The solution was obvious and resulted in an exchange of the sort common amongst vehicle restorers. These pictures give some indication of just how good is Chris’s restoration work.
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- The main display
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- From the front the car is basically a 1913 three wheeler
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- At the rear is the bevel box, to transfer the direction of the power from the rotating propshaft, to whichever of the two sprockets is selected.
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- The engine is a 1913 side valve JAP, of the sort used on three wheeled Morgans of the period.
The axle is solid, so does not have a differential, which must have made for some interesting handling in wet conditions (imagine the understeer as the front wheels wanted to turn, but the rear ones preferred straight on!). But later GNs and Frazer-Nashes had just the same - but with a lot more power, and they didn’t do too badly in races during the 20’s and 30’s!
Rear suspension is by two quarter elliptic springs (the same as on a three- wheeler) then there will be the solid axle which Chris is holding in the picture. This, and the hubs, were made by Colin Wilson using drawings produced by Chris, from a drawing in the original patent application. On either side of the bevel box are the dog clutches used to select the spocket for the desired gear.
On the workshop wall is a picture (right) of the 1925
Harold Beart record car, the first Morgan to exceed
100 MPH, which it did at Brooklands that year powered by a Blackburne engine and sporting this specially designed streamlined body.
But the pictures are not all Chris has relating to this car. In his workshop are the remains of the actual record breaker. In time, we are sure, this historic Morgan will once again take to the road (or even perhaps, the track!)