Roland is answered by Phil who is answered by Dick who is answered by me:
R: green Morgan. Would this be historically correct for 1940?
P: Morgan had several models out before The War.
R: the distinctive round top radiator and very Morganlooking fenders.
P: I thought Moggies had flat radiators before 1953.
Flat in front but rounded on top. The Morgan appearance hasn't changed
much since about 1933 in their four-cylinder cars, except for a very
special coupe built for Le Mans in the Sixties; Chris, you've got a
picture of one of those in a copy of British Car that I was scanning
through the other day. Beautiful, beautiful coupe, with an alloy body
that is typically left unpainted and polished a la Lotus XI.
The comment about Lucas losing their large, separate headlights at the
end of the 1953 model year is correct. There's a '53 flat-rad Morgan
who regularly competes in vintage, I've seen him every year at the
Monterey Historics. Correctly speaking, the post-53 Morgans have a sort
of cowling over the radiator, and the grille is a separate construction
of vertical chrome strips that are slightly curved. The flat-rads have
a flat front surface, the same characteristic rounded top, but chrome
all the way round the radiator (similar to a T Series, which most of us
can recognize); the early cars have actual radiators sticking out of the
front of the bonnet, while the post-53 cars have separate grilles and
cowlings covering the radiators.
I only got in at the end of this so I don't know how it started but...
Morgan goes way back (1908?)
1909, Malvern Link,. Peter H. F. S. Morgan, sliding-pillar front suspension,
ash frames, used whatever engines they could find. I'm not as knowledgeable
about Morgans as I am about MGs, but I'm better off with them than with, say,
Singers or Triumphs or Wolseley Hornets.
but I don't recall any prewar Mogs except 3 wheelers.
While the trikes are the most unusual and noteworthy, Morgan has in fact
built four-wheelers since the beginning. Now, if you were an MG nut, you'd
know that Morgan ran an advertisement showing a Morgan in front of a more
square-grilled but similar-looking sports car in the early Thirties with
the slogan, "Safely Passed!", touting the additional power of the Morgan
engine over whichever Midget they used for reference. Selective specification
juggling for advertising purposes is NOT contemporaneous with the invention
of the semiconductor...
I can't remember what engine they used in the Thirties. Probably the
same popular engine as the one in Dick's beautiful and very attention-
grabbing 1948 Triumph Roadster, which I had the incredible good fortune
to ride in last week. Lovely car, and I hadn't been the passenger on
the left-hand side of a car in years. Anyway, since both Jag and Triumph
used this engine, I'd guess that at least some Morgans used it.
And I don't think they made water cooled cars 'til after the war when they
came out with a trike with a water cooled 1 liter English Ford "L"head
engine.
Morgan were (there, now I *really* sound like a Brit) always at the mercy
of their engine suppliers. Today, for instance, they use a Honda twin cam
for the Four and of course the aluminium (if I use the plural verb with a
collective noun, I should certainly put the second I in aluminium) V8 that
has done yeoman's work in so many British sports cars and saloons since
Rover bought it from GM in the late Sixties.
Over the years, the air cooled trikes ran three engines, Matchless, JAP,
or British Anzani.
True enough for the trikes. I want a red one, with a Matchless (just because
the silver M in the middle of the head and the exposed pushrod tubes look so
flaming cool I can hardly stand it).
The four-wheeled cars, however, were generically known as the Morgan Four.
(There's also a four-seat version called the Four Plus Four, just for fun.)
After the war Fours the mainstay of the line, mainly using the four-
cylinder Ford engines of about 1 liter in displacement. When Triumph
introduced the TR2 and its engine became one of the powerplants of choice
for cheaper specials (compared to Coventry Climax or Jaguar powerplants),
Morgan introduced the Plus Four with TR power, which slotted in nicely
between MG and Austin-Healey in performance (hmmm, about where TR did).
The last Morgan Plus Fours imported to this country in the late Sixties
use the TR4A engine at 2138cc.
And as heavily as I was sighing over Sarah's new shiny green paint last
night, I have to say that if I had my first choice of vehicle with that
engine in it, it'd be a '67 Morgan Plus Four. Don't care what color,
as long as it has neither rust nor termites...
Their were lot of small britsh sports cars in the 1930s that looked a bit
like post war Morgans though. regards/DickN
Actually, it's more correct to say they looked a bit like prewar MGs. Cecil
Kimber's designs for the Midget starting in the late '20s were highly copied
by other firms. Kimber pretty much invented the slab gas tank and clamshell
fender look for the J2 of (help me, Roger, my books are at home) 1932. Earlier
Midgets had a boat-tail look that was equal parts nautical and aeronautical.
The Morgan Plus Four is way high up on the list of cars I want someday.
Think of it, T Series styling with TR power...
--Scott "Okay, okay, so I'll paint it chocolate and cream" Fisher
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