Now here’s a contrast to those Fleetwood 75s: a 1936 Morgan. And it’s not the usual one we think of with the exposed V2 engine hanging proudly out front; this has a very civilized hood and grille; or is it more like a bra? But the V2 is visible in there, probably a Matchless. Bryce found and shot this, and what caught my eye is that it’s in very CC condition; none too shiny. Looks like something I might have run across as a kid; now that would have got me going…
Love how that tail resolves itself with the spare. I’ve always had a thing for the Morgan three-wheelers, but I would prefer mine with the motor exposed; full frontal nudity, please.
Interesting the way the headlights are mounted so high on those long stalks. There must have been a minimum height requirement for headlights. I’ll bet they vibrated enough so you could ID one coming your way at night….
The headlight stalks are also the fender mounts. Given that higher headlights illuminate the road better, I’d guess they just put them up there for function.
Bestill my heart!
Id never seen a 3 wheel Morgan with indoor engine but the rego label said 1936 and the first 4 wheeler was 37 so maybe they were practising.
Headlight alignment doesn’t appear to be a big priority. I remember that with Dodge M37s that we would just grab the headlight & force it to the direction we wanted.
Back when I was about 10 or so, I saw a picture of a 3-wheeled morgan, like this one, with the motor quite decently covered. I made a sculpture of it out of play-dough or some similar substance, which actually turned out pretty well. I used toothpicks for axles, and it could roll around a bit on play-dough wheels. What fascinated me then was the sheer simplicity of the beast, though I wouldn’t have used those exact words. It was all that you needed to make a car, with nothing extra, not even that 4th wheel. Even now, I wouldn’t mind having a Morgan; it would be a new experience for me, since the only time I’ve ever driven a 3-wheeler was when a wheel bearing gave out on my ’66 Pontiac.
Interesting car. Seeing the coil spring arrangement prompted my memory that like Lancias these had a sliding pillar front suspension – the upper ‘arm’ and thin diagonal member are static, while the pillar within the spring moves vertically. Quite a different implementation than a Lancia however.
Carjam says it’s a UK-built 1934 model that arrived here in NZ from the USA in 1997. It’s travelled a fair bit of the world then in its decades!