AUTOWEEK NOVEMBER 1.1999
STORY BY PETE LYONS
What Morgan for the Millennium?

HERE IS YOUR CONUNDRUM:

You own a sports car factory with a deep  (if narrow) heritage, a proven and popular (if tightly focused) product, and a positive (if eccentric) international image. Customer loyalty is such that you enjoy the security of a multi-year waiting list. And your company is financially independent. So what is your problem? All of the above.

Charles Morgan is not to be pitied, but he does find himself in a peculiar fix. Although his father, Peter Morgan, remains active in the company at age 80, Charles is increasingly the third generation boss of a family enterprise celebrating its 90th year. Such a weight of history carries a certain momentum. Also, though the current annual output of about 600 cars is up nearly 50 percent over the past decade. that does not provide much of a margin for marketing miscues.

On the other hand,  at 47, Charles Morgan is a vigorous, ambitious, swîtched-on member of the global business community. He keeps versed in modern manufacturing methods and governmental regulations, and takes great care to personally benchmark rival marques. He is a keen racing man, up on the latest track technologies. If his family's product seems to slumber in time, he does not. Now the great wave crest of the Millennium is looming. How should Morgan Motor face it?

Perhaps it would be best simply to ride it out. Stay the course, keep a level deck, let others founder on the shoals of Y2K adventurism. After all, the company Centennial is in sight. Time enough then, possibly to float a little something new.

And there is the cautionary tale of Peter Morgan's one fling with futurethink. His Plus Four Plus of 1963 was an aerodynamic looking (if oddly proportioned) little coupe with a curved windshield, roll-up windows and ~steady~ a trunk!!  It missed the Morgan market with a resounding clang. Production had to cease at 26. Surely Peter's son wouldn't be tempted into the same costly error?

"We've got some fantastic plans for next year." boldly declares Charles from his narrow  high-ceilinged, memorabilia-crammed office in the venerably works Pickersleigh Road in the Worcestershire village of Malvern Link.

Charles' and his father's adjoining den are accessed by way of the ancient wooden bins of the parts department. The rambling brick built Morgan Motor factory is as comfortably anachronistic as the vehicles it produces. One of the larger sections is the Wood Mill wherein body frames are crafted of seasoned ash,  just as they have always been.  There and elsewhere,  most operations still are done by hand.  Morgan's 140 workers are informal and cheerful. The endless hazard warnings;. no-go zones and exhortations to eye protection that so characterize big industry are absent here.

However, this antique of an antomaker has an Internet address (www.morgan-motor.co.uk). Amongst grimy old machine tools stand gleaming, twinkling CNC units. From time to time a boffin in a woolen business suit bustles by with computer equipment. Charles himself likes to show off pneumatically formed aluminum fenders and laser cut stainless steel paneling. both precision made by outside suppliers. He proudly enumerates recent quality upgrades and product improvements. including cockpits lengthened by two inches.

For fans who may have lost track, Morgans no longer have to run on propane in the United States.  Recent installation of airbags and shin protectors earned good crash test grades. There are American dealers. Bill Fink's long-standing Isis Imports on the West Coast and Win Sharpies of Cantab Motors in the East.  Charles Morgan acknowledges that both have helped the company through bad weather, but says that together they are  handling 60 to 70 cars a year now, which makc the United States Morgan's  third largest  market, after Germany. He believes there's now scope to grow those number ~ both of cars and of dealers.

So Morgan does sec the United States as important?

"Well. it's a funny one, really.  I think almost it's too important. It gets in the way of the commercial reality," he begins.  "But the Morgan owners in America have stayed  loyal to the brand through absolute thick and thin, and as a result we've tried or damnedness  to keep the car there.

That might not make commercial sense, but I think it makes strategic sense because traditionally America has been ahead of Europe in terms of safety. We've developed things [for the United States] that have
meant that it has been a doddle to do the European ones. We've been a bit ahead of the game."

Morgan. Ahead of the game. Which brings us to his next generation car- While the factory treats visitors like family and generally lets them wander at will, there is a far corner of the property that's off limits. Yes ~~within this Dickensian works lurks an actual Skunkworks. Taking shape inside an anonymous. whitewashed block structure is the top-secret Millennium Morgan.

At once excited and guarded about his venture, Charles Morgan vibrates between blurting out teasing details and clamping his lips ~~"I can't  talk about the shape of the car. which is entirely different, and I talk about the engine and power train, which everybody's got wrong so far," he'll say cautiously. "Articles  that have so far speculated on this car in the U.S. press have been wide of the mark.

But yes," he continues, "it is an all aluminum car. I think I could say that it's unmistakably Morgan. both in terms of its looks and its method of manufacture. It could only be built here, nobody else could make it" And; 'It isn't a retro car. It may look old-fashioned,  but it doesn't go old-fashioned."
Charles' pet project would seem to be the most modern Morgan ever, far more daring than his father's ill-fated coupe. The new car was developed through racing experience and has been designed to allow a future Le Maris campaign in the GT3 class, although plans for that aren't set.

In charge of the new model's engineering is Chris Lawrence. 66. a longtime race driver ~~1962 class winner for Morgan at Le Mans ~~tuner and engineer. For the past four years Lawrence bas been developing Morgan's quixotic FIA GT racer. Featuring traditional body lines draped incongruously over a ultra stiff aluminum space frame, inboard-coil-spring suspension and huge modern racing wheels, this last raced with a chevy small block in the 1997 Laguna Seca FIA race (DNF, differential). Its career over, it's presently jammed away in a corner of the factory next to Peter Morgan's elderly 2+2 Ferrari.

A sister chassis fitted out for highway driving still appears to be in use. Looking like a Moggie that was kidnapped by California street rodders, it has very wide fenders and very purple paint. Presumably it hints of the upcoming new production model, but questions ~and ~ cameras are deftly deflected.

Likewise, Morgan declines a request to chat with Lawrence. "Chris doesn't really want to talk to the press. It's not that we don't want him to,  but he finds it very difficult, because he's working on things that he's not allowed to talk about ~~ Don't get the impression that we're trying to hide his involvement. Quite the opposite."

If he won't describe his new halo model itself, will Morgan at least say why its time has come?

"The main reason is that it's taken this long for other mass manufacturers to catch up with certain aspects of our levels of performance. When we introduced the Plus 8 (in 1968). in England certainly it was the most performance you could buy for the money. It was basically a bit of a shoehorn job, but it was a big V8 in a very light car. The Morgan always weighed less than a thousand kilos."

Despite its safety equipment, he says, the current Plus 8 scales 960 kilograms, or 2117 pounds.

"But [now, in England] you have the Lotus Elise. What does that weigh, 700 kilos? You have 100 brake horsepower per liter 1:1 in the BMW M3 engine. You know, the writing's on the wall. if we want to be ahead, we've got to do something fairly radical."

Another factor he mentions is a convergence of international emissions and safety regulations. meaning less time has to be spent on variations far different world markets. Also, the factory efficiencies that yield increased output per worker cut the numbers of cars in progress at a time,. making room for more.

Morgan emphasizes that the new Car is extra to the present range, which will continue for the foreseeable future. He won't reveal pricing or production numbers for the new one, but does speak of raising annual volume toward 1000 cars.  "The present plant could handle that," he says.

"The additional model will be easier to make. It's been designed to be made rather than evolved."

And to whom has it been designed to sell'? Charles pauses a moment. then laughs. "I think they're mc!
"I mean. you can clinic a car, but it boils down basically to whether you yourself feel it's the greatest car that's ever been."

Morganics will be able to judge for themselves when the SuperMoggie is unveiled at the Geneva show in March 2000.