Leland,

I asked if you were seriously interested in the prices of Morgans because I
often know of cars for sale. As it happens, a friend of mine in Madison, CT
had a like-new Plus 8 less than 10 years old for sale at a lot less than a
new one costs (I suspect to pay his daughter's college costs)--and you'd
never notice the difference between it and a new one. Morgans have improved
over the years mainly in refinement, so that the newer ones are more
comfortable for extended driving than the old ones were. My old '61 Plus
Four was fun for about an hour, and hard to endure after that. The '70 4/4
is a pleasure to drive all day, and day after day. A Plus Eight is even
better. I own the 4/4 because of a preference for four-seaters (Plus 8s are
all roadsters) and because it's a bit less expensive both to buy and to
own. But I have enough interest in the +8's performance and comfort that I
might have one eventually. 

Your comment that true sports cars live at the mechanic's garage reminds me
of a favorite quote from the long-forgotten Uncle Dirty: "Foreign cars have
two gears--parked and broken." However, my 4/4 is completely reliable--it
just always works--and it is undoubtedly a true sports car. My reluctance
to drive it to IPTW had nothing to do with reliability and only with
whether I felt like dealing with traffic, rain, cold and 300 Preservation
Sourcebooks in it. Morgans in general are usually quite sturdy and if
properly maintained and regularly driven (atrophy does more harm than
mileage) give very little trouble. The later ones are more reliable than
the older ones both because they are younger and because some problem areas
were later corrected. The Triumph engines on the Plus Fours are wonderful
old vintage-type bangers, but they vibrate too much and cause other
problems (as well as being hard to endure for long rides), and oil just
poured out of them. 

As for whether we're gear heads or preservationeers, why not both? Morgans
at any rate are the cars that people who don't normally like cars like.
Reminds me of when I was driving my 1929 Ford to art school and was
criticised in the following words, "I don't see how you can call yourself
an artist and like technology." Well, those were the 70s--and the Model A
was preferable to most of the art that was being perpetrated there. 

Don