Morgan
- Thread starter pipme
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Not strictly fair, Pip.... I'm sure I saw one at the Manchester Motor Show in 1979 that was painted in BRG..... 
Mancaster '79 ? Twas silver til the 'West boys' deposited their second hand farmhouse cider over it ... That year / model had a major change 4 bolts changed from Hex to Torx ... Phew !! Just how easily people are parted from their greenbacks ...
- Joined
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I remember that show cos there was a huge kerfuffle about a competition: a major (French) manufacturer put a model into a "guess my mileage" competition. You know, glossy car looking brand new, tape over mileometer....
Well, the clock said well over 100K, but it transpired the car was brand new, and had an old clock fitted. Lots of peeps unhappy. Norty, norty.....
At the same show, I also remember my first serious kiss, didn't last (the kiss or the relationship.....) and winning a Picadilly 261 T-shirt.
Cor, remember Medium Wave?
Well, the clock said well over 100K, but it transpired the car was brand new, and had an old clock fitted. Lots of peeps unhappy. Norty, norty.....
At the same show, I also remember my first serious kiss, didn't last (the kiss or the relationship.....) and winning a Picadilly 261 T-shirt.
Cor, remember Medium Wave?
The new morgan looks slightly different.
IIRC, they still use a wooden chassis!
The "rice burners" in America, well it's a bit like mods'n'rockers really, isn't it? Modern jap cars with highly tuned/boosted 4-pot engines versus American muscle with 40 cubic acre V8s. Some ricers are pretty serious cars, there are Mazda RX's with 500+ bhp, Nissan Skylines with 1000+ bhp.
If you want to read some passionate arguments, do a search for "ricer vs muscle", you will see a lot of arguments on motoring fora!
As American car enthusiasts would say "There's no replacement for displacement", but then they've obviously never had a desire to go round corners
IIRC, they still use a wooden chassis!
The "rice burners" in America, well it's a bit like mods'n'rockers really, isn't it? Modern jap cars with highly tuned/boosted 4-pot engines versus American muscle with 40 cubic acre V8s. Some ricers are pretty serious cars, there are Mazda RX's with 500+ bhp, Nissan Skylines with 1000+ bhp.
If you want to read some passionate arguments, do a search for "ricer vs muscle", you will see a lot of arguments on motoring fora!
As American car enthusiasts would say "There's no replacement for displacement", but then they've obviously never had a desire to go round corners
Dunno if I'm taking the right tack here but , Morgan ? Beautiful car, just behind TVR for me. Why drive a box like eveyone else 
If anyone saw Top Gear last night, that German car based on an M3: is it just me or had they just bolted the rear of a TVR to the front of a Morgan? Was a nice car, but I think I would still have the TVR (and the spare £20K for lessons on how to drive it properly!)
AdamW said:
If that's the case then what is the point of a Z4? If it is so good - it got pretty much a chorus of approval - it makes one wonder as to why BMW provided the chassis/engine 'cos surley it is a serious competitor to the Z4?
In one of my many work positions a young lad once said to me " Just go for it scoby, if you want a TVR, have one, the worst thing that can happen is the finance company reposseses it, but meanwhile you've had fun".
So I did, lost me job, they did, I had. Boy I used to cream meself just listening to it on tickover, break most city speed limits (30 mph) in roughly 2 seconds, what a beauty !!
So I did, lost me job, they did, I had. Boy I used to cream meself just listening to it on tickover, break most city speed limits (30 mph) in roughly 2 seconds, what a beauty !!
L_Plate said:AdamW said:
If that's the case then what is the point of a Z4? If it is so good - it got pretty much a chorus of approval - it makes one wonder as to why BMW provided the chassis/engine 'cos surley it is a serious competitor to the Z4?
Well, for £70K you can just about buy an M3 AND a Z4, so I would think BMW don't see it as competition.
I would think Alpina would have more to shout about though, overpriced BMW-based cars are their speciality.
I wonder what they have to say about the M5 and M6? Can't really get much more extreme with a road legal saloon, certainly not enough to justify an Alpina pricetag!
AdamW said:
You are probably right there. I didn't catch the price bit (quite important really
).AdamW said:
Strange you should mention Alpina and their pricing. I know a friend of a friend in Germany who paid a hell of a whack for an 5 series Alpina about three years ago. It was more expensive than the M5 yet only had the six cylinder engine (albeit bored out to 3.5 litres or so). He reckoned that fitting the V8 (as in the then M5 - it's V10 now by the way) precluded the use of rack and pinion steering and they have to use a recirculating ball arrangement which in his view mitigates against good handling. Whether this is the case or not I guess is open to debate but it is interesting to note that the Z8 - a car which BMW aim specifically at the (affluent) sports enthusiast - has a V8 and r & p steering.
Also there might have been a handling advantage if the straight-6 was lighter than the V8.
The current M5 is about the price of the Weismann on Top Gear, and a bit quicker. A saloon car with more than 500bhp... insane!
For years the Lotus-Vauxhall Carlton held the "insane saloon car" torch. In the last couple of years though we've had the V8 Rover 75/MG ZT (260bhp as standard but factory-approved upgrades to take it to about 900bhp including nitrous), the M5 (517bhp), the Audi RS-series of cars (also insane).
Also hot-hatches have made a heck of a comeback. Just look at the latest offerings from Vauxhall (a 245bhp Astra) and Ford (a 2.5l turbo Focus). A typical Group 17 car at the moment has a 0-60 figure in the 6-second range and a top speed of 140+, to get to Group 20 it seems you need a 4.something-second 0-60 time and a 155+ mph top speed.
Strange how we are living in an era of high taxation on motorists, yet we still have hatches with performance similar to supercars of 1970 and sports saloons with performance not far off F1 cars of that day.
The current M5 is about the price of the Weismann on Top Gear, and a bit quicker. A saloon car with more than 500bhp... insane!
For years the Lotus-Vauxhall Carlton held the "insane saloon car" torch. In the last couple of years though we've had the V8 Rover 75/MG ZT (260bhp as standard but factory-approved upgrades to take it to about 900bhp including nitrous), the M5 (517bhp), the Audi RS-series of cars (also insane).
Also hot-hatches have made a heck of a comeback. Just look at the latest offerings from Vauxhall (a 245bhp Astra) and Ford (a 2.5l turbo Focus). A typical Group 17 car at the moment has a 0-60 figure in the 6-second range and a top speed of 140+, to get to Group 20 it seems you need a 4.something-second 0-60 time and a 155+ mph top speed.
Strange how we are living in an era of high taxation on motorists, yet we still have hatches with performance similar to supercars of 1970 and sports saloons with performance not far off F1 cars of that day.
Yes, all of those examples demonstrate the progress in automotive technology.
But is this really a time of high taxation on cars? I was reading somewhere that cars have never been cheaper! And will the proposed road pricing intentions make gas guzzlers comparatively economic? (This of course presumes that tax on fuel is reduced if not eliminated altogether). I suppose most folk will resent being charged on use of roads but perhaps it rather sweetens the pill if we can replace the Fiesta 1.1 with a Chrysler Viper (taste notwithstanding).
But is this really a time of high taxation on cars? I was reading somewhere that cars have never been cheaper! And will the proposed road pricing intentions make gas guzzlers comparatively economic? (This of course presumes that tax on fuel is reduced if not eliminated altogether). I suppose most folk will resent being charged on use of roads but perhaps it rather sweetens the pill if we can replace the Fiesta 1.1 with a Chrysler Viper (taste notwithstanding).
That is a good point L plate, when I was working in Egypt I got me hands on the biggest Jeep Cherokee I could as petrol was (to me) only 10p a litre, I couldn't afford to run one here though