What Do You Get If You Cross A Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet With A Nissan Figaro?

It’s possible to get a hinny in the equine world, but how did the auto world possibly come up with the Morgan Midsummer?  For those with little equine knowledge (and to be honest, I didn’t know that a hinny existed), let’s first of all clear up what a hinny actually is.  A male horse (stallion) and a female donkey (a jenny) can get together and produce a domestic equine hybrid called a hinny – a cross between a male horse and a female donkey. 

I was more familiar with the flipside of this, where a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare) got together and produced a mule.  I’m not quite sure why I linked a Morgan with the equine world, apart from the obvious connotations of horsepower, but I think it comes down to the Morgan being a really cool modern car that has a beauty that it has all of its own but then has a hint of cars from yesteryear, ones that were also a bit exclusive and cool, even back then. 

The Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet is a bit of a stallion.  I mean, look at all that exquisite eighties leather used to make its interior and some of the most comfortable seats I’ve ever enjoyed.  Then there’s its striking angular styling, cool three-spoke aero mags, black soft-top roof, and the powerful 2.0-litre turbo engine that made this a quick and exciting car.  Little wonder, then, that the Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet, with his angular black physique and soft salt and pepper stone chips, attracted the attention of a lonely but very pretty pale aqua Nissan Figaro.  Result… well the modern-day Morgan Midsummer, of course!

Saab isn’t really dead yet, because the cult following of the 900 and other great Saabs of yesteryear are still being restored and cherished by many a car enthusiast.  The Nissan Figaro also has a dedicated following too, with her cute and loveable cabriolet style born back in the early nineties.  Morgan, on the other hand, are still in business – very much in the business of making new cars. Their latest project, called the Midsummer, is a brilliant progression of the niche brand’s range of open-top roadsters that span back to the very first model that emerged in 1909/1910 known as the three-wheeled runabout, which was a single-seater that used a 5.2 kW Peugeot twin-cylinder motor.  After deciding that a two-seater version was much more inclusive, the little Morgan Runabout became the only car ever to appear in a shop window at Harrods of London.

Morgans are fun!  And the Midsummer is no exception.  Fifty of these new models will be made, and most of the car will still be hand built.  The 2024 Morgan Midsummer is a two-seat open-top sports car that represents the shared vision of Morgan and Pininfarina, who have worked in partnership on this new model to celebrate the timeless beauty of Morgan sportscars.  The Morgan Midsummer boasts Morgan’s CX-generation aluminium chassis, and with a BMW 6-cylinder turbo as its power source, this little sportscar will be sure to fly! 

In the Morgan, as always, wood is used in its construction, now as a design feature rather than for all-out strength.  For the Morgan Midsummer, many layers of teak are used to create the car’s shoulder line and cockpit surrounds.  This gorgeous natural look takes around 30 hours to make by hand, and when it comes to the curvaceous and eye-catching body panels, a further 250 hours of literal handiwork are performed for making these beautifully handcrafted pieces.  The combination of human love, dedication, and care, which are so easily disregarded in today’s robotic processes, makes this a standout vehicle with elegant sports car lines and huge desirability.  This car won’t be thrown away so easily in decades to come.

So what do you get when you cross a Saab 900 Convertible with a Nissan Figaro?  A Morgan Midsummer with BMW power!

The Hot Sports Cars Of 2024

Most people who love driving have dreamed about owning or at least driving a sports car at some point in their lives.  Some sports car greats that come to mind are the Porsche 911, BMW M4, Subaru WRX, Ford Mustang, Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, and even Tesla cars.  We often hear about Toyota leading the new car sales charts, with Australians also loving the Ford Ranger and other great new utes, along with Mazda SUVs.  But what about those of us who love to own and drive a sports car?  What are the more commonly sold new sports cars been recently?  Let’s take a look.

Our focus here is on the common sports cars, not the crazy wild exotics that tend to be reserved for the rich and possibly famous – the sort of things that most of us can only dream about.  We’ll keep things within the bounds of the possible and look at the sports cars that keen Aussie drivers actually purchased.

Helping to shed some light on this question comes from the data that were released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).  What’s on their list?  Of all the sports cars bought new for under AUD $80,000 last year (2023), 1573 Subaru BRZ Coupes were sold.  This made it the number one sports car choice in Australia.  The stylish BRZ just pipped the ever-popular Ford Mustang, with 1475 new Mustangs added to our roads last year.

Third spot went to the lovable BMW 2 Series Coupe, which would have to be my personal pick of the bunch.  BMW enticed 1164 of the sports car buyers of 2023 to own a new 2 Series Coupe.  That’s very impressive for BMW.  Interestingly, the Subaru BRZ also beat out its almost identical twin, the Toyota GR86 Coupe sports car, which managed to attract 1144 sales throughout 2023 and popping the GR86 into fourth spot – this was only 20 units shy of the BMW’s tally.  

After the tightish competition among the top four sellers, there was a bit of a gap between fourth and fifth place, with sales in the triple figures rather than in the thousands.  Surprisingly, at least for me, was that the incredibly popular and stylish Mazda MX-5 had to settle for fifth place getter (653 sales).  Also, the quick and fun-to-drive Nissan Z car came in sixth place, with Nissan being able to shift 449 sales.

It is worth mentioning that Ford does have the next-generation Mustang rolling out onto its showroom floors as we speak.  This may well be the reason why fewer of these cars were sold last year, as those intending to own a new Mustang may have been holding out to purchase the new model.  And who wouldn’t want to spend their money on a new Ford Mustang with all that legendary performance and style?  Check out our review of it here.

Keeping It Cool

As most of us are still driving a vehicle with an internal combustion engine (ICE), and since the cost of motoring has gone up over the last few years, it is good to think about what things we can do as preventative measures to ensure that our ICE vehicles continue to run smoothly, efficiently, and reliably without any major repairs.  An essential part of service maintenance on any ICE vehicle is the need to regularly change the engine’s coolant. 

One of the things I love about ICE vehicles is that they always come standard with a heater that usually works really well to keep you nice and warm inside the vehicle when the temperatures outside are low and cold.  This warm air coming through the heater vents is from the ICE block (not to be confused with an iceblock!), fundamentally from the friction that comes as the mechanical components inside the ICE are whizzing around like clockwork.  Inside the engine block are small tubes and cavities where the water coolant (the stuff you put into the radiator) circulates through in order to take heat from the metal surfaces inside the engine to cool the ICE block down to a sufficient operating temperature.  The added bonus of this is that the warm coolant passes through your cabin heating system, which fans the warm air inside the cabin of the vehicle as much as you want it to, to keep you nice and toasty. 

Now, if you ran your ICE without the coolant (or the correct level of coolant), then the ICE would overheat, and the internal mechanical components inside the engine block would implode with the extremely hot temperatures occurring from all of the friction of the working parts, rendering your vehicle inoperable.  You’d either have to get a whole new vehicle or replace the broken ICE with a new or used one.

Thankfully, maintaining and servicing the coolant system on an ICE vehicle is not hard and easy to do.  Just don’t forget to get it done regularly.  Usually, standard coolant mixes should be changed every 2 years anyway.  But if the coolant is a long-lasting type (one that lasts up to 5–7 years), then the coolant service can be pushed out to 5 years.  Obviously, if you are doing Star Trek mileages every year (75,000 km), then the long-lasting coolant should be changed every 2 years as a matter of course. 

Why do we need to change the ICE coolant if the level in the system is all ok?  The simple answer is because the coolant (the antifreeze concentrate that is mixed with distilled water) degrades over time and with use.  The antifreeze is very important, not only to stop your engine block cracking in sub-zero temperatures, but also to lubricate the water pump and protect the internal coolant tubing and cavities from corrosion.

Coolant is usually green or red, but can also be blue or yellow.  If it looks rusty, or has bits floating around in it, you should drain out the old coolant from the ICE block and then flush out the coolant system before putting new engine coolant back in. 

As part of the engine coolant service, make sure you check all of the rubber hoses associated with the coolant’s circuit.  If the rubber hoses look cracked, are leaking coolant, or appear bulgy or squishy when squeezed, then they also should be replaced.  Because if you don’t, then Murphey’s law will come back to bite you on the bum and a rubber hose will burst under the pressure of hot coolant circulating around next time you’re out on a road trip.

There you have it – a simple system on your ICE vehicle that helps to keep the engine running all tickety-boo, while also benefiting you and the level of your comfort as you travel about out on the road.

Silly Features That Never Made It

In most modern cars, you can find a selection of neat features to make the task of driving easier and more pleasant.  Some of the ones I particularly like include active cruise control, ambient lighting, steering wheel mounted audio controls, reversing cameras and Bluetooth connectivity so my phone and car talk to each other.  I guess most of us have our favourite driver aids. 

However, over the over 100 years that the car has been around, manufacturers and designers have come up with some features that flopped, mostly because they were plain silly ideas.  We’re not talking about things that have been phased out because they are no longer in high demand, such as cigarette lighters (which have morphed into 12-volt power outlets), or because they were a bit iffy in terms of safety (such as bench seats).  Instead, we’re talking about ideas that were totally nuts.  Here’s the looniest ones that were put forward by designers with a straight face.

In-Car Toilets

In the late 1940s, an inventor named Louie Mattar customized his Cadillac so that he could go on a long-haul trip of around 6000 miles without stopping, even to refuel. While most of us would be more interested on how you manage to get something that goes for that long without refuelling, which wouldn’t be silly, quite a few designers in the 1950s considered installing one of the other things that Mattar put in his customized car: a toilet.  Yes, a toilet that the driver or passenger can use without leaving the car.  However, this proved to be impractical, considering how easy it is to simply pull over at a public loo, or café or garage – or, in remote and rural areas, a handy bush. 

Flamethrowers

Yes, seriously.  In the late 1990s, when violent crime was a real problem in Johannesburg, South Africa, one inventor decided that the best way to protect drivers from carjackings was to install aftermarket flamethrowers that could be activated in self-defence.  This was designed to use gas to create a fireball that didn’t damage the paint.  The laws at the time allowed South Africans to use deadly force in self-defence, and the fireballs sent out by the “BMW Blaster” weren’t lethal; they “merely” blinded the would-be carjackers.  The downsides were that (A) a matching fireball was released from the opposite side of the vehicle, potentially injuring innocent bystanders and (B) flamethrowers have been outlawed by the United Nations.  The invention won the Ig-Nobel Peace prize for 1999 and the rumour is that 25 BMWs received this “upgrade”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/232777.stm

Children’s Partition

Another one from the 1950s, back when rear seatbelts (and possibly seatbelts full stop) weren’t really a thing, and kids who monkeyed around in the back seat while the car was moving were threatened with “Don’t make me stop this car!” Some designers thought that perhaps it would be less distracting (and pleasant) for the driver to ensure that the children were neither seen nor heard, courtesy of a privacy partition of the sort found in very posh limousines.  However, most parents preferred to know if their kids were screaming, fighting or giving each other black eyes in the rear seat, so this idea didn’t catch on.

Automatic Seatbelts

This one’s from the 1970s to the 1990s when more automatic features were becoming popular.  One that didn’t catch on was the automatic seatbelt.  An automatic seatbelt worked by taking the shoulder strap from the back of the seat and fastening itself onto the B-pillar when the engine started or the door closed.  The user had to buckle up a lap belt him/herself.  This idea was very exciting, and in 1977, a law was passed in the US that stated that by 1983 all new cars should either have automatic seatbelts or airbags.  The first commercial vehicle to have these automatic seatbelts was the 1975 Volkswagen Golf, and many other manufacturers had offerings with this safety feature, including Hyundai and Toyota.  However, the downside was that a seatbelt that isn’t permanently fixed to the B-pillar isn’t as secure as one that is, and users still had to clip in the lap belt separately.  They also didn’t play nicely with child seats and were a pain for getting in and out if you were carrying anything.  As someone with long hair that occasionally gets pulled into the slot of ordinary retractable inertia seatbelts, I imagine that these automatic seatbelts would have been a right pig for people with long hair.  So airbags were the safety feature that won out.

If anybody has experience of a vehicle with an automatic seatbelt, let us know in the comments what you thought of them!

Joystick Steering Systems

Although the original horseless carriages of the late 19^th century sometimes used a rudder system rather than a wheel, the steering wheel has become the one we’re all familiar with.  However, during the 1990s, Saab decided to fit its some of its 9000 models with a joystick steering system.  Fortunately, not all Saab 9000s had them and plenty had the ordinary wheel.  The joystick was too easily knocked and wasn’t precise enough.  This was particularly an issue, given that the Saab 9000 was pretty responsive when you put your foot on the accelerator (I used to own one, and I rather miss the way that it could dart into the gaps at the intersections like a hummingbird spotting a tasty new flower…).

Coffee Machines

Although coffee doesn’t originate in Italy, all the words we use at the local coffee shop are Italian (latte is the Italian world for “milk”, for example).  So it’s not surprising that Fiat, in 2012, attempted to include a real working compact espresso machine that sat in the centre console in its 500L models released in Europe.  It was, however, short-lived, probably because it took up the driver’s armrest, and comfort won out over the convenience of coffee on the go, and possibly because hot liquids and sharp corners are not a happy combination.  However, there is still part of me that thinks that this idea isn’t so silly and wouldn’t mind one.