Hello William,
You wrote:
"Kit,
And the real question is... does SmogMog MSCC Centre have a badge? And
do you, by any chance, know Anthony LoPinto, whose 4/4 appears in
Worrall's book, which is hardly driven now that he owns a Plus 8? He is
an ex-pat American living near and working in London."
***
They used to do a badge a VERY long time ago but that was before my
,membership ('79-83) and I didn't meet Anthony I'm afraid-no Americans @
Smog Mog then!
********
"My Plus 8 is at Cantab, http://www.cantab-motors.com/ , awaiting a few
special bits from MMC and will regrettably be botched a bit per Charles
Morgan's instructions to meet what MMC perceive are US DOT Regs."
***
I visited Cantab back in 1990 when I worked out of DC for 18 months-they
certainly seem an improvement on Bill Fink who left a slightly sour
taste in my mouth after some aquaintance. But monetary considerations
and NTSA refusal to grant me a one-time import exemption has left me
reluctant to clutter MOGS with useless performance reducing clobber
which can be removed after approval (like airbags!) and that's that! Be
very careful, Morgan and NTSA do not see eye-to eye and Bill Fink knows
that better than anyone. Certification takes on the proportions of a
nightmarish quagmire for a private owner! So make sure Cantab is set up
for certification as Bill Fink is or you could be in trouble!
" It is 4.0 Litre Production Prototype # 1, and since the On-Board
Diagnostics II are North American Spec. (OBD II) Discovery, the car will
be marginally legal; in fact, it should run better on the bottom than a
UK 4.6, but the bumpers must be mounted on BMW bumper shocks which
protrude through the front wings and rear deck at 17 1/2" mid-point
height rather than the EC 13 1/2" & 14 1/2" heights respectively. A sad
compromise, but better than Isis /Bill Fink 21" mid-point height!
***
Definitely! I drove one of Finks creations with a view to taking the
plunge of sending MOGS to a new home and, apart front the rack & pinion
steering-couldn't believe I was driving A Morgan- I wasn't too impressed
with the performance despite the Turbo. As you say, looks awful-he uses
VW stuff for the bumper requirements by the way.
My nephew is an ace engine mechanic and he's turned mine into a 5litre
motor. Since it has the ally body and clocks in well below 2000lbs it
blows a standard Plus 8 into the weeds plus I have telescopic Konis and
a Panhard Rod @ the rear end courtesy of Libra Motive back in UK so it's
skidpad and slalom performance is very competetive. It's a bloody
nuisance having to do the import and export business every year but
after nearly 15 years it's still worked out cheaper than having
compliance done!
*************
"I am attaching my build specs for your private perusal as I am always
hungry for comments and input from Brits who are aware that MMC is alive
and well and did not cease production with sixties Plus 4's. You may
also be interested in some electronic pix taken by my son at MMC last
July. The blue car is the Earls Court Show Car from '97 which we hired
from Bill Wykeham for the week of HalMog."
***
Small World! I lived in South Ken' before emigrating and Wykehams did my
servicing work! Do they still occupy the L-shaped mews off
Gloucester/Cromwell Road? Before that I lived in Twickenham and took my
car to Dougie's(F. H Douglass) in Ealing. I'll be glad to peruse your
build specs although I must confess that my deep immersion in the
conversion process is not what it was! Paperwork-GRRRR!
**********
"These are posted at http://www.wykehams.com/images/";
***
Thanks William, I'll check it out. By the way what was HalMog? I've been
out of "Mog World" for some time now having been recovering from some
pretty severe strokes and am just starting to catch up.
But thanks very much for the communication,
Carry On Moggin', regardless,
Kit
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