Morgan

The Morgan Motor Company Limited is a British motor car manufacturer founded in 1910 by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan. Morgan is based in Malvern in the U.K. and employs approximately 220 people. Morgan produce 850 cars per year, all assembled by hand. The waiting list for a car is approximately six months, but it has sometimes been as long as ten years. Morgan cars are unusual in that wood has been used in their construction for a century, and is still used in the 21st century for framing the body shell. For most of its history, the company was owned by the Morgan family. Morgan's first car design was a single-seat three-wheeled runabout, which was fabricated for his personal use in 1908, with help from William Stephenson-Peach, the father of friends, and the engineering master at Malvern College. Powered by a 7 hp (5.2 kW; 7.1 PS)[21] Peugeot twin-cylinder engine (from an abandoned motorcycle project), the car had a backbone chassis, an idea retained for all following Morgan three-wheelers, and used as little material and labor as Morgan could manage.] A single-seat three-wheeler with coil-spring independent front suspension, unusual at the time, the driveshaft ran through the backbone tube to a two-speed transmission (with no reverse), and chain drive to each of the rear wheels. The steering was by tiller, and it had band brakes. It also had no body. With financial help from his father and his wife, the car went into production at premises in Pickersleigh Road, Malvern Link. Three single-seater cars were exhibited at the 1910 Motor Show at Olympia in London. In spite of great interest being shown, only a few orders were taken, and Morgan decided a two-seater was needed to meet market demand. This was built in 1911, adding a bonnet, windscreen, wheel steering, and crank starting; it was displayed at the 1911 Motor Cycle Show. An agency was taken up by the Harrod's department store in London, with a selling price of £65. The Morgan became the only car ever to appear in a shop window at Harrods. Interest in his runabout led him to patent his design and begin production. While he initially showed single-seat and two-seat versions of his runabout at the 1911 Olympia Motor Exhibition, he was convinced at the exhibition that there would be greater demand for a two-seat model. The Morgan Motor Company was registered as a private limited company only in 1912 with H.F.S. Morgan as managing director and his father, who had invested in his son's business, as its first chairman. Morgan established its reputation via competition such as winning the 1913 Cyclecar Grand Prix at Amiens in France, driven by W. G. McMinnies, with an average speed of 42 mph (68 km/h) for the 163 mi (262 km) distance. This became the basis for the 'Grand Prix' model of 1913 to 1926, from which evolved the 'Aero', and 'Sports' models. Morgan himself won the "very tough" ACU Six Days' Trial in 1913, in the sidecar class. The same year, the company entered the MCC reliability trial, which it continued to do until 1975. Racing success led to demand the company proved unable to meet. Morgan's first four-wheeler, designated by the factory as the 4/4 because it had a four-cylinder engine and four wheels, was released to the public in 1936. Powered by a 34 hp (25 kW; 34 PS) 1,122 cc (68.5 cu in) Coventry Climax engine, and carrying a pair of rear-mounted spare wheels, the new two-seater 4/4 sold for 185 guineas (£194 5s). It proved popular, and a four-place model was added in 1937, joined by a £236 drophead in 1938. In 1938, a 4/4 was entered at Le Mans. This led to production of factory replicas, with fold-down windscreen, cycle fenders (mudguards), smaller-displacement engine, and single spare wheels, with a price of £250. Production of the 4/4 was halted during World War II but resumed afterwards. Production halted again in 1950 when the Standard engine ceased to be available but resumed in 1955 when a suitable replacement, the side-valve 1,172 cc Ford 100E engine was found and has continued ever since. The Morgan +4 was introduced in 1950 as a larger-engined ("plus") car than the 4/4. The +4 initially used the 2,088 cc (127.4 cu in) Standard Vanguard engine and at introduction sold for £625 (two-seater) or £723 (coupé). Production of the 4/4 was halted during World War II but resumed afterwards. Production halted again in 1950 when the Standard engine ceased to be available but resumed in 1955 when a suitable replacement, the side-valve 1,172 cc Ford 100E engine was found and has continued ever since. Production of the 4/4 was halted during World War II but resumed afterwards. Production halted again in 1950 when the Standard engine ceased to be available but resumed in 1955 when a suitable replacement, the side-valve 1,172 cc Ford 100E engine was found and has continued ever since. A version of the +4, the +4+, was made from 1964 to 1967 with a fibreglass coupé body. The light weight and reduced drag improved the performance of the +4+ over the standard +4 in every aspect. However, traditional Morgan enthusiasts did not embrace this departure from Morgan custom, and mainstream enthusiasts did not embrace the seemingly archaic +4 chassis. Fifty were planned, but only 26 were built. 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 engine displacement jumped from the 2.3 L of the Triumph TR4 engine to 3.5 L, then 3.9 L (1990), 4.0 (1998–2004) with an optional 4.6L (1996–2000) all based on the same Land Rover block. However, this V-8 was no heavier than the Triumph engine. These features made the +8 accelerate much more quickly than the early +4 and also improved its road-holding capability. In 2004, Morgan came out with a traditional styled model to replace the departing Plus 8. The Mk I Roadsters with the Ford UK Mondeo V6 produced 223 bhp (166 kW, 226 PS) at 6150 rev/min. The later Roadsters were powered by a Ford UK Mondeo V6 producing 204 bhp (152 kW; 207 PS). In 2007, the Mondeo engine was replaced by a US-specification version of the same engine in the Roadster II. In 2011–12, the engine was replaced by the 3.7 Duratec Cyclone engine and output increased to 280 bhp (209 kW; 284 PS). The company calls this model the Roadster 3.7.