Vehicle Story
Morgans are a reassuring constant in a world that is constantly changing, and not always for the better. That you can still go out and purchase a new car with resolutely 1930s styling is something to be rather happy about - especially as the technology beneath the vintage styling has kept pace with the passage of time. With a Morgan, you get the style and substance of a thoroughbred classic but with the reassurance of modern mechanicals. It’s an old car you can enjoy without ruining your appetite for… well, old cars.
The 4/4 was Morgan’s first four-wheeled vehicle, and model production goes all the way back to 1936 - barring a World War and a gap of a few years in the early fifties. A development of the three-wheeled F Super, it was originally powered by a 1.1-litre Coventry Climax engine outputting 40 bhp.
Since then, propulsion has come from a variety of Ford engines - aside from a brief flirtation with a Fiat twin-cam in the early eighties - with engine capacities getting progressively bigger and power output mostly increasing up to 125 bhp. The one you see here has the popular choice of the Ford 1600cc EFI engine.
From 2009, both output and swept volume inexplicably dropped, with the 1.6-litre Ford Sigma engine producing only 110 bhp. Ten years later, production of the 4/4 finally ceased with the introduction of stricter emissions regulations.
Despite the ever-changing underpinnings, and the Malvern firm now favouring BMW power, the pre-war looks have stayed the same - but Morgan enthusiasts wouldn’t have it any other way.