Morgan - Morgan Plus 8
The Morgan Plus 8 was released in August 1968. Weighing only 850 kilos (1870 lbs.) fitted with the all alloy 3.5 litre Rover V8 engine it was a seriously fast and hairy road car! The Plus8 chassis was a modified Morgan 4/4 suitably altered by Maurice Owen who had been brought in to oversee the new model which was to take the bigger engine, and remember GM had only sold the engine and tooling to Rover in 1967 so this whole thing was very new. Rover had never sold engines to other manufacturers, so this was a coup for Peter Morgan. This GM V8 was the engine that was derived from the Buick, but not many know the Buick engine came about originally from BMW. 1973 saw the Morgan use the Rovers 4 speed gearbox, and 1983 saw a fuel injected engine option, giving the Morgan Plus 8 over 200bhp. For 1990 a smaller 3.9 litre version of the V8 engine was offered, while for 1996 the 4.6 litre became another option.
Tyre sizes for these Classic Morgan Plus 8's tend to be 185VR15 with the 15" wheels. Blockley produces this 185VR15 tyre, which has the correct V rating specification as specified by Morgan in period. For those wishing to fit a wider tyre of the same diameter, the size to use is 205/70VR15, but the wider tyres were not fitted by the factory until later in the 1990's. Note that from September 1976 to the early 1980's Morgan also offered a 14 inch wheel for the Plus 8 which was fitted with tyre size 205/70R14 from the factory, again a tyre size that Blockley produces an excellent example of. This 14" tyre size with V rating as it should be was difficult or overly expensive to obtain in the past, so many of these cars ended up with the wrong fitment. See full details of these exceptional tyres suitable for the Plus8 at the links below:
