Morgan 3 Wheeler - Rear View
Morgan 3 Wheeler - Side View
Remember when driving was an event, something you'd get dressed up for and look forward to? Remember when safety took a back seat to driving pleasure and excitement? Well, Morgan does. Probably because this family-owned company has been making cars for over a century now. They've decided to revive their very first model, a three-wheeled cyclecar, and put modern touches on it.
But not too modern. The shape of the car is nearly identical to the one that set the long distance speed record for one litre cars back in the 1930's. The layout is nearly identical, with a V-Twin mounted transversely ahead of the front axle. The interior features an old school style wheel with no airbag. Crumple zones? What crumple zones!? In the United States, this car will be homologated as a motorcycle to have any chance of being legally driven here.
The main idea of this car is that it's fun to drive. Even just sitting in its leather swathed cockpit and looking at the aircraft-inspired gauges invokes a feeling of occasion. Even though it only has as much horsepower as the original Mazda Miata, it weighs half as much--a svelte 1100lbs of aluminum skin over a tubular chassis.
The car doesn't just look and feel sporty, it drives that way too. Morgan's engineers spent a lot of time on this unusual layout, carefully balancing the weight distribution. Since the car is so light, the weight of passengers affects it more than a normal (larger) vehicle. As you might have seen on a certain English motoring show, three-wheeled cars always provoke the worry of instability. Morgan has made the center of gravity as low as possible, as well as engineered the suspension extensively, to ensure you should never be worried about scratching those chrome roll hoops in an incident.
The Threewheeler will go on sale in 2011 at a reported price of £25,000, or about $41,000 USD.
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