With an eye on the future of vehicles, as well as the pending GSR safety, crashworthy and emission compliance regulations, the Morgan Motor Company which opened in 1910 has adopted a new vehicle platform, and made some changes in the latest model of the legendary Plus Four which has led their range for more than 70 years.
While keeping the traditional coachbuilding techniques in place, the company reports that one of the major changes, the new Plus Four will have a totally different chassis from the vehicle’s traditional steel ladder frame chassis. It will be replaced with a bonded aluminium monocoque design, which relies largely on adhesives. The chassis structure is largely formed from folded sections of sheet aluminium, and bonding surfaces are pre-treated with an adhesive before they are assembled on a jig, and baked into a strong single structure at 180°C.
According to the company, the concept used to underpin the new models of both the Plus Four and Plus 6 on the new platform, is based on a system to that used by the company successfully for the past 20 years. It has, however, been engineered to fit in with the CX platform, in order to allow for reducing material thickness from 3 or 4mm to as little as 1.2mm. This has resulted in lowering the chassis weight to 97kg while doubling the stiffness of it when compared to the old Aero chassis.
According to the company the footprint, style (including the low running boards), dimensions, and the handmade ash frame of the classic vehicle will remain the same, with coachbuilding continuing to stay a separate part of the manufacturing of the Morgan vehicles in order to maintain flexibility. Changes will, however, be made to the axles, and provision made for running on wire wheels.