"WHENEVER a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.”
(Karl Popper, Philosopher. 1902-1994)
The log didn’t say a lot. It had suffered many beatings to become a legend and was intent on enjoying its almost mythical status; at least, as mythical as a two meter long 50 kilogram log was ever going to get.
Under the watchful care of John ‘Basher’ Bishop and Barry ‘Not the Singer’ White the log was occasionally invited to demonstrate its abilities in a master-class of hand metal forming, but for the most part it just leaned.
Before this gets too confusing, an explanation is due. The log was used as a former around which aluminum bonnet of the Morgan 4+4 motor car was shaped by generations of very skilled panel beaters and sheet metal workers such as Basher and Barry. An enquiry from earnest journalists as to ‘why a log in the days of computerised metal forming machines’ meets with the kind of professionally tolerant look a hypochondriac teenager gets when asking if his split fingernail is fatal. The answer is: Because it works.
Now retired and replaced in its job by a pyramid mill, the log silently speaks volumes about the Morgan Motor Company. Other logs, still with years of productive life, work as formers and moulds for cold shaping the wooden wheel arches of the cars.
So to the next naive question: “Why wood?” That tolerant look again. Because it works; in many ways it works a great deal better than metal.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009, the cars are still heavily reliant for their unique character, coach-built quality and strength on wood.
Matthew Parkin, Morgan Motor Company sales manager says that the English Ash that Morgan uses for the bodywork structure and trim gave characteristics to the cars that metal structures cannot. “It is very flexible and this allows it to bend and return to shape. “In the event of an accident, the Ash frame flexes,” he said. It is also infinitely renewable. “Two or three trees are planted for every one we use,” he said, adding that Ash also gives a unique sound to the door as it slams shut. “You only find that in a coach built car,” he said.
The wood frame has made a very significant contribution to Morgan’s survival and increasing business over the last century. As tastes and, more recently, the demands of environmental conservation and safety, have bullied car manufacturers into being ever more inventive in constructing cars, the combination of the craft skills of Morgan’s work force and the flexibility of Ash as a material have helped the company to adapt very rapidly and at very low cost to the new regulations. “It costs big manufacturers millions of pounds to re-jig to meet new regulations,” Parkin mused. “We can make a set of wooden jigs in a few days at the cost of a few hundred.”
Tucked away in the countryside near the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, this quintessentially English company is almost but not entirely quite unlike any other car company. Its factory has been there for over 80 years and is little more than contiguous sheds set on a slope; “so we can roll the cars downhill to the next shop.” Inside, there is an atmosphere of intense concentration and almost no mechanical noise. Each craftsman concentrates on his own job and much of the communication is done by felt tip pen, polite messages to the next in line — such as “please cut the holes both sides” are written neatly on aluminum chassis members. A delicious resinous smell of newly cut wood with overtones of preservative and varnish hang in the air.
That is the reality of the workshop as it is today. It supports Morgan’s image as a slightly eccentric small volume producer of hand-made cars — which in some ways it still is. However, under that ‘down home’ exterior is a remarkably innovative and adaptive company using traditional hand skills coupled with leading edge technology to produce, for example a full-blown petrol fuelled sports car with an emission footprint smaller than Toyota Prius hybrid!
“I think it’s a myth to think that Morgan is a craft workshop,” Charles Morgan, grandson of the founder HFS Morgan and current CEO commenting on public perception of the Morgan production. “They want to see us as a sort of old fashioned thing, but the truth is somewhat different.”
Certainly craft skills are very evident. Much of the Morgan character relies on the use of Ash as a framework for the aluminum body and the cockpit trim. But wood is not used out of some atavistic longing for the ‘good old days.’ Far from it; the use of wood makes a great deal of sense.
“Since I have been here, we have crashed 50 cars,” Morgan explained. In the crashes high speed cameras recorded exactly what was going on in the accident test. Sensors in the dummies monitored injuries in 30 different parts of the body. “The Morgan, both the traditional and the Aero, has one of the lowest personal injury records,” he said. The reasons for that were that the cars had a very good crash structure in both the galvanized steel chassis and the aluminum chassis. “Also the cockpit, being made of wood, actually absorbs energy just like a hammer handle or a cricket bat. I’d call the wood a secondary safety device.” Morgan added that most cars achieved the safety cell by using lots of airbags; “But if they had a structural Ash frame, they would be doing exactly the same thing.”
Although it is impossible to see it in the workshops, the company uses leading edge technology; literally. The leading edges of wings and air intakes on jet engines have a smooth and incredibly accurately made aluminum profiles. These are produced by a process known as superforming. The process was initially developed to take advantage of a property of certain aluminum alloys called superplasticity. When a special aluminum alloy is heated to about 500 degrees centigrade the material can be plastically deformed without breaking. The metal in a plastic state is laid over a mould which develops a powerful vacuum and the aluminum is literally sucked into complex shapes. The process gives the metal incredible strength and rigidity and is controllable to extremely narrow tolerances.
“We were one of the first with it in the car industry,” said Morgan. “We use it for the wings on some of our models, the whole car in the case of the Aero Max and Aero 8 next year.” It is the combination of superb craftsmanship, attention to detail and very English refusal to change for the sake of change yet maintain the ability to respond rapidly to pressures that contributes to Morgan’s longevity and appeal. It is the shape that sells the car initially; there were few concessions to aerodynamics for many years. The smooth cowled radiator was only introduced in 1954. The ‘box’ shape with a wheel at each corner, proper running-boards and mudguards with headlamps that would not have looked out of place as headgear on Saxon soldiers appeal to a small but fiercely loyal niche market. On the race track Morgan has surprised many with the performance of its Aero 8. Its retro styling looks un-aerodynamic, but once again, the company has raised eyebrows. “When we are up against the Lamborghini Gelada, Ferrari F430, 911 and the Corvette, the Aero is one of the better cars,” said Morgan. “What Morgan is trying to do all the time is to show that you can be different.”
That simple assessment conceals Morgan’s underlying strength; it has not joined the headlong rush to embrace new technology and modern management techniques at the expense of the accumulated skills and knowledge of a hundred years of hand-work with wood and metal. They retained the baby and threw out the bathwater, so to speak. Charles Morgans’ assertion that the company is not a craft workshop and that “truth is somewhat different” is absolutely right. It is that ability to recognize the advantages of both new technology and traditional technology, combine them and produce a new answer to a new challenge that has kept this unique company very much alive.
History has a strange way of repeating itself. The first Morgans built nearly a hundred years ago, had only three wheels; four wheel cars attracted a punitive tax of 25 pounds a year, then a vast sum. Three wheelers were classified as motor-tricycles with a tax of three pounds, so the founder HFS Morgan adapted to the legislation and began a legend. A century later and dedicated to HFS’s ethos of a product led, not process led business, safety and environmental legislation is forcing Morgan to find ways of making ‘greener’ cars. “We can manage that,” mused Parkin. “We include renewable resources in the construction, have very high efficiency engines that have met the demands of power and reliability from our customers but most of all, we have a huge weight advantage.”
The aluminum and wood construction produces a car that is very light for its size and performance. The bonded aluminum construction makes for a light but incredibly rigid structure to handle the awesome power of the V8 engines in the Aero 8 and the imminent Aero Max. This construction reflects on the fuel consumption and emissions to such an extent that Morgans exceed by significant amounts the strictest emission controls in force as well as the world’s toughest crash tests for road cars. They are also very rapid motors, as many drivers of German exotics have found out to their chagrin!
Therefore Morgans will attract less tax and the circle started in 1909 completes.
What is next for Morgan? “Two things we feel that are good for us are: we produce a lightweight car with the leading technology — especially in terms of the engine. So we have very low emissions as well as a sporting car and our method of manufacture is environmentally correct,” said Morgan. “That is also something that our customers seem to be interested in.” Once again however, the company has looked to the future and responded with characteristic verve. At the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, they will unveil their “LIFECar,” a zero-emissions fuel-cell driven sports car. The Morgan LIFECar is a prototype for the world’s first environmentally clean sports car and powered by a fuel cell which converts hydrogen into electricity. Based on the Morgan Aero Eight, it will be powered by a QinetiQ-made fuel cell. The development partnership is made up of the Morgan Motor Company, QinetiQ, Cranfield and Oxford Universities, Linde and OSCar.
A hundred years on and still ahead of the game; really not bad for a “wooden wagon.” I swear that log smiled.
