Description
Morgan +8 3. 9 Supercharged (The Holder Special)
First registered on 1st November 2000 to Mrs Mary Finn, this Morgan was supplied from the factory, with aluminium body and stainless steel bulkhead, in Indigo Blue with Navy Leather trim. Optional extras from the factory included chrome wire wheels, walnut dashboard, Union Jack badges and a radio/ CD player.
The delivering dealer added chrome number plate lights, stainless steel luggage rack (including side screen storage) and a Moto-Lita steering wheel.
During the first year of ownership Mrs Finn had the Simmonds Easy Fit hood, including hood bag, full tonneau cover, side screen bag, a cover for the Samsonite luggage which fits to the rack with stainless straps and a soft overnight bag, all these were made in blue mohair. Additionally front Cibie spotlights were added, having been colour matched to the car, round mirrors, blue sun visors, additional speakers, and a tyre pressure monitoring system.
At the end of the first year of ownership Mrs Finn, clearly a spirited lady, decided that the car was not quite quick enough. She booked the car in to her local dealer who prepared the car for engine upgrades by fitting Librand sports headers and dual exhausts, uprated aluminium radiator, oil cooler, uprated front brakes and a panhard bar.
Having prepped the car for some serious work, Mr Holder, the senior technician at Perranwall Garage, near Truro started work on upgrading the engine. He consulted with (the late) Dennis Priddle of AJ6 Superchargers in Yeovil. Dennis already had earned his reputation in the fledgling British Drag Racing sport by being the first European to travel the standing quarter mile in under 6 seconds, earning him the well-deserved title of ‘Mr. Six’.
Dennis designed a supercharger conversion for the car based around an Opcon Autorotor supercharger, which still resided under the bonnet today.
Mrs Finnn must have known that there was still a little performance to be squeezed out of the car so, in October 2003, she had a forced induction system designed and built. The air inlet now sits under the front bumper, beside the custom oil cooler housing.
With defference to Mrs Finn’s allegiance to Cornwall the car still proudly wears it Cornish flag on the rear valance and its Holder Special moniker, sign written under both bonnet sides.
Mrs Finn maintained a history of the car, both with supplier invoices and her own hand written log until it passed to its new owner, Mr Charles Richards, in 2017.
It appears, from the MOT history, that Mr. Richards rarely used the car as it only covered 1200 miles during his ownership. Despite this the car was treated to a full service in 2018.
I acquired the car in September 2023, used it for a month, to get acquainted, and then took it into my (fully equipped) home workshop where I store and maintain my classic cars.
During this ‘recommissioning’ period I serviced the car, including replacing all fluids, fitted an axle relocation kit, which centres the rear wheels in the arches, brake reaction rods and replaced any parts which were required.
I then removed the interior, cleaned and restored the carpets and the leather, cleaned all the mohair items, and treated the external bodywork to a clay bar clean, 2 stage compound, Carnuba wax and ceramic coat.
Having put the car into ‘regular’ use in spring 2024 I found that I was constantly disappointed with the performance, and driveability of the car. Consequently, I booked the car into Rover performance specialists Lloyd Specialist Developments in Warminster. At this time, it was noted that the engine had been fitted with the big valve heads During the works, Lloyds fitted 330cc/ min injectors, uprated the AFM from 5AM to 20AM and replaced the ECU with one of their programmable items.
These upgrades resulted in dyno readings of 204 rear wheel horsepower (250hp at the flywheel using their dyno adjustment calculations, and 294hp/ tonne) and 268 lbft of torque at 5. 24psi of boost.
I have used the car only during summer months, during winter it is stored under a Richbrook stretch car cover in my heated garage.
During its entire life the car has only ever failed its MOT once, and that was for incorrect number plates! The MOT history backs up the current mileage.
Mechanically the car is in great order, it sweats a little oil but this is normal for the Rover V8, it has some small areas of road rash, which it wears with pride and the leather on the driver’s seat and driver’s B pillar could both use a little improvement.
The price of £38 500 reflects the level investment put in by myself and the previous owners (although cost and price do not necessarily correlate), the specification, which makes this a true one-off, the huge history file, and the current condition.
The cherished number plate is not being sold with the car.
Mileage will continue to rise slowly as the car is now in regular (if infrequent) use. I am now offering the car to its next custodian on the basis that my bucket list is too long and time is too short. Additionally, this is one of three convertible classics that I have which is one too many, really, for my wife and I.
Mechanically the car is in great order, it sweats a little oil but this is normal for the Rover V8, it has some small areas of road rash, which it wears with pride and the leather on the driver’s seat and driver’s B pillar could both use a little improvement.
It drives exactly as a supercharged car should, very docile with enough torque to make 1st to 3rd gears largely redundant, …. until you want to release its inner beast, when you are assaulted by the cacophony of supercharger whine and exhaust roar. To truly enjoy this car, you will need to be a sociable person as just about everyone lets you out into traffic and stopping to buy a newspaper can take more than 10 minutes.
