Rareté ....

[traveller]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2001-MORGAN-V6-RO ... dZViewItem

[h trois]

Rare et aussi intéressant historiquement.

J'en reproduis le texte afin que nous le conservions lorsque l'annonce disparaîtra à son issue:

This unique car is the original factory prototype of the Morgan V6 Roadster which was eventually launched to the public in 2004. It was developed over a period of about four years by a small team led by chief development engineer Bill Beck, Who used the car as his own to evaluate the cars performance.The project started in1998 when a morgan 4/4 chassis was sent to the Rover factory in Longbridge to be fitted with the new 2.5-litre KV6 engine, for a variety of reasons,this engine was deemed unsatisfactory and Ford stepped in to offer their new All-aluminium 3-litre V6 24-valve engine which was earmarked for the Jaguar S-type

They presented Morgan with a US- spec Lincoln-badged example of this engine which Bill Beck immediately set about modifying for use in his lightweight sports car. He junked all the unnecessary ancillaries on the engine (air con,smog control,power steering etc) and also junked the wiring loom it weighed a grotesque 21 kg! The slimmed down engine was mated to a Getrag 5-Seed manual gearbox, with a BMW gear leaver, driving through a 3.08:1 rear axle.Fitted into an all-aluminium body of the Morgan with its lightweight 4/4 chassis and knock-on light alloy wheels which where made especially for this car, the 240 bhp and280lb/ft torque engine gave electrifying results. Given the whole car now weighed just 875kg, it had a Ferrari-beating power-to-weight ratio of 300bhp per tonne. This gave the prototype V6 ferocious acceleration with 0-60mph coming up just over 4 seconds. This was proved to be the cars undoing because it was found to be faster than the new Morgan flagship, the Aero 8,which was just about to be launched.

Realising the embarrassment that this would cause,an alarmed Morgan management decided to rein in the V6 project and ordered Beck to stop work on his 4/4 based prototype- mutch to his dismay.So the prototype sat in the factory for four years.so when the production V6 started it came to have the much heavier,less agile plus 8 chassis,considerably blunting its performance compared to the prototype which Beck had carefully balanced on corner scales to ensure perfect weight distribution ,front-to-rear and side-to-side,with driver on board.He also fitted it with uprated plus 8 breaks-and plus 8 badging to fool prying eyes. Other Unique features include wider footwells than the production car , and various quick-detach mechanisms which mean the engine and gearbox can be rapidly removed from the car, the headlights are also unique in having built in sidelights rather than wing-mounted ones.

Beck admits that ,in truth ,the prototype is perhaps a little too hairy for the mass consumption, needing a skilled driver to safely exploit it's explosive performance. However the car is fully road legal and comes with a cream coloured hard top, tonia cover and side screens

45-120smokeless

Qu'en pensent nos connoisseurs historiens?

J'ajoute, qu'en plus des différences évoquées avec le modèle actuel de roadster V6, l'équilibre de cette voiture doit être assez différent, son moteur se situant plus en avant que pour le modèle effectivement commercialisé.

Le proto de l'annonce


Le modèle commercialisé



H3