Morgan

GB, 1905 – 1906

Morgan and Co Ltd, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.

Made by a well-known firm of coachbuilders, the Morgan car was a conventional shaft-driven car with 5.8-litre T-head 4-cylinder Mutel engine, distinguished only by the Sparks-Boothby hydraulic clutch on the Morgan car, soon abandoned in favour of an ordinary leather cone. Only about five Morgan cars were made and their lack of success resulted in Morgan cars becoming Adler concessionaires in 1907, and abandoning motor manufacture.

GB, 1910 to date

Morgan Motor Co Ltd, Malvern Link, Worcs.

This Morgan car was the best-known, and best, of the British 3-wheelers that were popular while the horsepower tax gave the Morgan cars an advantage. H.F.S. Morgan’s tricycle was also the first of its type, this Morgan car going into production in 1910. At the front of a tubular chassis frame was an sv, air-cooled V-twin motor-cycle engine of 1.100cc by JAP, transversely mounted. Transmission of the Morgan car was by dog clutches and chains, providing two forward speeds. The steering was direct. The front wheels of the Morgan car, had independent front suspension, by sliding pillars and coil springs. There were two seats. A reasonable amount of power plus light weight meant an excellent performance of the Morgan cars. The Morgan car was safer than most 3-wheelers because its road-holding was above average. This recipe made the Morgan car popular with sportsmen, for whom the Morgan Grand Prix model was produced in 1914: the first catalogued competition Morgan car. Soon afterwards, an exiguous four-seater Morgan car, the forerunner of the Morgan Family model of the 1920s, was listed.

After World War 1, Morgan carscontinued to cater for all markets. Names changed, but the Morgan Sports or Morgan Standard model was the normal two-seater, also available in De Luxe form; the Morgan Family model was the more capacious type Morgan car, and the long-tailed Morgan Aero, later the Morgan Super Sports, was the Morgan car intended for serious speed work. Engines of Morgan cars were water- or air-cooled to choice, most being supplied by JAP, or by Blackburne in the case of the competition Morgan cars. From 1925 all the latter’s power units had overhead valves. By 1927 the Super Sports Morgan car could attain 80mph in standard trim, while the less sporting Morgan cars now had internal expanding front wheel brakes and electric starting. Geared-down steering and (if required) three forward speeds followed on Morgan cars in 1929. Even so, Morgan cars were losing customers to new, cheap sports cars such as the M-type MG. Three speeds and reverse in a normal gearbox (though still with chain final drive) were available from 1931 and standard on the Morgan car after 1932, and a modified 8hp Ford 4-cylinder engine could later be had in the Morgan car instead of the twin. Four years later the first 4-wheeled Morgan car was introduced, the excellent little Morgan 4/4. This Morgan car used an 1.122cc 4-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine with overhead inlet valves, developing 34bhp. The Morgan car was still light in weight, and retained the Morgan independent front suspension, so the performance and handling qualities of Morgan cars were well up to form. The Morgan car could attain 75mph. The twins were last catalogued in 1939.

Just before World War 2, a 1.267cc Standard 10hp engine with ohv head was substituted in the Morgan 4/4. When this was no longer available, from 1950, Morgan fitted a tuned Standard Vanguard unit in the Morgan car giving 70bhp. In this Morgan Plus Four, as the Morgan car was renamed, performance became still more lively, and when the 90bhp Triumph TR2 engine became available in 1954, maximum speed of the Morgan car rose to 100mph for the first time. With the advent of the Morgan Plus Four, there was no longer a small Morgan car, but this gap was made good in 1955, when the Morgan Series 2 4/4 arrived. This Morgan car used the very hard-wearing 1.172cc sv Ford Ten engine which had powered F4 Morgan. (The latter was the last 3-wheeler Morgan car, which had been made until 1950.) The result was a cheap, pleasant and reliable sports Morgan car of the old school. Later, the ohv Ford 105E engine was substituted. The latest version Morgan car had a 1.599cc 98bhp engine, a 4-speed all-synchromesh gearbox, front disc brakes, and the traditional Morgan suspension. The Morgan Plus Four kept pace with Triumph’s TR engine development, also acquiring disc brakes and, eventually, the 2.138cc 105bhp TR4 unit. A streamlined coupé, the Morgan Plus Four Plus of 1964, was a brief deviation from the classical Morgan car line which met with little approval and was discontinued after only 50 of these Morgan cars had been sold. When Triumph changed to a six during 1968, Morgan cars adopted a new engine for their bigger Morgan cars, and the Morgan Plus Four became the Morgan Plus Eight, powered by Rover’s 3 ½-litre 160bhp V8 and capable of 125mph. The 1973 versions of the Morgan car use the 4-speed all-synchromesh Rover gearbox in place of the Moss box previously fitted.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS, TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Salmson

France, 1921 – 1957

Société des Moteurs Salmson, Billancourt, Seine

Salmson was renowned for their water-cooled (and later air-cooled) radial aero engines, and Salmson entered the car industry by taking out a manufacturing licence for the GN in 1919. 3.000 of these Salmson cars were turned out in two years. The first Salmson cars proper appeared in 1921. These Emile Petit designs had flimsy cyclecar-type chassis with shaft drive and differential-less back axles, with a St. Andrew’s Cross motif on the radiator. The standard engine of the Salmson cars was an odd 1.100cc monobloc four with a single push-rod per cylinder, which also operated the inlet valves as a pull-rod on the Salmson cars. Ignition was by Salmson cars own type of magneto and cooling was by thermos-syphon. This ohv unit worked reasonably well on the Salmson cars at low speeds, gave 45mph and 45mpg, and a two-seater Salmson cars could be bought in England for £265, the price dropping steadily to £158 by 1926. At the same time Petit produced something a far more advanced Salmson cars for the Cyclecar Grand Prix in the shape of a twin-ohc unit of similar capacity with dual magneto ignition and 2-bearing crankshaft: with one of these Salmson cars Lombard won the race, as well as taking 2nd place (behind a GN) in the 200 Mile Race at Brooklands. This was followed by 1st and 2nd places in both these events in 1922 with a Salmson cars, class wins in both the Cyclecar Grand Prix and the first Le Mans 24 Hour Race in 1923, at San Sebastian in 1925, and in both Le Mans and the Targa Florio in 1926. 1927 marked the peak of Salmson cars competition career, with 2nd and 3rd places in general classification at Le Mans (as well as Class and Biennial Cup wins of a Salmson cars), and a 2nd place in the Coupe de la Commission Sportive run under consumption rules.

The Salmson cars firm also built a 750cc engine for the 1923 Cyclecar Grand Prix – the Salmson car won its class but this Salmson car was never produced commercially. Nothing came, either, of Petit’s ingenious 1927 1.100cc twin-blown twin-ohc straight-8 Salmson car with desmodromic valves, said to give 140bhp at 8.000rpm.

Touring Salmson cars progressed to twin overhead camshafts with the advent of the 1.2-litre 10hp in 1922; there was still no differential or front wheel brakes on the Salmson car (though the latter had appeared on the racers), but a starter was standard and quarter-elliptic springs had given way to semi-elliptics. From 1925 onwards the twin-cam 1.100cc sports Salmson cars came into their own, and by 1926 the adoption of a cowled radiator completed the Salmson cars classic outline. There were variations of specification, but all the sports models Salmson cars came with front-wheel brakes, balloon tyres, and differential-less back axles, and ranged from the 3-speed Grand Prix Salmson cars with splash lubrication and 2-bearing crank at £265, giving over 70mph, to the GP Special, which Salmson car had full-pressure lubrication and 4 forward speeds, available in Cozette-blown form at £475. Meanwhile the 10/15 Salmson car had acquired front-wheel brakes, and at the end of 1926 the differential arrived on a bigger 12/24 Salmson car with dynamotor, V-radiator, and a 9ft 4in wheelbase giving room for more commodious coachwork.

The vogue for small French sports cars vanished as quickly as it had come, though Salmson cars once more collected the Biennial Cup at Le Mans in 1928, and the twin-cam sports models Salmson car were still listed in Britain as late as 1931. The arrival of the MG Midget killed what sales there were of the Salmson car, and Salmson, like Amilcar, tried their hand at small luxury machines; a twin-cam 1.6-litre six-cyl Salmson car for 1929 never went into production, but its successor, the Salmson S4, had a longer run. This Salmson car retained the twin-cam engine and 3-bearing crank, magneto ignition, gravity feed, and 3-speed gearbox, but it usually wore saloon bodywork, and the Salmson car was not notably fast for a price of £325. The Salmson car had grown up by 1933 into the 4-speed 1½-litre Salmson S4C with rear tank, which formed the basis for the 12hp British Salmson cars made at Raynes Park from 1934 onward. The 1.6-litre Salmson S4D of 1935 still had a magneto, but featured transverse independent front suspension and a 4-speed Cotal electrically-selected gearbox, and twin-ohc saloon cars in two engine sizes were listed in 1939. The bigger of these Salmson cars beasted 2.3-litres and 70bhp, and had hydraulic brakes. The English price for the Salmson car was £495. The same models Salmson cars reappeared in 1946, when a few 90bhp competition Salmson cars were made with 2.3-litre engine. Over a thousand Salmson cars found customers in 1950, but thereafter the decline was rapid.

A new 2.2-litre Salmson Randonnée model with a light alloy engine and Cotal gearbox came out in 1951, and 1953 produced the Salmson 2300 aerodynamic coupé with half-elliptic instead of cantilever rear springing, wire wheels, and a tuned version of the twin-cam engine giving the Salmson car 105bhp and over 100mph. This Salmson car was made in small numbers until 1957, but a year previously the had been heralded when Renault acquired the factory site. Last of the Salmson cars was a long-wheelbase version of the Salmson 2300 with 4-door saloon bodywork.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com