I went along to the Motorshow in Birmingham (England) at the weekend,
and visited the Morgan stand whilst there. Unlike last year, when the long
door cars debuted, there were no major modifications to the cars.
The Morgan display consisted of four or five road cars, representing the
entire range, including a gorgeous dark green Plus Eight, with a pale green
interior. Since this was Motorsport day, Big Blue was there, although the
car was somewhat smaller than I imagined. Most of the exterior panels had
been removed to give a good view of the alloy chassis and the engine. You
could even see the strip of ash running along the bottom of the door frame.
Apparently Big Blue is a prototype for future Morgans, although it's not
been decided whether its style of chassis will enter production.
I picked up a factory newsletter, which said that production has been
raised from ten to eleven cars per week, mainly through efficiency measures.
The eventual aim is to get the waiting list down to three years, rather than
the current five to six.
This might be old news, but exports to the US have resumed after an 18
month gap, and Morgan cars are now type-approved throughout Europe (since
June or July), and so can be sold anywhere in the EU.
Other than that, the British sportscar industry is undergoing something
of a boom, with new cars from Jensen (a modern take on the Healey 3000),
Lea-Francis (with a chassis by Jim Randle, who engineered Big Blue), TVR,
Lotus, AC (who nearly closed last year), Dare (founded the the Walklett
brothers, of Ginetta fame), Ginetta, and Marcos.
Graeme
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