Morgan Cars

We recently went on Planters garden centre trip to visit Morgan Cars. Morgan are a tiny company producing about 800 cars per year. They are an anachronism in the car industry with each vehicle hand assembled. They are known for thirties style sports cars with a traditional open top. Various efforts to update the cars have been made including some exciting and stylish prototypes. However the only modern design sports car which went into production did not sell well. They are now essentially a niche producer of 30’s and 40’s style cars with minimal changes to meet modern regulations.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the production of a modern three wheeler. This type of cycle car with an air cooled engine ahead of the front bonnet was popular in the 30’s when Morgan themselves plus others such as BSA made them successfully. The new three wheeler is very much in the style of the thirties with the minimum of changes to meet modern regulations

Although Morgan make traditionally styled cars they use modern engines and gearboxes Sourcing engines is always an issue because of the small volumes involved. This means that Morgan are subject to the decisions of engine manufacturers. For example the very successful model using a Rover V8 had to be dropped when Rover decided it wasn’t worthwhile updating to meet regulation changes. At present the 4 wheelers use Ford engines except for the top of the range Plus Six which uses a BMW engine and a ZF gearbox. Morgan make the wooden body support and some of the bodywork themselves as well as assembling the finished cars. Each car is assembled by one man. We were told about 70% of the cars are bought in.

In keeping with the style of the three wheeler an air cooled motorcycle V twin in used from S&S in the US. To maintain a semblance of cornering performance the front wheels ( two front, one rear) are narrow motorcycle type while the rear is wide to maintain a roughly similar amount of “rubber on the road” at both ends. While road holding isn’t great the stability is vastly better than the old Reliant cars with their one front, two back layout.

I have said Morgan cars are 30’s style. This extends to the manufacturing techniques. On a metal chassis is a wooden superstructure to which all the body panels are fitted. This has long been a superseded technique. For engineering cognoscenti the independent front suspension is also unique being a sliding pillar design. This requires greasing every 1000 miles something long left behind by modern cars. This is regarded as a desirable feature for these hobby cars

Just because the cars are old fashioned it shouldn’t be imagined they are cheap. On the contrary they are very expensive however the owner can be consoled that depreciation is low or even positive. They are effectively thought of as newly made semi classic cars. For example the three wheeler costs about £40,000

The separate chassis and body method was replaced in the 50’s and 60’s throughout the industry by the monocoque ( all in one metal box ) body. This was cheaper, safer and more rigid. More recently with aid of computer design there is used a method which retains the floor plan and suspension topped by a variety of styles retaining the monocoque construction. By this means a wide variety of models are made available with a minimum of design and engineering effort. To reduce costs it is important that as many of one underpinning are made as possible.
It is a tragedy of the British motor industry that the once popular twin seater sports car ( as exemplified by the MG TC of the 40’s ) was allowed to wither away. It might be said that Morgan Cars are keeping something of that market alive. It was also good to see that by apprenticeships and employment Morgan is keeping craft skills alive

Morgan 3 wheeler