Who said indigenous UK automotive manufacturing is dead? One of the last strongholds of UK-owned car making is still innovating with success.
At a time of global conservation with a drive towards improved fuel economy the Morgan Motor Company has introduced a new concept for a sporting family, the Morgan EvaGT.
The four seater Coupe takes its inspiration from the British sports saloons of the early 1950’s. Among these were the Bristol 400 series and the Frazer Nash BMW 328. After the Second World War rationing forced designers to conserve and make the most of the materials at their disposal. However the pressure cooker of war had also led to an abundance of innovative engineering ideas. Steel was scarce so lightweight aluminium was used for bodywork. Smooth “in-line” straight six cylinder engines were fitted to give long distance comfort and reliability. Because the engineers had often worked on aircraft development during the war aerodynamics contributed to high but economical cruising speeds.
Morgan is the last survivor of these British sports car manufacturers. Of course the company is lucky to have 100 years of continuous success behind it and like Bristol and Frazer Nash, Morgan has a history of successful collaborations with German suppliers BMW, Siemens and Bosch. But Morgan also works with a number of young engineering companies in the UK and with world class British university research departments.
The new challenge for the Morgan collaborations is to make cars that are more efficient than any we have seen so far. The Morgan Motor Company is in a good position to respond to this challenge because the company is small and flexible with a proven track record of fast development cycles. It currently manufactures one of the greenest sports cars in the world, the Morgan Four Four Sport. Morgan achieves this result with the use of the new Ford 1.6 Sigma engine coupled with a light chassis. Morgan currently has a young well qualified technical team working towards a potential 5 engineering PHD’s, who will make full use of research departments at the University of Oxford, Cranfield and Birmingham City to tap into a technical knowledge network to make more efficient cars. This team is helping to develop a high torque electric motor twice as powerful as others of the same weight and size and a powerful lithium phosphate battery with a higher charge density to achieve the most efficient performance for weight so far by the Malvern based manufacturer.