Charles Morgan Was Apparently Fired For Telling The Truth: Morgan 3 Wheeler Indeed To Be Upgraded
When word started leaking that Charles Morgan had been fired by the family owned traditional British sports car maker, one of the reasons given was that Mr. Morgan had, in an unauthorized manner, told a group of Morgan owners that an improved version of the 3 Wheeler would be launched.
Few things are more traditional in the automobile business than “we can’t discuss future product plans” because no matter what’s in the pipeline, you don’t want to do anything to discourage potential customers from buying what is currently in the showrooms. Now it turns out that if Charles Morgan had indeed told a Morgan owners group that the 3 Wheeler was to be upgraded, he was telling them the truth. Over the weekend at the Motorcycle Live show in the UK, Morgan 3 Wheeler Ltd., the company subsidiary that markets the Mog reverse trike, introduced the first major revision of the 3 Wheeler since Morgan bought the rights to Ace Cycle Car’s spaceframe replica of the original 3 Wheeler and put it into production in 2011. Since then, the company says that it has delivered 1,000 3 Wheelers. That’s a large enough sample to get user feedback from and Morgan has responded with a number of significant changes to the vehicle.
The spaceframe has been upgraded for better torsional stiffness and improved handling, the center drive unit is said to be more durable, the bevel box that drives the back wheel has been isolated to improve NVH, and changes have been made to the steering geometry and relatively primitive front suspension to eliminate bump steer and improve high speed stability. On the outside, new colors and graphics are offered and and the body is now vented for driver and passenger comfort. Cooling of the air-cooled S&S V-twin that powers the 3 Wheeler also gets attention with an optional Urban Cooling Pack.
Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, the original 3D car site.
More by Ronnie Schreiber
Comments
Join the conversation
That must have been a real dilemma sacking the cars name sake!!
I suppose I would agree if we were talking about a mainstream auto builder regarding revealing future product. As my wife calls them/me 'Morgan Dorks' tend to overlook the shortcomings of their car knowing the next version will be better than the next. Similar with most autos, only slower with the updates at Morgan. They essentially brought the same. Are to the U.S. From the 70's through 2003 which was the last year for the +8, I believe. As a tradionalist I find that what makes Morgan so neat is the family heritage behind it. If they are going to move to more of a, for lack of a better term, Ferrari type Co. Then they need to bring better product to market with less quirks that people are willing to forgive. Which, they can't do in reality.