Seven decades of separation: the Morgan Plus 4 at 70

By Jack Phillips

| 2 Dec 2020

Classic & Sports Car – Seven decades of separation: the Morgan Plus 4 at 70

Tradition holds great value for a company such as Morgan. It does for other marques, too, of course, but at Malvern it’s different.

Consider the weight the Porsche 911 has put on in its five decades and the acreage of road it now demands.

Then look at what’s happened to the Morgan +4 in 20 more years. The answer is not a lot, really. Not only in comparison or meaningfully, but not much at all.

The Competition’s ‘four’ delivers 104bhp

The engine has changed a few times, and the odd concession has been made in the name of modernity, but since its launch at Earls Court in 1950 it has been stoically stuck in its mould to today and the 70th Anniversary edition of 2020.

The production line hasn’t been unbroken, however, with gaps between generations often caused by that perennial problem at Morgan: availability of other company’s engines.

Indeed, the +4 came about because the 1122cc Standard engine in the 4/4, née 4-4, had run its course, because drivers wanted a bit more shove for their shilling.

It would return five years later, but by 1951 deliveries were being made of a Morgan that looked just like a Morgan but with more grunt up front and four forward gears.

The classic Morgan lines are unchanged – which is part of the timeless appeal

The 2088cc ‘four’ from Standard’s Vanguard was chosen after a little smoke-and-mirrors by Peter Morgan, circumventing his father’s dictat – that the new engine must be less than 1750cc to mitigate any possibly inconvenient tax changes – by bolting in a stock overhead-valve Vanguard unit and taking ‘HFS’ out for a drive. Dad was won over and the die was cast.

The Autocar had the scoop weeks before west London’s big show, and Motor Sport implored after: ‘Do not miss the new “Plus Four” model. It should be exciting,’ going as far as to label it ‘extremely interesting’ – heady sensationalist praise for 1950.

Buyers could take advantage of 68bhp, surpass 80mph if they were feeling particularly brave and enjoy slightly longer front springs for better comfort, in either Tourer or Coupé bodies.

The chassis was lengthened, widened and stiffened to accommodate the larger engine, but to all intents and purposes it was a like-for-like replacement.

Visually, certainly: the steep, flat radiator and sweeping wings harked back to the pre-war designs. Performance-wise, the +4 was a revelation, winning over all who encountered it.

Twin Weber carburettors give the TR4A-spec ‘four’ extra punch

By the end of 1953, the true Morgan figure was starting to take shape as the so-called ‘interim cowled’ model.

Rather than the full waterfall grille that would finally arrive later in 1954, along with the first of 51 four-seat variants, 19 cars found their radiators pinched back, not quite curved, and their headlamps lowered towards the bumper and wings pulled further over the front wheels.

Peter Morgan christened them ‘bean-can’ models, because of the design of the light surrounds.

Headlight regulation alterations rendered that rare Morgan design change a misstep, sitting too low on the nose to be legal from 1954, but the ruling actually resolved the nose treatment to something much more palatable.

The badge moved to the body, too; a minor detail, perhaps, but such things are important when developments move at such a glacial pace. And what you see now, or whenever you try to visualise a Morgan, is what you’ve had for the best part of seven decades.

The same, but different

Around the same time, the Standard engine was falling out of favour on all but the high-doored Drophead Coupé compared to the optional twin-carb 1991cc ‘four’ from the Triumph TR2, allied to a Moss ’box.

Naturally, the most powerful Morgan yet caught the eye of competition types, especially now that 100mph was achievable – and in the sub-2-litre class, too.

The TR3 and later TR4 replacements only strengthened that ambition.

Chris Lawrence is the man who is perhaps most attributed to Morgans on track and his LawrenceTune firm was licensed by the factory to breathe on many to eke out more performance.

In 1961, the year of his infamous Le Mans refusal and a year before his famous class win, his spec was made official with a run of 100 or so Super Sports, including aluminium body panels based on the smaller and lower 4/4, 72-spoke wheels, and the engine stripped and balanced by Jack Brabham Motors, with a high-lift cam, Webers and a four-branch manifold.

The 70th Anniversary edition claims a 7-sec 0-60mph time

The +4+, a more conventional-looking, glassfibre-bodied, Aston Martin DB2-esque Morgan came and went, and all two-seater +4s soon assumed the ‘low-line’ body like Lawrence’s racer, marked out by the gap between the windscreen mount and the top of the door.

Today, early +4s are rare on home shores (breaking the fourth wall for a moment, many of the country’s main Morgan specialists, the factory and the club were stumped to find a road-spec car for this story) because the model was launched into a market where British sports cars were more commonly destined for ships to the States rather than home dealers.

The +4 was no exception, and as much as 80% went to America – “50/50 between the east and west coast,” Morgan told Road & Track in 1960.

Owner Patton doesn’t drive his Morgan with the roof raised

Midway through the Super Sport’s life came the Competition, a series of a believed 42 cars that took some of the Lawrence mods and the low-line body for a quicker +4 to lie between stock and racer.

“Only 11 remain,”says Ian Patton, owner of ‘our’ 1966 example, one of two thought to be in the UK.

“There’s a famous one in France that was Jacques Cousteau’s. Perhaps the others are out there, but people don’t know what they have got. It’s a standard Morgan with a slightly hotter engine, a TR4A 2.2-litre.

“Very few people know that the Competition +4 was made by Morgan – most people think I just mean that I race it. But it is just like the special editions sold these days.”

Dash-mounted badge reveals this car’s status

Such as the last ‘proper’ Morgan Plus 4, the platinum-coloured 70th Anniversary Edition with gold-painted steel chassis and various other details that make it that little bit more important and collectible than others.

The nicely artificially weathered plate on the dash adds more importance (and probably value), too, with its ‘01/20’.

Four were made before lockdown, curiously not this ‘first’ one, but all are now out in the wild.

It marks the true endstop of a line that first paused when the original +4 ceased in stages from 1966, when the 42nd and final Competition car was made.

Gold paint for the last steel chassis

Two years later its bigger Super Sports brother ended production in January ’68, the four-seater went in November and by December the two-seat Tourer had gone.

Last to go, in the first month of 1969, was the Coupé because the four-cylinder TR ran out, paving the way for the Rover V8 to take over after 4533 had been made.

Fiat’s twin-cam revived the (rebadged) Plus 4 in 1985, then came Rover power from 1988 until 2000, with the Plus 8’s chassis from 1993.

A five-year hiatus was ended by the use of Ford’s versatile Duratec, and beneath the centre-hinged bonnet of the 70th is the all-alloy Ford GDI, for gasoline direct injection.

In all, 42 +4 Competition models were built (left); the 70th Anniversary edition is a limited run of 20

But throughout it all, that Morgan tradition has remained: the ladder chassis, the archaic looks, the air bladder in the seats, the sliding-pillar front and leaf-sprung rear suspension; the ambience, for want of a better word.

That much is clear jumping between driving seats. It sounds glib but the essence of a Morgan remains – far more than the ‘spirit of a 911’ that is so often referenced.

The view out over the long, louvred bonnet from the low cockpit is unmistakable, framed by the lamps at each corner and topped by a small rectangular rear-view mirror.

It’s just as easy to look over your shoulder, in truth.

There is a plusher feel in the younger car, but the key touch points are unchanged

The dashboards in both are laid out in a way presumably more convenient for the builder than the driver, with the rev counter obscured and the speedo opposite the passenger’s right shoulder – and below the tonneau when covered in the Competition.

At least the big, thin-rimmed wooden wheel means you can just about see how close the redline is by peering between the aluminium spokes. It’ll happily rev to 5500rpm, reckons Patton.

The wheel looks as though it’s bolted straight to the aged wooden dash, with no column to speak of, and it feels vague just off centre, requiring plenty of input.

But turn it does and the car’s balance soon shows through.

The Ford GDI ‘four’ gives 180bhp

The heavy and unassisted 70th feels surprisingly usable, though, a good weight that is never flighty through its smaller, more modern but attractive leather Moto-Lita wheel.

It’s involving, and at times at the mercy of the road, but you buy aMorgan to drive, not to be driven by it.

To the right of the Competition’s wheel, where the 70th has its plaque, is a dial for the Armstrong Selectaride rear dampers, which Patton owns but has not fitted.

“The previous owner said I must promise not to,” he admits. “The system used to short if it was on anything other than neutral, and mid-corner one would often go to the hard setting and the other to soft.” The problem afflicted Jensens, too.

This handsome – and huge – wheel fronts the timber dash

The interior of the Competition is believed to be as Peter Morgan knew the car, having been registered as its first keeper owing to it being a works car for the use of a select few drivers on rallies and hillclimbs.

How often Morgan himself used the car is uncertain, but it was definitely his.

Patton is a tour guide at the factory, when he’s not liaising with the Bugatti Owners’ Club and the DVLA sorting registrations, and his connections uncovered LAB 118D’s history.

“I checked the records and realised it was the works car, which surprised me,” he says.

“I went to the county council and found it was registered to Peter Morgan, who was a keen rallyist and triallist. I was put in touch with the Morgan historian, who had bought a load of photos and in there was this car. The story is that he was developing it to be homologated like the Super Sport.”

This switch controlled the Selectaride dampers (left); the speedo sits in front of the passenger

It’s the kind of history that would normally be celebrated. “Very few people know about the car, and what it is,” Patton continues.

“When Peter Morgan sold it the car disappeared, and the chap who restored it found it as a wreck in a lock-up in Edinburgh.

“He did it sympathetically, which is nice, but he drove it to Holland and his wife hated it so he sold it. He didn’t know the history, but knew it was something different because of the Derrington four-branch manifold.

“The engine and Moss gearbox are both the factory items. You have to either be gentle with it or thrash it, and it’s original so I don’t want to.”

Painted wires

The gearbox certainly requires time, both to get to grips with it and for its changes, but with double-declutching you soon get into sync.

It communicates, somehow, when it wants you to slot into each finger, with a dab of throttle to help things along and the engine popping eagerly.

Patience pays off, everything settles down and you forget anyone else on the road. They can wait, anyway; you and the gearbox are talking.

Yet it will forgive you whatever ratio you’re in because there is so much usable torque. The exhaust note sounds almost always the same, too, though it’s perhaps more sonically pleasing from outside the car than in it. But from the driver’s seat it still sounds fantastic.

More gold detailing to mark this out as a special-edition, last-of-the-line model

Both of those characteristics are shared by the Ford-engined 70th.

It will pull from nothing, carrying its light weight with rorty ease. But play with the typically excellent Mazda ’box, so fresh and new that you really should stretch before getting in, and it will fly, skipping along feeling fleet of foot.

Hit a crack in the road and the game turns a little, as it rattles like its forebear taught it to – though not for as long or as hard. But that is all part of the theatre of a Morgan.

Neither car is spectacularly fast in the numbers sense, but with the wind buffeting across the low-cut doors, and the evocative noise all around you, it doesn’t matter. It feels just right and just fast enough.

The 70th Anniversary model is the faster car cross-country, but the Competition provides the more involving experience

Both cars also provide a solitary experience, yet in a good way: it’s just you, the car and the road – but you’ve taken someone along to chat with when you arrive at the chosen country pub.

Conversation in the cabin is possible only at walking pace, and the radio in the 70th is presumably there to tick a box.

There’s not much in the way of other conveniences, particularly in terms of luggage space. The rack over the spare on the slanted rear of the 70th is an addition that whoever buys this first edition will probably appreciate.

Patton has slightly more pressing uses for his +4 because, like its first keeper, he takes it to startlines at the foot of hills and on sprints.

Owner Patton with his discreetly significant +4 Competition

He has a more modern, Sigma-engined 4/4 for touring duties, often across France: “In that I don’t even need to take a toolkit; it’s lovely but doesn’t have the power. Get it up on the cam and it’s nippy, though.

“This ikes to be used, and if the weather’s nice I’ll take it if I’m scrutineering somewhere. I’ve never had the hood on.

“I love it, it’s so typical of late-’50s sports cars such as TRs. It’s nicely tuned, but the average hot Clio will beat you on the road. You’ll never be hugely fast – if you want that then buy a Caterham.”

As Patton elucidates, going quickly isn’t really the point of a Morgan. Instead, the thought of sweeping along sleepy, hedgerow-lined lanes, taking in the whole experience, is endlessly appealing.

And when anyone pictures a quiet, long road trip across Middle England, it’s often with the wheel of a Morgan in hand.

Fat arches betray the new car’s wide rubber, but the pace of change is glacial

Morgan should be commended, if that’s not too twee and patronising, for sticking to its values for so long instead of selling out.

Today the firm is having its Dylan-goes-electric moment with the all-new aluminium-chassised and BMW-powered Plus Four, making the 70th Edition truly the last of a breed.

And somehow that heritage breathes through the car; it feels important – new, but all the while a Morgan.

Perhaps the best compromise is a Plus 4 from ad ecade or so ago. It will owe you nothing, given that prices are as reasonable as a Morgan will get, and provide modern reliability but still with that classic Malvern feel.

But the idea of having the last of the line holds a certain sort of appeal – so too a Morgan like only one other in the land.

Owning either would uphold an important part of the tradition, but the secret history of the Competition just about swings it.

Images: John Bradshaw

Thanks to Williams Automobiles, where the 70th is for sale; Morgan Motor Co; New Elms

Factfiles

Morgan +4 Competition

Sold/number built 1965-’69/42
Construction Z-section steel ladder chassis with wood-framed aluminium and steel body
Engine all-iron 2138cc ‘four’,with twin Weber or Stromberg carburettors
Max power 104bhp @ 4700rpm
Max torque 132lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission Moss four-speed manual, with synchromesh on top three ratios, driving rear wheels
Suspension: front independent, by sliding pillars, coil springs rear live axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs; telescopic/lever-arm dampers f/r
Steering cam and sector
Brakes discs front, drums rear
Length 11ft 8in (3556mm)
Width 4ft 8in (1422mm)
Height 4ft 4in (1321mm)
Wheelbase 8ft (2438mm)
Weight 1848lb (838kg)
0-60mph 10 secs
Top speed 100mph
Mpg 30
Price new £801
Price now £20-50,000*

^{*Prices correct at date of original publication}

Morgan +4 70th Anniversary

Sold/number built 2020/20
Construction Z-section steel ladder chassis with wood-framed aluminium and steel body
Engine all-aluminium 1999cc ‘four’, with direct fuel injection
Max power 180bhp @ 6000rpm
Max torque 148lb ft @ 4500rpm
Transmission five-speed manual, driving rear wheels
Suspension: front independent, by sliding pillars, coil springs rear live axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs; telescopic/lever-arm dampers f/r
Steering rack and pinion
Brakes discs front, drums rear
Length 13ft 2in (4010mm)
Width 5ft 7¾in (1720mm)
Height 4ft (1220mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 2in (2490mm)
Weight 2230lb (1010kg)
0-60mph 7secs
Top speed 117mph
Mpg 30
Price new £64,995