October - November 2009 - Morgan Cars for Sale

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Before resuming yarns and tales of “Downhill All the Way” I thought it best I clear up a few burning issues plaguing Morgan owners the past 100 years: How did America, with its English heritage, blunder onto the wrong side of the road? Convention from earliest times was to move to the left meeting oncoming traffic, people predominantly right handed doing so enabled wielding a weapon at a foe or high-fiving a friend. In the 14th century Pope “all roads lead to Rome” Boniface proclaimed pilgrims must keep to the left. Come the French Revolution Robespierre reversed the rule, some say to spite Rome, or that carriages carrying jumped up Jacobins passed on the right of pedestrians to prevent disaffected peasants reaching the right hand seated driver, thereby halting the rig the better to remonstrate with the occupant over broken campaign promises. So right became the rule, and spread to all Napoleonic countries, loyal or conquered. But why, in 1792, did Pennsylvania (and other states soon after) legally require right of the road driving? Was it post- Revolution throw-off of the Crown and its Rule? Or, because late 18th century freight wagons, built by German immigrants, followed the long standing rule – driven from astride the left rear horse, the French imposed right side passing rule then allowing postillons to look out for locking hubs. Jousting knights started this right side passing rot, carried through to both Upper Crust autos, and race cars adopting right hand drive from the start, enabling chauffeurs and milady to exit curbside, and racers to add weight on the torque raising right rear wheel corners. Lancia Aurelia was the last Euro car retaining rhd tradition for home markets, Ferrari reserved rhd for the Works race cars, customers getting lhd, and in the Alps, truckers long choosing rhd the better to see the road edge. In the US, curbside steering now seen only on garbage and mail trucks, and a few Morgans, which ones? Who knows better or different? Why did Morgan choose an oddball metric bolt pattern for its steel wheels? Until 1957 all Morgans (save trikes) wore steel road wheels. After 1956 the SCCA in America banned Morgans from racing because these steel Morgan Musings by Michael Anthony Morgazette • October / November 2009 • Page 18 wheels kept falling off, which forced Morgan into action. Wire wheel hubs had been available for Salisbury axles since 1954, Morgan copied a Dunlop design for the front splined, drum brake hubs. But from start to finish Morgan persisted with this metric mystery, at odds with every other British car manufacturer (who used the Imperial Standard measurement bolt pattern), necessitating the production of 16 inch and 15 inch steel wheels unique to Morgan, when they could undoubtedly have bought TR2/3 wheels for mere pennies. A theory: British Salmson, was the English arm of the French Salmson Car Company, whose factory outside London built Aero engines in the 1930s. About 1934 British Salmson decided to produce a 6 cylinder 2.3 litre twin cam engined sports car, assembled mainly from French made parts. An output of 25 cars per month was envisaged, the venture came to naught and only twelve cars total were made, with steel bolt on wheels. Study a rare photograph of a British Salmson, and it will be seen wearing what appears to be an identical 17 inch wheel, with slots, to that which appeared in 1936 on the Morgan Series 1 4-4, and continued to be fitted to the 4/4 (other than dropheads) through to February, 1951. Did HFS go dumpster diving back of the Salmson factory? Maybe he was able to buy a few thousand overstock wheels, and so had to produce metric PCD hubs to suit. Who knows better or different? Today, later 1960s VW Bug wheels are the only readily available replacements. By the way, why was “4-4” changed to “4/4”? What other Morgan model prompted this? Think about it. Who built the first gasoline powered British car? (Clue: the business was located in a place called Malvern Link.) Wrong! Not what you think. Brothers Charles and Walter Santler of Malvern converted a compressed gas powered engine in a dog cart to run on petrol in 1894. A German friend of theirs, a certain Mr. Benz, is said to have visited them on more than one occasion, and they popped over to see him as well. Those were the days when Malvern was the Silicon Valley of early motoring, and HFS, fresh from engineering school, apprenticeship and back home by 1905, needed a hobby. His “runabouts” became increasingly popular with his friends, and in 1909, MMC was born.
Super Sports … Continued from page 17 also TOK 258. Many Morgan enthusiasts took the opportunity to get a nice set of pictures of this car too. One Morgan which, though not a +4 Super Sports in the strict sense of the word, has definite Lawrence links and also was present at the Centenary meeting was the +4 owned by John Brook, who happens to live in Malvern! It has the chassis of the original (1956) +4 registered TOK 258, the high body which reputedly first sat on the 1961 car (which was later changed for a low body, in which configuration the car scored the Le Mans win), but … a very odd rear end! John did have a number of questions about the car and put a large display board next to his car and thus drew a lot of attention. Morgan Musings, continued from page 18 Finally, a contest: “Spot the Roll Axis” See the drawing below of a Morgan front suspension. Do the geometry and you’ll see why this design is among the most stable suspension designs in the automotive world, and why it is very hard to roll a Morgan. Send your answers into Gordon and the winner will be announced next issue, awarded a worn out kingpin for their trouble, probably two the way parts keep falling off around here. Yours, Mike Anthony Time to leave Morgazette • October / November 2009 • Page 19 All too quickly the time passed by at Cheltenham and the hour drew near to say goodbye to all the Super Sports owners and other Morgan enthusiasts, get the yellow Super Sports and its occupants ready for depart and set off in the direction of Portsmouth again. With no bolts shaking loose this time and solely the occasional misfire, the Super Sports behaved itself impeccably. The only stops necessary were for filling up with petrol. The Weber carbs, combined with Douglass’ driving style, make sure that the maximum distance covered on one litre of petrol is about 7 kms, which is about equal to 20 mpg. Driving an exclusive, fast Morgan has its price… Arriving safely in France by the ferry, the final stint was Le Havre – Paris. In lovely sunny weather we drove along the French Autoroute, the Périfirique, to arrive safely from where the trip had started. The trusty yellow Super Sports had added another 1000 miles within a long weekend, which was about 5% of its TOTAL previous mileage, from 1967 on! In other words, at last it had been properly run in! Thanks for the great ride, Douglass. May the Super Sports last at least another 42 years! Hermen Pol © Editors note: Hermen Pol is a serious and respected Morgan archivist and researcher. He lives in Holland and provides research services above and beyond what may be obtained from factory records. If you as a Morgan owner are interested in the provenance of your vehicle, Hermen is your man. Contact him at: Morgan History Company, Het Veer 129, NL – HD AVENHORN Website: http://morganhistoryinfo.services.officelive.com
Page 1 and 2: October • November 2009 November
Page 3 and 4: * MSCCNC Club Sponsored Event Other
Page 5 and 6: A Message from Our President Morgan
Page 7 and 8: Photo © Daniel Mainzer Photography
Page 9 and 10: Princeton Road to Hwy.162 east to O
Page 11 and 12: Oktoberfest 2009 Hosted by Audrey &
Page 13 and 14: Member Classifieds FOR SALE: 1934 M
Page 15 and 16: After the +4 had been succeeded by
Page 17: to see if the rear suspension could

October - November 2009 - Morgan Cars for Sale

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