Jim Williams' highly modified 1958 Morgan 4/4. (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
The hot-rod Morgan tale unfolded after Williams, who grew up in Malton, Ont. moved in the late 1950s to Stirling, Ont. where his grandfather had been a blacksmith. (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
He was 23 in 1963 when he and his father Ray were wandering around a local wrecking yard and he spotted the Morgan in the weeds. (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
After dickering with the yard owner, a price of $95 was agreed, which Williams borrowed from his father. (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
Williams had allowed, while chatting over the phone to reporter Bob English, that his 1958 4/4 Morgan was “highly modified;” what he hadn't revealed was that it's very possibly the only fully hot-rodded Morgan on the planet. (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
The flaring front fenders and fared-in headlamps framing a vertically slatted grille immediately provide the appropriate visual clues, and the personalized licence plate “MORGAN” should have removed any doubt as to what it was. But wait a sec, isn't that grille about half-again as wide as it should be, along with the hood behind it? (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
Closer inspection reveals that under the classic Morgan bodywork that's been widened by about a foot, the original wooden cabinetry it was once nailed to, the flimsy chassis that supported it and the small-bore four-cylinder engine that powered it are long gone. Replacing them are a 1951 Ford frame with a straight-up, 400-hp-plus shot of 355-cubic-inch Camaro Z28 V-8 wedged between its rails with a Muncie four-speed back. (Bob English for The Globe and Mail/Bob English for The Globe and Mail)
to get it and come back to see the ad in front of this gallery.
