Victorian Morgan Car Club History
On the 16th June 1994 the present independent club VICMOG was formed and incorporated.
In 1967 Neville Crawford and John White were interested in forming a club. As John was the dealer and had a vested interest he gave a list of potential members to Neville who then contacted them.
Neville, who had a 1954 4/4 at the time which had been converted into a Plus 4 which sort of got bent on a student sketching trip-aided by the high octane fuel Neville consumed. Neville later bought a 1955 Plus 4 from Digby Thackeray, a partner of John White. John White now lives in Coulsden Surrey England.
The first meeting was held at Neville’s place at 7 Ocean St Ormond in Sept 1967.
As a result a club was formed - The Victorian Division of MOCA - Morgan Owners Club of Australia.
The first president was Derek Allen selected because of his maturity as they felt they needed an older president for prestige-the others were all too young.
A committee was formed. Meetings were very casual and rotated monthly amongst members houses as it still is today.
Attendance at the early meetings comprised John White, Neville Crawford, Graham Addie, John Varco, Colin Handley, Gavin Fry (who did the graphics for the newsletter). A club was formed as a subsidiary of the NSW club which was formed in 1958. As the first 10 in NSW became foundation members, the first 10 in Victoria would also be foundation members.
The most interesting meetings were at Graham Addey’s he was member No1.
Graham had a Series 1 4/4 which he supercharged. This comprised a manifold like a log with a lever under the dash which engaged the supercharger and operated the manifold. Which he used to test on his hand made dyno mounted on the corner post of his back fence at his 1 acre property in Eltham.
EVENTS
Club activities comprised social and car events as is today.
One unofficial hill climb at the time was in Zig Zag road Eltham. A zig zag at the start and the same at the end. This was used on a regular basis.
Annual events usually between Melbourne and Sydney would attract 10-20 Morgans.
A few years later in 1967 or 1968 there was a joint meeting at Narrandera of MOCA.
SNAPSHOTS
In the early 1970’s John St Julien who was the editor of The Morgan Ear came down from Sydney to live in Melbourne for a few years. As a result the Ear was produced in Melbourne for a few years.
Barry Ponchard virtually wrote John St Julien’s car off dicing with Jeff Hull on Pretty Sally.
Earlier that year John White the Morgan agent was initially in partnership with Digby Thacheray and Geoff Hall. However they felt it was too difficult trying to comply with the ADR’s and pulled out.
John had a stand at the Melbourne Motor show in 1965 but the car didn’t turn up. Someone had bought a red Plus 4 in through WA. This was driven across the Nullarbor and put in the show.