{"id":6670,"date":"2023-01-25T17:07:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T17:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=6670"},"modified":"2023-02-05T21:42:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T21:42:31","slug":"more-from-tazio-6-we-drive-the-morgan-plus-8-gtr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/?p=6670","title":{"rendered":"More from Tazio 6: We drive the Morgan Plus 8 GTR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You don\u2019t see this one every day. Let alone that you are given the chance to drive it. This is exactly what we are able to do with this Morgan Plus 8 GTR, affectionately known as \u2018Big Blue\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s anything but \u2018Big\u2019 in real life. Tiny from the outside, and positively petite on the inside. But boy, does it pack a punch. Under that long bonnet lies a Chevrolet V8 that will send shivers down your spine. It\u2019s pure torture for the semi-slick tyres. Under heavy load, it will spin its wheels like crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like it last raced<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Morgan Plus 8 GTR today still stands as it raced for the last time in the 1997 FIA GT Championship<\/a> at Laguna Seca. It had started as a highly ambitious program from the Morgan Motor Company. \u201cWe wanted to race against the Porsches in the GT2 category,\u201d Charles Morgan explains in Tazio 6. At the time, Charles Morgan \u2013 grandson of the company\u2019s founder \u2013 was the CEO of the Malvern-based company, and he raced Big Blue regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Morgan Plus 8 GTR was much more than just a race car. \u201cIt was the development for the Aero 8, the new model we rolled out in 2000. It helped us experiment with new aluminium bonding techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engine swap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The GTR project started with a Rover V8 engine, that not only proved troublesome but was also nearing the end of its homologation. Chris Lawrence, a Morgan stalwart from the Le Mans days of old, finally got enough of the Rover engine and swapped it for a hot rod Chevy V8 small block. \u201cWith the Chevrolet engine, we were just as fast as the Porsches on the straight,\u201d Charles Morgan remembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Morgan Motor Cy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can find the whole story of our meeting with the Morgan Plus 8 GTR in the current issue of Tazio Magazine. Tazio 6<\/a> is available in our webshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Hermann Geissler, Florian Seidl (Carficionado.com<\/a>), Johannes J\u00e4ger and Marc Gl\u00e4nzer (Klassikerschmiede) and the Chambley Grand Est racetrack (circuit-chambley.fr<\/a>) for their help in creating this feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo Dirk de Jager<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t see this one every day. Let alone that you are get to drive it. This is what we did in this Morgan Plus 8 GTR, affectionately known as \u2018Big Blue\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,111,116],"tags":[962,265,959,284,802,955,956,958,957,961,160],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-6670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-from-tazio-magazine","category-tazio-the-magazine","category-videos-from-tazio-magazine","tag-charles-morgan","tag-fia-gt","tag-gt","tag-gt2","tag-laguna-seca","tag-morgan","tag-morgan-motor-company","tag-ngt","tag-plus-8-gtr","tag-rover","tag-tazio-magazine","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Morgan_GT2-2-kopieren.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6670"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6722,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6670\/revisions\/6722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6670"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taziomagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fthb-sponsors&post=6670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}