LIVING WITH THE PLUS FOUR

LIVING WITH A PLUS FOUR

Winter finally arrived, but that wasn’t the problem…

WORDS & PHOTOGR APHY Nigel Bradford

isaster, a puncture! Not what you want to

Dgreet you when you go to get your baby out of the garage. The tyre was clearly down, though not completely flat. My previous Mogs had a spare wheel on the back, and once upon a time I had to change a wheel, also after a morning garage discovery, on my Four Seater. Strangely enough that puncture had also been on the offside rear wheel. Of course the LM62 spec just called for a tyre inflation can, the use of which will leave the wheel covered in gunk inside and the tyre incapable of permanent repair. Luckily my nearest tyre supplier is only half a mile away. So I gingerly drove down there, no damage done.

The car was jacked up on a ramp and the wheel removed, after I had shown them the spanner and hammer. (The spanner was provided by Morgan even though I have two-eared nuts.)

Then the good news, it could be repaired for the princely sum of £45, all in. Phew!

I did chuckle when the technicians asked me what the tension on the nut should be when they replaced the wheel. I told them that the official Morgan advice was, “hit it until you think it’s tight enough, then hit it one more time”. (Please check this with your dealer and don’t take my word for it.)

Trawling back rough my various MOG jottings over the years would indicate that Climate Change in the shadow of the Malvern Hills for the past few years has resulted in just two seasons. Warm and cold, driving and not driving. This was one of my excuses, or should I reasons, for buying a hard top Mog. This climate theory was proved when the tv weather folk proudly announced we had started meteorological winter, but I was still using my air conditioning to cool off. Then all of a

sudden someone mentioned a “cold snap” was on its way. There was even talk of another Beast From the East, and they weren’t talking about Putin.

The cold blast arrived on December 3rd, so the Met Folk hadn’t been too wrong, but I was driving the perfect winter Morgan, so I was also driving the perfect winter car, QED! Back in my driving youth I had taught myself all there is to know about snow driving in a front wheel drive car on an empty office car park. Looking back I think I was the only one to get in that morning, that was the Inland Revenue for you, but it was fun! So I was a tad disappointed that Worcestershire didn’t get a good dump of snow.

W hen I attended the last Meet at Morgan of the year on December 10th it was a joy to turn up in my Mog for the Winter W heels themed gathering with my coat still folded up on the parcel shelf. Heated seats are the future, even if you don’t have a hard top. Not only that, but for my first time in a Mog I saw the Ice Caution illuminate. Thankfully this can be cancelled. It was good to be back at the Factory because that weekend marked ten years since I first visited the Factory since I was in school at Malvern. So it was wonderful to catch up again with Martyn Webb who had conducted my tour on that day. Not only that, I was excited to hear that his new book, the second volume on the subject of Morgan and Motoring in Malvern is now at the printers. Now that is something to really look forward to in the New Year.