A MOGGIE CELEBRATION PART 2

WE CONTINUE YESTERDAY’S CELEBRATION OF MY FAVORITE sports car as detailed in my favorite car magazine, Classic & Sports Car. Today in Part 2, we pick up with C&SC’s Senior Contributor Simon Hucknall as he learns to pilot a 1935 Morgan Super Sports three-wheeler.

The Super Sports cockpit. This and other images from Classic & Sports Car, June 2024.

A Blend of Car and Motorcycle. “To fire up,” Simon recounts, “retard the left-hand ignition lever and close the opposing air control, then thumb the electric starter, lifting both levers when the V-twin comes to life. It’s gloriously unrefined, issuing an offbeat thump that’s somehow apt for this particular blend of car and motorcycle.”

The Matchless engine is an alloy-crankcase, iron heads, ohv 990-cc 50º V-twin with single Amal carburetor. Its 42 hp at 4800 rpm gives the 958-lb. trike spirited performance.

What with all those thumps, I would occasionally wonder who was actually being scammed with the trike’s reduced road tax: the Inland Revenue or the moggie driver. 

All in Good Fun. Simon continues, “But you soon acclimatise, steering mainly with your left hand [your right operating the hand throttle], captivated by the little Morgan’s sprightliness and agility…. The engine is a delight and, with ample torque allied with high-ish gearing, the Super Sports feels comfortable at a 50-55-mph cruise.”

Simon cites an outright top speed of 73 mph when The Light Car “tested the Super Sports in 1939. Even allowing for the packaging and dynamic compromises wrought by having only three wheels, that was remarkable performance for a pre-war car costing a mere £136.” 

You’re telling me. 

C&SC’s Four-wheel Morgans. The Malvern works always bought its powerplants from others. The original 1936 4/4’s four-cylinder engine was sourced from Coventry Climax (later renowned for powering fire pumps and Lotuses). Various 4/4s continued well into the years of my own Moggie love affairs, including one with a Fiat powerplant. The Morgan 4/4 2000 had a 1995-cc dohc inline-4 producing 112 hp at 5500 rpm, an engine usually finding residence in various Fiats. Its 5-speed gearbox was Fiat-sourced as well.

Image from R&T, March 1984. 

This was in the early/mid days of emissions controls when pal Bill Fink adroitly cleaned up Morgan exhausts by converting the cars to propane. This required a bit of advance planning during our six-car comparo, but no big deal.

C&SC’s choice of four-wheelers were a flat-rad four-cylinder Plus 4 (various versions built between 1950 and 1969), a V-6 Roadster (2004-2019), and a V-8 Plus 8 (1968–2004). Engines came from Standard Vanguard, Ford, and Rover/née Buick, respectively.

My Four-wheeler Experiences. Arranging them chronologically, we tested one of Bill Fink’s turbocharged Plus 8s in August 1980. “Nostalgia Straight-Up” I called it here at SimanaitisSays. And at 0-60 in 6.8 seconds, it surely was. 

Bill Fink’s Turbo Morgan Plus 8. Image from R&T, August 1980.

And there’s that 4/4 2000 noted above, comparison-tested in March 1984. 

And then from 1993 for some 25 years wife Dottie and I were custodian to a 1965 Morgan Plus 4 Four Passenger Family Tourer, Malvern-identified as chassis no. 6053. 

Transiting the Arizona Copperstate’s Yarnell Grade in our Family Tourer (Ari Sirotta, daughter of Copperstate pals, was a great passenger).  

The Morgan was our Sunday ice-cream car as well as transport of delight on the Arizona Copperstate 1000 and the Northwest Classic out of Portland, Oregon.

I called our Morgan “The Mrs.” Thus I could tell folks I intended to spend the weekend “fooling with The Mrs.” 

Do check out the June 2024 Classic & Sports Car for other Morgan lore. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com