Morgan Motor Company

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1934 Morgan Super Sports

1936 Morgan F4 Open Tourer

1960 Morgan

A Modern Morgan Aero 8 at the Scarsdale Concours

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The Morgan Motor Company is a British automobile manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by H.F.S. Morgan and was run by Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., until his death in 2003. The early cars were two 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.

In spite of their traditional design, Morgans have modern sports car performance, due to their very low weight. The Morgan Plus 8, which for many years used the 3.5L (215ci) aluminium V8 licenced from GM (shared with Rover), though later versions of the engine were provided in 3.9L, 4.0L and 4.6L capacities. This was powered by a fuel-injected 196hp Rover V8 in its final iteration and could accelerate from 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds. Enthusiasts work on the engine, exhaust and electronic chip management to improve this figure. For a few years in the 1980s, Plus 8s were imported into the United States after conversion to run on LPG (propane) as fuel to pass the U.S. emissions regulations. Modern Morgans are legally imported into the United States once more.

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.

In 2004, the Morgan Roadster was launched to replace the Plus 8 which had to be withdrawn once the supply of suitable V8 engines was exhausted.

The factory is located in Malvern Link (an area of Malvern in Worcestershire) and has 130 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.

Among their buffs, they're affectionately known as Moggies. Their owners tend to be very traditional in their approach to sports cars; the hardtop Plus 4 Plus was a dismal failure, its styling being considered too modern.

In October 2006 Morgan announced it would produce a fuel cell based sports car called the LIFEcar and based on the Aero Eight 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]

[edit] 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.
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.)