Standard-Triumph Powered Morgans Part II (Post-1945)

Our feature last issue highlighted the pre-war Morgans powered by the Standard Special engine. These cars continued to be made after the war, until the Vanguard came along. This issue, Phil Homer looks at the Morgans with Vanguard and TR-based engines that followed.

The Vanguard was conceived in 1944, but of course serious development work could not progress until peace had returned. For the next three years Standard continued to produce a range of 8, 12 and 14hp sidevalve cars whilst in parallel refining all elements of the Vanguard’s completely new design.

By 1947, the Company was ready to declare that it was going to adopt a one model Vanguard policy, and production of everything else would cease. Morgan was more or less forced to go along with that, especially as we can assume the new Vanguard engine would again, and as usual, be offered to them, and most probably at an attractive price.

Of course, the Vanguard OHV engine was not designed primarily with Morgan in mind. It was intended from the outset to fulfil two primary roles. In the company’s own words: ‘The (Ferguson) tractor required an engine very similar in size to that decided on for the car so Standard quickly realised that substantial reductions in costs could be achieved by arranging that key dimensions of both engines should be the same, so that the same machine tools and factory processes could be used in making the basic parts of both engines.’ A common misconception however is that the engines were the same, but you definitively can’t swap one for the other.

The company toyed with an 1850cc variant for a short time, but eventually settled on an 85mm cylinder bore and 92mm stroke giving a capacity of 2088cc. The Vanguard wet-liner design is of course familiar to regular readers of these columns, and it was also the basis of the TR2-4 engines. Briefly, and using the company’s own words once again: