A Fascinating Place, Producing Fantastic Cars !
All of our c9ontingent arrived at or shortly after 10am, being joined by some 'local' 3 Counties Region Members. The factory in Great Malvern has a stunning backdrop of the Malvern Hills. The whole site is beautifully presented and the sense of history is palpable. Apparently Morgan have the longest occupancy of a single site of any car manufacturer in the world - well over 100 years.
Several models including the new Supersport were on display outside the entrance building which also houses the showroom.
We Were Then Off On Our Tour
The tour started with a film about the history of Morgan shown in a corner of the large reception area which also housed the excellent coffee shop and a number of interesting vehicles on display.
Our guide issued us all with headsets and we then proceeded to the main buildings where the cars are made. Most of these date back over 100 years ! he made the point that we would not see any robots in the factory, all cars are hand built.
The immediate impression is of a specialised craft in operation rather than a car factory. There's no production line as such and much of the car assembly is carried out by individual employees. There are also specialist joiners, leather workers, metal workers etc.
Apparently the bonnets are pretty much curved by hand and the louvres cut in individually by eye using a hand operated machine from the 1950s. Quite astonishing crafstmanship.
Similarly body panels are individually fitted to each car and trimmed by hand so they are not a universal fit.
Incredible Craftsmanship !
First stop was the stack of chassis, made by a sub-contractor, made of aluminium that is riveted and bonded in line with a lot of current production methods, but modern stops there and its all hand crafted.
Next stop was where the chassis starts to get built up on a rotating jig with wiring loom, mechanical components etc. Modifications are made on site to the wiring looms etc. Next the wood components of the body have been hand made and are fitted to the chassis together with the wings and bonnet. Each bonnet is hand made on site taking 6 hours each to form. The body panels are removed and taken to the spray booth to be finished in the customers colour of choice. Each panel is closely inspected, any imperfections corrected and polished to a fine finish.
The final part is the chassis, now complete, has all the fluids added and is started up as a complete driveable rolling chassis. Its then driven down to the final workshop for panel assembly etc then into the trim shop where the hand made trim is fitted, again to each customers choice.
Hand built cars dont come cheap. We were advised that cars dont usually leave the factory for less than £130,000 once a few options have been added to the order.
In summary, an excellent visit, where we saw all aspects from starting with a bare chassis and how each car is built up to the finished product and it was good to see hand crafted skills still exist.
What An Ethos !
All Morgan's are bespoke and made to individual customers specifications, with a mind boggling number of options. All the engines and gearboxes seem to be made by BMW so have a good pedigree.
They are currently making a limited edition car called the Midsummer (50 I think) which takes craftsmanship and attention to detail to the next level. The majority are heading Stateside so lets hope they don't get caught by Trump'ss tarrifs!
These highly specialized and individual vehicles are priced in the hundreds of thousands!
A Thoughly Worthwhile Trip
Many of our number to comment that they could fully understand the cost of Morgans. You're basically buying a piece of art!
After the tour, we had a very tasty buffet lunch in the Terrace Room that had been reserved for us, thanks to Derek.
Our delegation headed home around 3pm after a fascinating and worthwhile visit.
