Peter’s first car was a 1937 Austin Ten, which he bought for the proverbial fifteen quid. It was a horrible thing, in terrible condition. Foot flat on the floor it would reach fifty but the reality was you actually daren’t drive it over forty, it was so un-stable! An Armstrong Siddeley Lanchester was next. It had a Wilson pre-selector gear box, the same as was used in the ERA’s. It had six cylinder’s and hydraulic tappets but like the Austin Ten it didn’t last very long and followed it to the local scrap yard. Then came a series of Escorts and an ex Evening Standard Minivan before the Morgan arrived.
Peter acquired XMY 238 in 1968, after seeing an ad in the Exchange and Mart. He was running around in the Minivan and had planed to use the Morgan as his regular road car. However, although the car looked nice it was quite evil. It had lived a hard life, everything was worn out, to the extent that Peter had to change the engine the next day. Once this was done Peter used it regularly for a year or two, driving it on the road and competing in trials and sprint’s, before acquiring a company car, whereupon XMY 238 disappeared into the garage for a quick two week chassis change! The old one had become rather rusty, a common fate for the early cars, as the steel used for the chassis was pretty appalling and they didn’t last very long. A brand spanking new frame was obtained from Malvern Link for the princely sum of £65. Just one small thing, the two weeks expanded rather, into an eleven year re-build!
As you can imagine, the car has had many alterations and modifications over the years. It now has cycle type front wings (acquired from the same source as Dudley Sterry’s), disc brakes, a modified TR4 engine, radial tyres,15 inch wheels and numerous chassis modifications. Some of these changes offend the purest members of the Morgan club, but they were quite normal modifications in the late sixties and early seventies, around the time that Plus Four production ceased. However, they do mean that this old car is quite fast on the road and is well able to hold it’s own in modern traffic.
Peter got into trials when he drove by Milk Hall Farm on the way home from a Veteran Car run a couple of years before. He saw something interesting was going on and went in to have a look. He got chatting to Mike Furse, who talked him into doing an MCC trial, and the rest is history! Peter used the Morgan in PCT’s, Classic’s and Sprints for several years, before and after the re-build. In the early 90’s he did all three of the MCC events one year. But the hill’s were getting rougher and he was concerned about the way the underside was getting knocked about. Peter particularly remembers the ruts on Waterloo. Smash, smash, smash. The cross member is still banana shaped after the experience! The problem is that the suspension movement is so limited.
The car is raised an inch and a half at the front and two inches at the back, but it has so much overhang at the back that the tail is still extremely vulnerable. The final straw came when the diff and the gearbox broke on Bamford. The diff wasn’t to much of a problem but the Morgan uses the same Moss gearbox as an XK120. Bits are very hard to find and are very expensive when you do locate them. Peter managed to find another box but it had a high bottom gear that was not suitable for trials. This prompted him to decide that the Classic’s were now to rough for such an old lady and he bought a Skoda.
The Morgan still comes out for selected PCT’s and the occasional autotest when it is driven with great verve! Future plans for the car include hill climbs and Peter rather fancies the Manx Classic. However XMY 238 will need another engine, as the present one is now very tired .
Before we leave Morgans it’s interesting to hear that Peter was responsible for introducing Rob Wells, the well-known Morgan racer and London dealer, to trialling. They went to the same school so they go back a long way. Peter has team managed the Morgan team at some of the long distance relay races, including the 24 hour event at Snetterton which they won, only to be disqualified afterwards. Rob and Peter have shared quite a few motorsport experiences, including driving a Beetle on the Lands End. Then they shared a left hand drive Plus 4 for a couple of years. This was a Fiat engined car that they built up from a pile of bits.
There have been two Skoda’s. The first was an Orange one, acquired in 1993 and used by James as a road car. It was then turned into a trials machine, but was totally gutless with it’s standard engine. They got hold of a rally prepared motor and de-tuned it a bit but the cam is still a bit hairy. Later the mechanical’s were moved into another shell that forms the basis of the current car. The gearbox has broken a couple of times but otherwise Peter reckons it's pretty robust. Over the time he has had the Skoda he has developed the it considerably. He’s removed the anti-roll bar to give a bit more suspension movement at the front and there are some hush-hush tweaks at the swing axle end back end. Recently the car engine has been de-tuned even more in search of more torque. It’s fitted with a 40 DCOE Weber that now has quite small chokes to make it more tractable.
Peter has had his Dellow for about two years. He doesn’t know much about the history of this particular car. It’s a Mk 1 chassis, no 35, and was already fitted with a brand new 1600 Crossflow. Theoretically it was practically ready to run but Peter wasn’t happy with a lot of the workmanship and decided to give it a compete re-build. According to the MCC programs it was last trialled in 1986. It was also used in speed events, for the purpose of which it had the main cross tube cut out, so the engine could be set lower in the frame. So the first thing Peter did was to replace it, as the chassis was a bit flexible to say the least!
The Mountain family have had quite a few interesting road cars over the years and Peter still has a Dolomite Sprint, that really belongs to James, and an 1800 Land Crab that is in the garage waiting to be fixed. Peter and James were at a car show and James took a fancy to it. He really gave it a thrashing on the road and one day a rod went out the side. Peter intends putting it back in order once the Dellow’s completed. The chassis is done and Peter’s in the process of bolting the rest together. He intends to use the Dellow for the Classics and I for one am rally looking forward to seeing Peter competing in his new car.
