Morgan Motor Company

The Morgan Motor Company is a British automobile manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by H.F.S. Morgan and was run by him until 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until his death in 2003.

The factory is located in Malvern Link (an area of Malvern in Worcestershire) and has 155 employees. All the cars are assembled by hand. The waiting list can be up to a year. Production is nine cars a week and each car takes three months to build.Contents

Early cars - three-wheelers and 4-4s

The early cars were two seat or four seat three-wheelers, and thus count as cyclecars. They were designed to avoid a British tax on cars by being classed as motorcycles. Competition from the likes of the Austin 7, with comparable economy and price and better comfort, made cyclecars less attractive. Morgan's first four-wheeler was the 4-4, for four-cylinder engine and four wheels. The first production 4 wheeled Morgan was released to the public in 1936 and is known as the Morgan 4-4 Series 1. Three wheeler production continued along side the 4-4 until 1952.

Postwar four-wheel cars

Morgan +4

The Morgan +4 was introduced in 1950 as a larger ("plus&quot car than the 4-4. The +4 used the 2088 cc Standard Vanguard engine, while the 4-4 used a Standard Special 1267 cc engine. Later +4s used Triumph TR3 - TR5 engines, and then Rover 2.0L engines. The +4 used Fiat engines when Rover discontinued their four-cylinder engines.

A version of the +4, designated the +4+, was made from 1964 to 1967 with a contemporary fiberglass coupe body. The light weight and reduced drag characteristics improved the performance of the +4+ over the regular +4 in every aspect. However, the traditional Morgan enthusiasts did not embrace this departure from Morgan custom, and mainstream enthusiasts did not embrace the seemingly archaic +4 chassis. Only 26 +4+ cars were built.

Morgan 4/4

The 4-4 was replaced by the 4/4 in 1955. The 4/4 uses the +4 chassis and a Ford engine.

Morgan +8

Faced with the decreasing availability of large four-cylinder engines for use in their +4 models, Morgan began to install the recently-available Rover V8 engine in their cars in 1968, giving these cars the model designation +8.

The V-8 engines were much wider than the big four previously used, and the engine displacement jumped from the 2.3 L of the Triumph TR5 engine to 3.5 L, but the V-8 was no longer than the four, and its aluminium-block reduced weight to the extent that it was lighter than the four. These features made the +8 accelerate much more quickly than the +4 and also improved its road-holding capability.

In the +8's final iteration, the Rover V8 was fuel-injected and produced 196hp. Thus powered, the car could accelerate from 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds. Enthusiasts work on the engine, exhaust and electronic chip management to improve this figure.

Availability in the United States

For a few years in the 1980s, all Morgans, 4/4s, Plus 4s, and Plus 8s imported into the United States were converted to run on LPG (propane) as fuel to pass the U.S. emissions regulations.

When the Rover Group certified their V-8 engine for use in the Range Rover SUV sold in the U.S., Morgan made a gasoline-powered +8 available with the same engine in the same tune and with the same anti-emission devices. As the emissions and safety regulations continue to change, Morgan is again challenged to meet the requirements and is limited in its ability to import cars into the United States.

Morgan Aero 8

In 2000, the Morgan Aero 8 was introduced and, as always, the wooden body substructure was ash. (Contrary to popular myth, however, the chassis is metal; aluminium for the Aero 8). The Aero 8, with a BMW V8 engine in a car half the weight of the BMW, is even faster than the Plus 8, delivering what Autoweek magazine termed supercar performance.

Morgan Roadster

When the Rover Group discontinued production of their V-8 engine, Morgan replaced the +8 with the Roadster. Introduced in 2004, the Roadster was powered by a Ford 3.0L V6.

General characteristics

In spite of their traditional design, Morgans have always had sporting or 'sports car' performance, due to their very low weight. This is especially true of their V-8 powered models, the +8 and the Aero 8.

Among their enthusiasts, Morgans are affectionately known as Moggies. Their owners tend to be very traditional in their approach to sports cars; the failure of the +4+ is generally used as an example of this.

Morgan LIFEcar

In October 2006 Morgan announced it would produce a fuel cell based sports car called the LIFEcar and based on the Aero 8 as an experiment. It's being built in collaboration with the UK Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), fuel cell maker QinetiQ, BOC, and OScar, and educational institutions. Morgan will present the car in 2-3 years time. [1]

References in popular culture

Morgans have been seen in a number of books, movies and TV programs.
A Morgan three wheeler is driven by Peter Sellers in the movie The Party, as somewhat of a badge of ridiculousness.
A Morgan four wheeler was used throughout the Mel Brooks film Silent Movie.
The movie Speechless featured a 1957 Plus Four Four-Seater, and the movie Now and Forever, set in Australia, had a 4/4 1600 Four-Seater.
Perhaps the biggest hit among movies featuring Morgans was The War of the Roses in which several cars were used to depict Mr. Rose's Plus Four roadster.
In the episodes Kill Ari (1) and (2) of the television series NCIS Dr. Mallard is seen driving a Morgan roadster which he restored himself, although it is a four-wheeler, not a three-wheeler.
In the novel Have His Carcase, a technical aspect of the three-wheeler Morgan formed part of the plot (though it would be a spoiler to reveal why it had to be such a Morgan.)
In the Monk episode "Mr. Monk is at Your Service", Clara Buchanan was murdered by her son, who then staged a car accident in a Morgan to cover up his crime.

Models

Morgan 3 wheeler
Morgan 4-4 Pre-WWII and 4/4 following WWII
Morgan +4
Morgan +4+
Morgan Plus 8
Morgan Aero 8
Morgan AeroMax
Morgan +4 Four Seater
Morgan Runabout
Morgan Roadster
Morgan Roadster Four Seater
Morgan LIFEcar