-- [ From: Bob Nogueira * EMC.Ver #3.1a ] --
Tony
You raise an interesting issue here which happens to be one of my
favorite topics to think about when on a road trip
( I really need to find radio that I can hear with the top down)
I've often heard the story of the conversion from the Flat Rad to Cowl
being attributed to the lack of Lucas lights. This is usually part of the
legend that Morgan never makes a changes in design unless forced to or with
great reluctance. While these make for a good story I don't believe they
are true.
First, If one looks at Morgans up to 1954, they in fact developed just as
any other marque.The four wheeler which was introduced in 1936 also was up
dated greatly with the introduction of the Plus4 .
We can thus say that in 1954, Morgan did have a normal history of making
design changes .
. Now if we take a look at the market in 1954 we will see that Morgan was
in fact looking at some major competition. Austin Healey was a big hit
and pretty much in Morgans price range. The Jag 120 had made popular the
New age body design., and Triumph was preparing to release the TR2 which
was aimed directly at the Morgan market
( Note : Lyons, know to be very vindictive and a man who always expected to
get what he wanted ,was upset after making a offer to buy out Morgan and
being rejected. He ordered the TR model be developed and ready for sale
with in a year . His instructions were that it sell for the price of a
Morgan and have the new age style of the XK120 . Production was to be just
slightly more than Morgans production, )
I believe that HFS saw these threats coming and knew he had to up date the
Plus 4s styling to hold his share of the market. Given the limitations of
the coach built body and the resource of the factory he was limited to what
he could do with the body. The Updates to the Morgan style came in four
changes over the next five years These changes occurred in a descending
order of impact on the style, thus supporting the premise that HFS was
attempting to up the design as much as possible ;
1 , The switch to the Cowl front which took its styling cue from the XK120
and proved so popular that several owners and Dealers returned flat rads to
the factory to be rebodied as cowl models
2. The dropping of the double spare tires shortly after the introductions
of the cowl model . At the time the double spares was though to be very old
fashion
3. The switch to the flat back from the bustle back .
4 The widening of the body to cover more of the wings and thus attempt to
make the Morgan wings appear more like ' vestiges if a fender than actual
fenders
With Peters control of the company I believe he pinned his hopes on the new
Plus 4 Plus model and did not bother with and further updates to the Plus 4
styling.
Now if we compare the styling changes made to the Plus 4 during its life to
the styling changes made to models of the other companies I believe you
won't find any that updated the styling of a model as frequently as Morgan
.
As for Lucas discontinuing the lights being the motivation to change, it
appears to me that Morgan could have made its own light buckets with far
less cost and labor than changing the design of the fender . ( hell they had
to make half a bucket for the cowl model .)
Bob Nogueira----" Opinions Observations free of Charge"
REPLY, Original message follows --------
> Date: Friday, 15-Oct-99 10:58 PM
>
> From: ARoman4047@aol.com \ America Online: (AROMAN4047)
> To: Ed Herman \ Internet: (edherman@concentric.net)
> To: Jeremy Edwards \ Internet: (jeremy@jmemee.demon.co.uk)
> cc: MORGANS \ Internet: (morgans@autox.team.net)
>
> Subject: Re: Fenders
>
> ...Both Morgan and MG went to the faired -in headlamps when Lucas stopped
> making
> the chromed buckets (that's pronounced "bouquets"...)
> Tony in NJ (W.A.S.T.E.)
-------- REPLY, End of original message --------
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