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Morgan Plus 8 - the roadster rocket with the steam engine look of the age

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Created on June 29, 2013

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

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Balz Schreier

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Bruno von Rotz

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Archiv

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Balz Schreier

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Bruno von Rotz

19

Archiv

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - around 100 men built 250 to 350 cars a year in Malvern Link 40 years ago

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the roadster was 3.7 meters long

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the spare wheel is located at the rear

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Morgan Plus 8 (1969) - exhibited at the 1969 London Motor Show

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Morgan Plus 8 (1969) - the chassis of the fast sports car, shown at the 1969 London Motor Show

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Morgan Plus 8 (1968) - a selection of aluminum rims, the second from the left was chosen for the Plus 8, showing Chairman Joseph Cheesewright (right) and E. R. Shalts, the technical director of Cheesewright & Fowler Ltd

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - Yellow looks great on the Morgan

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - no retro design, the Morgan has hardly been adapted in around 80 years of construction

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Morgan Plus 8 (1978) - racing version, presented at the 1978 Birmingham Motor Show

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - offered enough luggage capacity for the trip to the next lake

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - faster than you would expect it to be

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the Plus 8 accelerated many a more expensive sports car into the ground

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - Watch out on bad roads! The car has a hard suspension

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - just the thing for sun worshippers

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the retrofitted Brooklands windows ensure good ventilation

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the small frontal area helps the less aerodynamically shaped Morgan reach a top speed of over 200 km/h

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - 0 to 100 km/h in just under 7 seconds, and this in 1968

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - above 100 km/h, racing goggles are recommended

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - what you don't hear here is the music from the two exhaust pipes

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Morgan Plus 8 (1971) - Performance demonstration

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the sheet metal parts were made by hand

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - beautiful view over the hood

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the Plus 8 models were delivered from the factory with aluminum wheels, but some owners converted to spoked wheels

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - less than 1.5 meters wide

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - reversing lights cost extra

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the tank sits under the spare wheel at the rear

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the additional luggage rack increases the possible transport volume

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - with its long snout and short rear end, a shape from the pre-war era

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - low-cut doors, typical pre-war look

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - combined pre-war looks with modern engine technology 40 years ago

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - like a little paradise

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - almost symmetrical interior

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - for racing use, the normal windshield was often replaced by so-called Brooklands

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the rev counter was already housed separately ex works

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - until the mid-seventies, the Plus 8 models had the main instruments in the center of the dashboard

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the V8 engine barely fits under the compact bodywork

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the V8 engine came from Rover, but was originally a Buick design

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Morgan Plus 8 (1968) - Rover 3500 V8 engine in a Morgan prototype

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the hood opens on both sides in the traditional way

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the Plus 8 models were equipped with specially manufactured aluminum rims, here spoked wheels were retrofitted

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - the round radiator front was already introduced in the fifties

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - filigree rear lights

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Morgan Plus 8 (1969) - with closed roof, picture of the Swiss importer Wehrlin

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Morgan Plus 8 (1969) - with open hood, an obviously poorly preserved photo of the Swiss importer Wehrlin

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - many vehicles were ordered with a view to racing or subsequently converted

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - steeply raked steering wheel in the intimate cockpit

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Morgan Plus 8 (1973) - instead of the original steering wheel, a smaller version from Moto Lita is fitted here

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Summary

Morgan built the Plus 8 with the Rover V8 engine from 1968 to 2004, making it the most successful product in the company's history. The powerful engine, together with the tight and light pre-war bodywork, ensured driving performance that is still impressive today and, together with the attractive exterior, ensured a large fan base. This report portrays a Morgan Plus 8 from 1973 and tells the story of the V8 model in detail, supplemented by archive material and the original sales brochure as well as other documents.

This article contains the following chapters

Accelerated evolution
Technology boost with undertones
Breathtaking performance
Heads or tails?
Growth in all dimensions
The most successful product from Malvern Link
A veritable classic car
Past and present
The Über-Morgan
Further information

Estimated reading time: 9min

Preview (beginning of the article)

"Grunt" is a word that the English like to use when describing large-volume and powerfully motorized sports cars. The Morgan Plus 8 is perhaps the perfect incarnation of "grunt", because rarely before has a roadster with such a primitive appearance and such a powerful growl been so impressively driven against the elite of super sports cars in terms of acceleration. For years, the Morgan Plus 8 was one of the fastest accelerating cars in England. However, the traditional manufacturer Morgan had to make a number of innovations before it even got that far, and was generally quite skeptical of such innovations.

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