Marginal and artisan, the manufacturer Morgan has managed to preserve its independence throughout the decades and remain faithful to the original ideas of his founder.
Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan, also known by his initials hfs, born in 1881 and was the son of a Presbyterian pastor who led his congregation in the British county of Herefordshire. And like many of the young people of that time, he soon felt attracted by the new technologies derived from the Industrial Revolution.
After working at the locomotive factory Great Western Railway, in 1906 already the 25 years opened a workshop car repair shop in the English town of Malvern Link, also becoming a licensee of the British brand Wolseley and the French Darracq.
The only car on display at Harrods
And it wouldn’t be long materialize his own ideas since, three years later, he built his first vehicle of three wheels, the Runabout, that was a slight cyclecar single-seater, chassis tubular, animated by a front engine of Peugeot origin and that was driven with a lever as a rudder.
Although at first he did not get the business result expected, the following Morgan model caused sensation. It was from two seats, wore soft top to protect yourself from the rain and a conventional steering wheel to steer it.
It was so successful that the prestigious London store Harrods, without serving as a precedent, decided to expose it in its shop window, thus becoming the first concessionaire Of the brand.
Undoubtedly, Morgan had some very good ideas, since 114 years later, the primitive facilities of Malvern Link are still active, conveniently enlarged, and manufacture, among other things, a model with a similar architecture to the one conceived by the founder of the brand: the Super 3.
motorcycle engines
However, the Morgan company as such was not established until 1912, and from then until 1950 it focused on the manufacture of tricycles light. Some vehicles that soon earned a good fame on the British market, both for its sportsmanship as per your reliability and affordable price.
But it is also that, due to their condition as tricycles, they enjoyed less taxation compared to other four-wheeled cars, which favored its popularity.
For his lightness, the Morgans didn’t need much power to get some good benefits and although the brand did not produce engines, it found in the mechanics of motorcycles available the perfect solution to encourage those little sports. Specifically, he resorted to motors British high performance brands matchless and JAP.
The simplicity of the Morgans was deceiving, but the results would prove their worth, since the small three-wheeled vehicles managed before the First World War to beat 10 records.
First on the famous British circuit of Brooklands and later on the continent, on the banked ring of Monthlery, a mythical route close to Paris, Where, in 1930 they achieved the feat of traversing 160 kilometers in an hour.
Victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Six years Later, the small company took another important leap in its production, by developing and manufacturing its first sports car. four wheels, the 4/4 or also known by Family Runabout, and that it even had a version commercial for delivery of goods.
Fueled by Ford engines, Coventry Climax and standart, the new model would soon be versioned in other variants, one with four seats and another with elegant bodywork convertible.
After the stoppage caused by the Second World War, the production of Morgan restarted in 1946 And from 1950 the brand gained new momentum, launching the model Plus 4, alternating origin mechanics Standart Vanguard, Fiat, rover and Ford.
It was then that the brand got its greatest success sports, a field that its founder had always been passionate about. In 1962, the pilots Chris Lawrence and Richard Sheppard-Baron managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the category with a displacement of two liters and at the wheel of a Plus 4 Super Sports.
The closest thing to flying
Commercially, two years later the revolutionary would arrive Plus 4 Plus, a two-seater coupe. For the first time, it resorted to a body molded in fiber made of glass, but it failed: only 26 units.
A setback that did not discourage those responsible for the brand because, four years later, they ventured with the Plus 8, the first Morgan of the era modern and that he had powerful V8 engine with 200 hp originally Rover. Over time, he would succeed in 2004 the roadster with engine Ford V6.
A separate chapter deserves the model Aero of 1920. Developed in honor of the aviation captain Albert Ball, who described it as “the closest thing to fly”, stood out winning many careers uphill competing against much more powerful cars, and gave rise to 1927 to an improved model, the Super Aero.
And already in more recent times, the Aero 8, developed in the year 2000 with BMW engines up to 367 CV, revived at the beginning of that decade the indomitable character of this unique sports car pocket.
Modern technology
Despite his modest size, the morgan company is a case only in the automobile sector. The manufacturing rate has been the same for decades and the process is completely craft. However, in recent times it has incorporated into its production important innovations to bring it up to date in terms of mechanics and security.
The last rules environmental and the obligatory evidence of shock have evolved the Morgans to meet modern approvals. They now have larger engines. efficient and the latest model to arrive, the Plus Six, has replaced the traditional frame of wood by a modern chassis of aluminum.
Manufactured by charge and offering a very long list of options to satisfy any customer preference, the production of the Morgans is carried out in the same location than the first, Malvern Link, and has been maintained for decades at approximately 500 copies per year.
And excepting the improvements techniques, little has changed in the concept and the design since they were devised by Henry Frederick Stanley, who in this long and amazing story was replaced at the head of the company first by his son Peter And till 2013, for his grandson Charles.
