> This reinforces the comment that a full-on race motor in either of the
> 4 cylinder models only begins to reach the bottom end of the Rover
> engine performance envelope and theres a lot of room to grow with the
> Rover.
>
> Interesting side note:
> A friend is building up an original Oldsmobile 215 block (identical to
> the Buick 215 but with better performance heads and one extra head
> bolt per cylinder) into a hot motor (4 Weber dual downdrafts) for his
> Lotus 47 (first series Europa). He wants to hunt Porsches.
Hi Michael,
You put your finger on it. The potential with eight cylinders is more
than double the potential with four. This is not to be interpreted to
mean that there are not some under muscled +8s. Some years a +8 would
leave the Works with all the heaviness of a Plus 8 and 143bhp under the
hood! Greg Solow's Plus 4 would make a meal of one of those and, indeed,
probably 95% of the standard untuned Plus 8s on the road.
On the other side of the coin, Rimmer Bros. of England has just
announced a new LR/Rover block of 6000cc that is a direct pop-in for any
Plus 8 and, depending on the fuel system of choice, will produce
anywhere from 280bhp to 475bhp. It weighs the same as any standard +8
engine and requires no mods for installation aside from a mild cut of
the bonnet hinge if you choose to put a EFI version in a pre-1986 car.
Up to the Aero, the Morgans have costed their cars closely. Because of
this and the engine supplier issues, the power plants have never been
altered (saving with the SS mods and these were done by Chris Lawrence
and not in Malvern. They don't conduct dyno tests and their bhp figures
don't mean much and have even, on one occasion at least, caused some
problems for the Company. Aside from times when the power became
noticeably less, the Works would not use a twin exhaust where a single
could do. They have, however, always tried to respond to falling power
at some point by lowering the car's weight or improving the exhaust
system. Whether power is falling or not depends entirely what the car
"feels" like to the Works.
That is why I believe you have the Plus 8 Sports Light Weights made in a
year when (not so coincidentally) the engine was at one of its lower
ebbs or that a virtually flow-thru expensive twin exhaust was adopted
the following year. When the power went up again, this more expensive
power-to-weight tweaking disappeared. Frankly, the trick with a Morgan
and power is often having the luck to get a year when the engine
supplier has suddenly improved the power output and Morgan is still
installing it in a car that it has been previously adjusted to
compensate for low power. A short time after the new engine arrives,
Morgan will assuredly, regretfully and perhaps wisely phase out their
"compensations" to save on cost.
Lorne
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