ShoooRn94's saxyness
Morgan Trip
Posted 18th December 2008 at 19:39 by shooorn94
Today was something special, the lectures at Uni were all put aside through our motorsport design tutor and we were offerred a trip to Morgan.
Morgan based in Malvern is a good 2 hour drive from my house, being M1, M6, M42, M5, but it is worth every minute.
Driving along the M5 heading towards worcester and looking straight up at the hills really is a gorgeous sight especially when fog is still settled around the "would be mountains" (11 feet away from being an official mountain) and gives you a feel for what you are about to see.
Being a dozy plonk I was running late, I had pushed the car too much to get there early and drank £15 worth of petrol in 150 miles going slower may have aided my mpg
but nevertheless I found myself in Malvern climbing the mountain completely lost! After several phonecalls and contacting a few mates I got there, only to be greeted by members of the morgan staff at the entrance to morgan allowing a saxo inside the gates - French metal enterring a purely British building? Never! (which I soon found was the truth as the car park was full!)
After being riddiculed for being so late I thanked everyone for their patience and the tour began.
Now I knew very little about morgan, I have always had a fascination with British manufacturers in the car industry and how they operated and how they possibly managed to carry on producing vehicles, But morgan is a special one. The new aeromax is only being produced in a batch of 100 (a change from the 250,000 focuses ford are inclined to produce) and the car is only made to order. This is all part of the status of the vehicle, the fact you have a:
"Morgan on order"
Really shows you've done well and are helping the british car manufacturers.
Rowan Atkinson (Mr.Bean to most of us) has one of these new aeromax's on order today. All the cars in the images below are all being built to order, the roadster's go from around £20k-£35k depending on the level of trim and luxuries you ask for. And obviously the new aeromax with it's bmw v8 goes for a larger sum of money.
Every single part is handmade at Morgan, the car is full on manual labour, and all the blokes were happy, and all the products/parts were perfect with no deformations and the trim was spot on. These men are really talented and a dying breed, they love their work and clearly show it singing Christmas songs as they worked, it was like being in Santa's workshop with the presents being a little too large for a traditional santa sack.
I was told that every car has at least 95 pieces of wood within the vehicle, the footwell has wood at the base, it causes me to ponder (on the idea of stripping) how much weight would be saved if that wood was replaced. But thats not it with Morgan it's all about quality, luxury and having a perfect finish, perfecting their heritage. And it really does show. The day before I had cleaned the interior of the sax, getting the leather smooth and without any dirt present, sorting out the alacantra and generally doing a winter tidy... I was put to shame by the gorgeous leather within the factory, the leather even had the smell that you find within older cars; it was spot on. Even the chassis has leather coating for the bodywork fittings to reduce any road noise and to ensure every panel doesn't vibrate too much and make any noise.
Staring lovingly at the leather was ruined by a v8 rumble as a aeromax was reversed from the factory.....-complete... ready for another test drive around the malvern hills. The multi spoke wheels coated in avon zv5's were fitted and it smoothly drove up the road for it's test.
One thing was "amplified" during the experience, noise doesn't mean more power. A better silencer had to be fitted to most aeromaxes due to reaching over 140decibels as standard at 2000rpms!
The tour ended looking at classic Morgans and it really shows how the styling has stayed constant and how Morgan really has stayed true to their roots. I can honestly see Morgan coping through the credit crunch and being present in 5 years time, and I'm all for it too.
It made a nice change for me, I'm used to car shows and simple museums featuring cars but being around such an amazing factory was worth the trip.
Morgan based in Malvern is a good 2 hour drive from my house, being M1, M6, M42, M5, but it is worth every minute.
Driving along the M5 heading towards worcester and looking straight up at the hills really is a gorgeous sight especially when fog is still settled around the "would be mountains" (11 feet away from being an official mountain) and gives you a feel for what you are about to see.
Being a dozy plonk I was running late, I had pushed the car too much to get there early and drank £15 worth of petrol in 150 miles going slower may have aided my mpg
but nevertheless I found myself in Malvern climbing the mountain completely lost! After several phonecalls and contacting a few mates I got there, only to be greeted by members of the morgan staff at the entrance to morgan allowing a saxo inside the gates - French metal enterring a purely British building? Never! (which I soon found was the truth as the car park was full!)After being riddiculed for being so late I thanked everyone for their patience and the tour began.
Now I knew very little about morgan, I have always had a fascination with British manufacturers in the car industry and how they operated and how they possibly managed to carry on producing vehicles, But morgan is a special one. The new aeromax is only being produced in a batch of 100 (a change from the 250,000 focuses ford are inclined to produce) and the car is only made to order. This is all part of the status of the vehicle, the fact you have a:
"Morgan on order"
Really shows you've done well and are helping the british car manufacturers.
Rowan Atkinson (Mr.Bean to most of us) has one of these new aeromax's on order today. All the cars in the images below are all being built to order, the roadster's go from around £20k-£35k depending on the level of trim and luxuries you ask for. And obviously the new aeromax with it's bmw v8 goes for a larger sum of money.
Every single part is handmade at Morgan, the car is full on manual labour, and all the blokes were happy, and all the products/parts were perfect with no deformations and the trim was spot on. These men are really talented and a dying breed, they love their work and clearly show it singing Christmas songs as they worked, it was like being in Santa's workshop with the presents being a little too large for a traditional santa sack.
I was told that every car has at least 95 pieces of wood within the vehicle, the footwell has wood at the base, it causes me to ponder (on the idea of stripping) how much weight would be saved if that wood was replaced. But thats not it with Morgan it's all about quality, luxury and having a perfect finish, perfecting their heritage. And it really does show. The day before I had cleaned the interior of the sax, getting the leather smooth and without any dirt present, sorting out the alacantra and generally doing a winter tidy... I was put to shame by the gorgeous leather within the factory, the leather even had the smell that you find within older cars; it was spot on. Even the chassis has leather coating for the bodywork fittings to reduce any road noise and to ensure every panel doesn't vibrate too much and make any noise.
Staring lovingly at the leather was ruined by a v8 rumble as a aeromax was reversed from the factory.....-complete... ready for another test drive around the malvern hills. The multi spoke wheels coated in avon zv5's were fitted and it smoothly drove up the road for it's test.
One thing was "amplified" during the experience, noise doesn't mean more power. A better silencer had to be fitted to most aeromaxes due to reaching over 140decibels as standard at 2000rpms!
The tour ended looking at classic Morgans and it really shows how the styling has stayed constant and how Morgan really has stayed true to their roots. I can honestly see Morgan coping through the credit crunch and being present in 5 years time, and I'm all for it too.
It made a nice change for me, I'm used to car shows and simple museums featuring cars but being around such an amazing factory was worth the trip.
Total Comments 2
Comments
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very interesting read!
one day i'll have a morgan on orderPosted 21st December 2008 at 21:44 by barrett 
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cheers barrett, I wish you well on your epic journey of saving money and waiting for your purchase to be produced
Posted 24th December 2008 at 14:09 by shooorn94
