. “You simply swapped drive chains to change the gearing.”

With the debut of the Super Sports, Morgan finally moved to something better, with a prop shaft running from the V-twin engine to Morgan’s own gearbox, which boasted three forward gears and, thankfully, a reverse gear. Chain was still used to deliver the torque to the rear wheel, but at nearly an inch wide, it was certainly sized to last. The Matchless V-twin could be purchased in either water-cooled or air-cooled form, with Duffy’s car featuring the bulging water jackets and smooth cylinders of the former.

It has tighter tolerances than the finned version, and the exposed engine is quieter. However Duffy has to constantly monitor the ‘moto-meter’ that is mounted to the top of the chromed twin-radiator surround like a luxury brand mascot. The arrow on the meter can quickly move from ‘cool’ to ‘warm’ to ‘hot’ to ‘boiling’ when driving in city traffic like a barometer warning of the approach of a tropical cyclone. “There’s no water pump or fan; it’s a thermo-siphon cooling system similar to a Ford Model T’s.” Despite this early cooling technology, Duffy has found the Super Sports to be ultra-reliable.

“I can leave it sitting in the garage for ages, then it’ll fire up readily once I put petrol in the tank again, and retard the spark”. Another feature of the Matchless is that it can easily be converted to electric start, something the previous owner of the Super Sports did soon after the car’s arrival in New Zealand from Canada. Duffy says that the Matchless is the equal to the revered J.A.P., having previously owned a 1934 J.A.P.- powered Super Sports.

“There’s very little between them, but I’ve been able to drive this one in some pretty atrocious conditions. “It’s been to some pretty wild n’ wet places (including the notorious Rubber Ducky rally in Taranaki).” Not that you’d know that to look at its immaculate condition. Evidently a restorer in Canada spent 10 years getting this Super Sports to look brand new again. Duffy bought it in 2010 from another Morgan fan, having owned the J.A.P. model for a year.

The Super Sports had been imported to New Zealand in 2004. Duffy invites me to come for a ride in one of the most unique cars in the world. The Matchless fires up readily with an authoritative V-twin rumble as he adjusts the hand throttle and spark timing levers fitted to the steering wheel. I clamber into the passenger seat awkwardly, feeling like a sardine on the packing line of a fish factory. Back in the 1930s, some road testers considered egress and access to and from the Super Sports cockpit to be excellent.

Whatever they were putting in the tea back then, I want some! The V-twin has identical bore and stroke measurements, but delivers grunt like a proper long-stroke British big-bore bike engine, with vibrant torque flooding the driveline as soon as Duffy lets out the clutch. Two well-timed shifts of the crash gearbox later, we’re going 45km/h, a speed where the Morgan no longer requires the two lower gears.

There’s plenty of mechanical drama happening ahead of me. The exposed rockers of the V-twin’s pushrod-activated valvetrain are doing a frenetic dance to the whine of the geartrain down near my right knee, and the explosive exhaust pipes exiting behind me. In my line of sight are the left-wheel motions of the Morgan’s famous ‘sliding pillar’ front suspension.

It was one of Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan’s most brilliant ideas, the independently-suspended front end the key to the accurate and agile steering of Morgan tri-cars through bumpy bends. Feeling calm and relaxed, and living a boyhood dream of a ride in a Morgan tricycle, I glance over at my driver. He has a huge grin on his face as he goes about his work, some of which looks like it requires plenty of practice – such as double-clutching a downshift with the foot clutch pedal and the hand throttle lever while still attempting to turn the car into a corner.

At one point in the drive we have to do a U-turn, and the limited steering lock turns it into a three-pointer despite a wheelbase that is shorter than some professional basketball players. Fortunately the reversing part of the manoeuvre is halted with some efficiency by the Morris Minor-sourced front brakes. “Some people are obsessed with originality, but driving in city traffic requires good brakes, especially in a car that’s as low as this one is.”

It’s not the only limitation to driving a Morgan trike in busy Auckland traffic. The rudimentary engine cooling means it’s better “to keep going than to stop” according to Duffy. He also has to park the tri-car on a flat surface or facing uphill to prevent oil vacating the gearbox.

Duffy is about to list the Super Sports for sale in the global newsletter for Morgan owners; The Bulletin. He says it’s simply because he owns two other four-wheeled Morgans, and the 1981 4-4 is better at driving around town than the tri-car, while the Rover V8-powered Plus 8 is a consummate open road cruiser.

The Super Sports will cruise at 80-90kmh quite happily, but it can be tiring for both the man and the machine. Duffy prefers to tow it to events such as the Art Deco festival in Napier.“I often have to wait for the crowd gathered around it to clear before I can drive it.”

The company also moved away from the three-wheelers once World War II started, and it was a huge surprise to Duffy when it unveiled the new 3 Wheeler model at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show after a 60-year hiatus from building tri-cars. Powered by a 85kW S&S V-twin, and driving the rear wheel via a five-speed Mazda manual gearbox, the 3 Wheeler can sprint from rest to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds. However, it still features H.F.S. Morgan’s patented sliding pillar front suspension, circa 1909.

What is it?

Picture Britain’s typical family-owned and operated business. The sort that mothers and fathers pass on to their kids, or in which uncles, aunties and cousins all pitch in together. You’re imagining a chip shop, right? Just me? Perhaps a pub, a corner shop or a post office, then. Not a car factory, I’d bet.

Well, just imagine one – if you can. It won’t be easy. Making cars isn’t something you succeed at simply by getting up early, drinking lots of tea, getting your hands dirty and having a go. It’s complicated. It requires up-to-date specialist know-how, and expert design, engineering and manufacturing skill. Peeling spuds, pulling pints or stamping envelopes, it ain’t. And yet The Morgan Motor Company was family-owned and operated right until the year of its 110th anniversary; this year. Not a bad innings, that.

Change has finally come to Pickersleigh Road, however. Earlier this year, the Morgan family decided to sell a majority share of the business to the Investindustrial private equity group that previously owned Aston Martinuntil its recent market flotation.

Ask around at the firm’s visitors’ centre as to why that decision was taken, and the answers come very honestly. “It was the right offer, when all the others over the years just weren’t,” one staffer said. “We’d reached the point where the family was beginning to hold the company back rather than drive it on. Growing the business now needs investment and well-connected, industry-savvy leadership. Which, we’re hoping, is what we’ve now got.”

At the same time as announcing that change in ownership, back in March, Morgan also announced its first ground-up new car in 19 years: this one, the Plus Six. In development since 2016, this’d be better thought of as the old regime’s parting gift to the company rather than the first fruit of the new one. Ironically, though, it’s definitely ‘all-new’ enough to feel like the latter.

Based on a new aluminium box-section monocoque chassis twice as stiff as the old Aero-series chassis that served under the Plus Eight, but also no more heavy, it’s also the first factory Morgan with a turbocharged engine: BMW’s 335bhp ‘B58’ turbo straight six hooked up to the familiar ZF eight-speed automatic gearbox. Unlike any Morgan before it, the Plus Six has electromechanical power steering, and its new chassis has even been designed to accommodate electric drive motors in future.

What’s it like?

You’re getting into a little bit of the company’s future, then, when you click the chromed button door release, swing open the tiny, cut-down driver’s door, and step over one of those famously wide running boards to lower yourself carefully into the Plus Six’s all-new cockpit. The seats remain pretty narrow, just like the footwells – but the cabin has clearly grown for length, with this 6ft 3in tester is genuinely spoilt for leg room. There’s both reach and rake adjustment on the steering column, and a very sound layout of controls overall. I’m not sure that footwell leaves room for a third pedal except at a squeeze, though there has been talk of a manual version. Even so, chances are you could be comfy here for a few hours at a stretch, almost regardless of how you’re built.

The Plus Six’s cabin finish is generally very good. Our test car had attractive ‘box weave’ carpets, embroidered headrests and soft, attentively stitched hides – though it could have done with a more appealing-looking steering wheel. Instrumentation is by traditional analogue clocks placed, in Morgan convention, in the middle of the fascia – and the more distant positioning of the speedo than the rev counter, together with the size of its numbering, makes you glad there’s also a small digital trip computer screen with a digital speedo visible through the orbit of the steering wheel rim. If not for that, you’d need to take a passenger with you at all times, just to tap you on the knee as you hit the national speed limit – which, for all I know, may very well be what Morgan owners do anyway, just in case.

And it really wouldn’t take long to hit that limit, by the way. That BMW straight six sounds a bit tuneless at times, offering a lot more turbo induction noise than exhaust burble under load – although an ‘aftermarket’ exhaust which might, I suspect, be fitted to your car even before it leaves the factory, apparently adds greater audible fruitiness.

Assuming it adds enough of it, there’d be very little else to find wanting here about a powertrain with more torque than a top-of-the-range six-pot Jaguar F-Type operating in a car weighing half-a-tonne less. The Plus Six is instantly quick, picking up from dawdling speeds with real swiftness. It is not a car that needs to be driven at all hard to go fast, or to feel enlivening for its outright pace. That’s new ground for Morgan, in my experience. There’s no doubt that a good manual version would be more involving and, to this tester, would suit the car better. Still, the ZF auto’s manual mode is quick enough to feel like a very acceptable compromise, and it’s as slick as anywhere when shifting by itself (although I do wish Morgan had found some nicer-feeling shift paddles than the somewhat flimsy, plasticky ones familiar from the PSA-Peugeot-Citroen parts bin).

On to that new chassis, then, which pretty plainly gives Morgan a great deal of fresh opportunity for enhancing and fine-tuning the handling of this car – but which you wouldn’t say it had fully explored just yet. It has certainly helped to banish some of the worst dynamic traits that Morgan owners may be used to from this car. The Plus Six tracks very straight over bumps taken at speed. It has a reasonable amount of supple compliance in a ride that remains only medium-firm feeling; one that doesn’t feel nearly as wooden or brittle as some Morgans have, over the years, but that still struggles to keep perfect close control over pitch and squat.

The new chassis has put a little bit of extra length into the car’s wheelbase compared with that of its predecessor model, and yet it retains steering that’s uncharacteristically slow by sports car standards, with almost three full turns between not especially tight-feeling extremes of lock. It’s also suddenly quite light of weighting.

For both reasons, while the Plus Six handles gentler faster bends with appealing precision, it doesn’t feel quite as agile, wieldy or keen as it might through tighter ones – and for what remains a small, light sports car, you really do notice. It was a contributing factor, for this tester at least, in eroding slightly the immediacy of control you’d ideally like over the car’s steered axle – the other being the sheer distance between that axle and where you sit in the car, which is another way in which this appealingly small two-seater is made to feel larger than it might.

Should I buy one?

Well, you’d certainly have to get used to the proportions of the Plus Six – likewise the slightly athletic entry and exit routine, the placing of the minor switchgear, and the intricate sequence of doing and undoing of steel pop fasteners and opening and closing of latches necessary to get the roof up quickly in a shower. So much of all of that feels akin to memorising the password for the manned door of the owner’s club. It’d all be a labour of love to get to know, I’m sure – and, for the lovers, the dynamic strides that Morgan has taken with this car will surely seem great.

For me, it’s what this chassis might go on to do that’s really interesting – because while the Plus Six is a lot better than you expect it might be in some ways, and in others quite honestly just a lot less bad than you might have feared, it now seems tantalisingly close to becoming a much better driver’s car with the right kind of dynamic tuning. I’m not suggesting it’ll ever handle like a Porsche, Lotus or Alpine – and neither would anyone want it to. But it’s certainly diverting to wonder, for now, just how close it might get.

Morgan Plus Six specification

Engine 6 cyls in line, 2998cc, twin-turbocharged petrol Power 335bhp at 5000-6500rpm Torque 369lb ft at 1600-4500rpm Gearbox 8-spd automatic Kerb weight 1075kg (dry) Top speed 166mph 0-62mph 4.2sec 

[Don’t believe everything you read. It is not a twin turbo (e.g. two turbos) , rather it is a single twin-scroll turbo. Mark]

Photos by Bruce Holder

When you think of a Morgan it’s perfectly acceptable for the mind’s eye to draw up the image of gentle drives in the countryside, gingham blankets and picnics in the sun. And for many older Morgans, that is most definitely the case. However, we really shouldn’t let ourselves think that. Morgan has been entwined with motorsport since its black and white beginnings way back in the 1900s. The company was founded in 1909, but just three years later in 1912, Morgan’s three-wheeled offering was on the steep banking of Brooklands, where it was competing to win the award for greatest distance covered in an hour by a cycle car. Admittedly, Morgan lost out to a GWK, however, the following year it scooped the victory by covering 60 miles.

The point here is that Morgan cars and competition go hand in hand. Over the decades the model range has grown, and so too has the racing arm of Morgan. Morgans have been seen at Le Mans, they’ve been seen at hill climbs and thanks to the incredibly popular Morgan Challenge racing series, they have been seen battling it out in packs at almost every circuit in the UK. Yes, Morgans like to race. A lot.

This has led to the growth of Morgan’s side business, if you will, which goes by the name of Aero Racing. It’s here that select Morgans are ‘breathed’ on in order to get them competition ready. Suspension, wheels, brakes, race equipment such as seats, roll cages and fire extinguishers, and of course, engines, are all fitted or built in house at Pickersleigh Road alongside the road-going counterparts.

Of course, when you have a race shop on site, you’re going to want to capitalise on that, which is exactly what Morgan did a few years back with the car you’re looking at here. This is the Morgan ARP4. That’s Aero Racing Plus 4. And this is more race car than road car, but it’s a road car nonetheless. Think of it as Usain Bolt in a houndstooth jacket. Smoking a pipe.

The Plus 4 has been in production since 1950 and many would argue that it has proven itself to be the backbone of the company. The Plus 4 is the go-to car from the Morgan range. There’s the smaller-engined 4/4, but that can leave more spirited drivers wanting. There’s the V6 Roadster, but for some this it too far removed from the traditional Plus 4. Then of course there are the V8 Aero cars along with their successor, the Plus 6. These are halo cars though, and their bonded aluminium chassis and modern tech detract, for some, from what a Morgan should be. The Plus 4 is pure, traditional Morgan though, hence its huge popularity. Even now, in 2019, the Plus 4 still boasts that traditional steel ladder chassis with an Ash-framed body sitting on top, all handmade of course.

The ARP4 takes the normal 2.0 Plus 4 and squarely drop-kicks it into the absurd, but in the best possible way. As you look at the car it’s all very familiar. Those long, flowing wings. The bonnet that spurs away from the driver for a seemingly impossible distance, that tight but perfectly trimmed cabin. Yes, it’s just a Plus 4. Until that is, you look closely. The custom-made Image 16×7-inch split-rim wheels grab your attention first, and then your eyes are naturally drawn to the rubber wrapped around them. Yokohama 225/55 AD08R in this case, which for those in the know, is a serious tyre.  

There are other visual hints towards the ARP4’s true purpose. The black grille, the lack of bumpers, the exposed aluminium in the cabin, it all suggests something other than gingham and sandwiches.

Open that handmade, heavily louvred bonnet and you’re in for a treat. The 2.0 Ford engine that you’d normally find in a Plus 4 is still there, but only in essence. The reality is a 2.0 Ford engine that has been breathed on, heavily, by none other than Cosworth. And Cosworth knows a thing or two about screwing the ponies out of a Ford engine. 225 ponies in this case, thanks to throttle bodies, level 2 race cams, a re-worked cylinder head and a reworked crank  on which you’ll find Cosworth’s forged rods and pistons. Bolted onto the back of it is a five-speed manual close ration ‘box, which in turn is bolted to a 3.9:1 differential.

Of course, power is nothing without control, but the ARP4 has the covered in spades. First of all, there are those sticky Yokohama tyres. Then there’s the five-link rear suspension, while Spax adjustable shocks can be found at both the front and rear. Four-pot Aero Racing developed brakes sit up front with vented discs, while solid discs take care of things at the back. This is a fully resolved, no point missed, out and out race car. It just happens to have a radio and leather seats.

And that’s the thing. As we slide into the driver’s seat, we can’t help but be lulled into a false sense of security by the familiar leather and rich box weave carpet. It’s just like sitting in a ‘normal’ Plus 4, but with white dials and a touch more metal on show. It is not, however, the ARP4 is not a normal Plus 4 when you press the start button.

The car barks into life with an urgency that takes you aback. The throttle bodies snarl and gulp for air, and then you jab the throttle. The noise of the throttle bodies is captivating, intoxicating in fact, and more than enough to remind you that this is no normal Plus 4.

As we engage first, we look out on the empty runway of Bruntingthorpe ahead of us. No traffic, no speed cameras, no laws to abide. It’s just us and a car that was built, that wants to go fast. Engage first, come off the surprisingly light clutch, we’re off. Without trying the rear wheels spin up and rooster tail water behind us. Second, we find grip and reward the ARP4’s obedience with a bit more throttle. Third, we’re coming up to 100mph and also the first corner, a long, sweeping right-hander at the bottom of the runway. Camera car in front of us, we decided to lean on the Morgan through the corners in a bid to get a heroic powerslide shot. But we can’t. Despite being rear-wheel drive, powerful and about as heavy as a Post-It note, it will not slide. This thing is planted firm. We try to induce it with a clutch kick. A little slide out, then back in line. It will not break traction without a fight. We are, frankly, impressed. The ARP4 is a well set-up car.

We come out of that bottom corner and start our advance of the runway itself. Camera car be damned, we want to see what we can get out of the ARP4. Fourth, 120mph and we’re still pulling. The wind noise is loud, but those throttle bodies are not willing to lose the shouting contest. Fifth and final gear in that MX-5 gearbox and we climb to 135mph before we need to work back down through the gears for the tight right-hander. As we do, the brakes bring the speed down quickly and without drama, the car stays level through the fast corner and then we start the process all over again as we head down the back straight. This thing is like a drug. The noise, the speed, the sharpness and directness of it. It’s astounding. And the grip, just… wow.

Limited to a production run of just 50, the ARP4 was a rare car when it was new, but it’s even rarer now. However, they do come up for sale from time to time. To get yourself into one, expect to part with £60k at least. But trust us, if you do, you’ll be very glad indeed. The only thing that will upset you is the fact you don’t have your own runway to play on.