Hey Guys,
Sheesh! What an imbroglio!
I gotta admit that I don't much care for the New Morgan as illustrated
in the C & D
article. That should come as no surprise... But I also gotta admit that
the new car as
described in the R&T and C&D articles is a superior vehicle.
Several of my friends who know of my interest in Morgans have commented
on how
much they like the looks of the new car! I think my friends are
impressed by the idea of
a Morgan with real, honest-to-God, wind-up windows! A real frame! A boot
of sorts!
Still unarguably a Morgan!
Since I am unlikely to ever purchase a new Morgan and my friends are at
least
theoretically in the right demographic, I would say that Morgan is
making a good
decision. I believe the Morgan must change to remain in the market,
something that has
only passing interest to us but which is vitally important to the men
and women who
have spent their whole lives in The Works.
I also think we should all bear in mind that much of the C&D article was
written
"tripingly..." Written just because the writer liked the way the words
looked and sounded, which
is good when you are writing poetry but sucks pretty bad when you are
writing
ostensibly factual articles. Take it all with a grain of salt!
Wouldn't it be great to suddenly find state of the art (well, almost)
Morgans competing
at race venues all across the country, not in vintage auto parades but
real, hot and heavy
wheel-to-wheel competition as they did in the sixties? The car described
in the articles
would be competitive in all respects and I have no doubt they would be
raced by
weekend racers. I first fell for Morgans watching a pair of Supersports
dicing on the
track at Mosport about 1963. Glorious!
It is unfortunate that the Morgans, father and son, have themselves
elected to try to
maintain secrecy about the New Mog, but hey! Their name is on the
door... If that's the
way they want to play it, so be it.
I also gotta say that I have never met Bill Fink but I am absolutely
certain that it was his
very individual and near heroic efforts that kept legal Morgans coming
into this country
when the Works had ceded the territory to German and Japanese cars. It
was his efforts,
his money, his brains and creativity that kept us in the ball game even
though it was a
ball game permeated by the scent of propane. I hope he made money and
continues to
make money.
I also hope Cantab makes money and I hope both Cantab and Fink are soon
faced with
competition! Wouldn't it be great to have half-a-dozen Morgan agents in
this country? If
the New Mog is a hit--which seems likely--then we may well see a
resurgence of agents
over here.
I also think that if you lined up Morgans, say from '36 to '99, then
stuck the New Mog
on the end of the line you would have no doubt as to it's lineage.
Something that can't
be said of many marques. So far as that goes, I suspect that if you
found a Morganist
who is somehow blissfully unaware of this imbroglio and sprang a picture
of New Mog
on him (or her, as the case may be) the enthusiast would immediately
know it was the
New Mog. Again, an exercise that could not be undertaken with many
marques.
The biggest reservation I have about the whole thing is I can't imagine
the described
New Mog being built in The Works! The picture just does not gel. Of
course, one of the
articles claims the Morgans have sprung for a couple of NC milling
machines and now
have interchangeable wings... Hard to imagine...
Finally, I must address a comment to those who are attempting, for
whatever reason, to
put the lid on this discussion. This is a perfectly legitimate topic for
discussion and if
Peter or Charles or whoever doesn't like it, tough patootie. That's what
delete keys are
made for!
Peace, power, and prosperity for us all!
Cheers!
--Colin Cobb, Las Cruces, NM, USA
'66 Plus 4 Four Seater
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