MORGAN. An open two-seater body with sweeping valanced wings, running boards and a neat sloping tail

That unique English marque, Morgan of Malvern Link, earned international fame with its spritely three-wheelers for a quarter century, before turning to four wheels in 1936. The first such car, the 4/4 (four wheels/four cylinders), used the same ifs system (coil springs on vertical sliding pillars) that featured on the very first Morgan in 1909 — and which still featured on Morgans in the 1980s!

The 4/4 was given a low, rigid ladder-type chassis with unusual Z-section side members, underslung at the rear, where a live axle was suspended on semi-elliptics. The engine was a 1122cc, 34bhp four-cylinder Coventry Climax with overhead inlet and side exhaust valves, driving through a separate four-speed gearbox.

An open two-seater body with sweeping valanced wings, running boards and a neat sloping tail was hand-built by Morgan and this pretty little newcomer cost £194 when the MG TA Midget cost £222.

An open four-seater and a two-seater coupe soon augmented the range, followed by a rarer 'Le Mans Replica' with fixed cycle-type front wings, justified by a second in class at Le Mans in 1938. Almost all subsequent design changes concerned the engines, the chassis remaining basically unchanged into modern times, apart from periodic strengthening to accept more power.

The first change of unit came in 1938, when the Climax gave way to an ohv Stan-dard 10 unit. After weathering the Second World War the Morgan remained unchanged until 1950, when Standard's rugged 2.1-litre Vanguard engine was fitted. In this form it became the Plus Four, with 5cm wider track and 8cm wider body, although still a compact two-seater with exhilarating performance and leech-like roadhold-ing, which also earned it competition successes of all kinds. Triumph TR2, TR3 and TR4 twin-carburettor engines served after the Vanguard — making the Plus Four a 160kph (100mph) car — while even a BMC 1500 ohv engine was briefly used in an export model.

The 4/4 was revived in 1955 in Series 2 form, powered by the side-valve 1172cc Ford 10 engine, with a three-speed gearbox; the 997cc ohv Anglia 105E engine with four speeds was introduced in 1960, and was succeeded by the 1340cc Classic 109E in 1961.

Apart from a lapse in the somewhat globular glass fibre Plus-Four-Plus aerodynamic GT coupe, of which only 49 were made, Morgan's styling remained 'pre-war', although a curved radiator and more sloping tail did improve the bodywork after 1955.

Quick-release wire wheels were an attractive extra option, while braking was updated as performance rose, disc front brakes being adopted in 1960, There were also Super Sports variants of the Plus Four with twin double-choke Weber carburettors, alloy bodywork and a range of other performance extras, and in 1962 one example, with a TR3 engine, won the 2-litre class at Le Mans, its performance surprising rivals with 'modern' specifications and aerodynamics. Production of the Plus Four ended early in 1969, but the Ford 1600cc Cortina ohv engine was fitted to the 4/4, giving it a speed of over 150kph (almost 95mph). The most exciting Morgan of all made its debut at the 1968 Earls Court Show. Called the Plus Eight, it employed the 31-litre Rover aluminium V-8 engine (of Buick origin), the torque from this 155bhp unit permitting an effortless 200kph (125mph) and a 0 to 100kph (60mph) figure of under 7 sec.

To contain such perfor-mance, a stiffened frame with 5cm more wheelbase, 8cm wider track, larger tyres on broad-rim alloy wheels, a limited-slip differen-tial and larger servo brakes were fitted. Initially a four-speed manual gearbox was used, until Rover's five-speed unit became available as an option.

Frankly old-fashioned apart from its engine, basic rather than refined, hard in suspension and only just weatherproof, the Plus Eight is glorious to drive on roads with corners of any kind, with its confidence-inducing understeer and inbuilt stability. Morgan's 'traditional' bodywork with separate wings and running boards tapering into the bodysides was deliberately retained, contributing to the unique vintage character of a marque built by vintage methods in a vintage factory; in 1981 it still enjoyed a healthy and envied waiting list of orders from home and abroad.