Mark Hill Great Malvern

Morgan Three Wheeler review

Three-wheelers break all the rules. Neither a motorcycle nor a proper car, they skim through gaps in traffic and legislation, drivers grinning broadly, flies in their teeth and hair plastered to their scalp. At least, that’s the theory. As Triking three-wheeler designer Tony Divey once said, however, “They’re unbalanced and you have to use that instability.”

Enter Pete Larsen, a self-taught engineer from Seattle, USA. I drove his beautifully engineered, Harley-Davidson-engined Morgan tribute, the Liberty Ace, back in 2008.

Discreet enquiries were received from Morgan as to whether it might be worth them going to see Pete in Seattle. “Your endorsement certainly helped make up our minds,” says Steve Morris, Morgan’s operations director. He travelled to Washington State, liked what he saw and bought out Pete, who’s now one of the first Morgan Three Wheeler dealers in the US.

We helped bring the car into fruition, yet when we first saw Matt Humphries’s aeronautically inspired design in detail at Morgan’s Malvern base last year, we wondered whether we should deny as much. Not that Humphries hadn’t done an exemplary job, with a stylish, all-aluminium body from Premier Sheet Metal in Coventry that embraces the old and looks to the new. It’s slightly more rounded and bug-like than slimline Morgans of yore, but at least that allows a larger cockpit. The details are fantastic, from the central dashboard with a covered starter button, to saddle-leather panels, hinge restraints and comfy leather seats. The detachable 14-inch steering wheel allows easier access and there’s a lenghty list of extras including paint and trim to make your Morgan that bit more special.

No, what worried us, and chief engineer Mark Reeves, was re-engineering Pete’s tubular chassis to accept a new rear suspension, bespoke Quaife steering rack, bevel box, belt drive and a new engine to replace the Harley unit used in the Ace. Just three months ago, Morgan’s two-seater hadn’t turned a wheel under its own steam. Product development like that would take a major car maker at least a year, maybe two.

Yet at 2011's Goodwood Festival of Speed, Reeves took folk up the tricky hill in one of five fully finished Three Wheelers.

Cotswold Walk - Cleeve Hill - The Malvern Hills Review

Walking part of the Cotwold Way Walk 1 – Cleeve Hill

There are many miles of walks along the Cotwold Way, and this was our first. We use an ordinance survey map to plan our routes and always mark up the map with a highlight pen so we can see the routes we have done. The views of Cheltenham on this walk are spectacular with the magestic Malverns rising from the ground in the far distance. There are lots of sheep roaming on this walk and I would imagine it’s pretty bleak in the winter.

You do actually cross a public golf course called Cleeve Cloud and I was lucky or perhaps unlucky to play when it was blowing a hooley. It certainly made for very interersting golf!

Official catalogue of the Great exhibition of the works of industry of all nations, 1851

The botany of the Malvern hills

A guide to all the watering and sea-bathing places; with a description of the lakes; a sketch of a tour in Wales; and itineraries, by the editor of The picture of London

England, picturesque and descriptive, A reminiscence of foreign travel

The atlas of physical geography