>From Marcus:
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Anyway, the lbc highlight of my trip was going to the Morgan factory in Malvern.
Its funny, I lived 15 miles away from it for 18 years and never got round to
visiting....now i don't live in the country i made a beeline for it. Anyway,
they are beautiful cars. The only photo I have is in the dispatch dept. where
about 30 or so are lined up ready for delivery (all left hand drive interestly
enough), the rest of the factory was too dark, and io didnt have a flash.
When the photies get developed I'll see 'bout uploading them to the public
ftp thingy.
We had a bit of a whistle stop look around...your allowed to go anywhere you
want apart from the spray booth and wood shop. I didn't realise they still
had wood frames. I had a good look at the 3.9 litre engine they shoehorn
into the eight....man that thing must shift with a curb weight of around 1000kg.
We didn'tt have time to take the guided tour unfortunbately, so most of the info
I have is visual. I did get a pricelist and catologue and was suprised at the
low cost...approx. 13500 pounds sterling (without VAT) for the basic model.
In bucks thats around 21600, I wonder what the inport taxes are like?? How
much does a basic new model from one of the two dealers in the states cost??
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I had the good fortune to do a similar "self conducted tour" in '89. I had hoped
to tour the Lotus factory then, but it was closed because of the delayed (and
delayed...) release of the M100 Elan. The Morgan tour helped somewhat to fill
the void.
I was all very fascinating, but I was really disappointed what safety regs have
done to the car over the years. Sure the wood frame is still there , but gone
are the wire wheels and wood rimmed steering wheel. (The steering wheel I saw
looked like something from a Chevy Camaro...mass produced plastic). My memory
is fading, but I think the wood dash was also relaced with something heavily
padded.
To me these changes were enough to make a classic like the Plus 4 start to look
too much like the imitation kit car pretenders.
A real shame.
-Bob T.
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