“Modern technology allows coach building to continue”

“Ah, they’re the cars that are made of wood aren’t they.”

Such is the prevailing view of Morgan Motor Company which, although partially true, does something of a disservice to the brand’s tight-knit and highly-skilled development team.

With the launch of models like the Midsummer and more recently the Supersport, the brand is pushing into new territory, cautiously modernising without straying too far from its heritage. Morgans are approachable, handcrafted sportscars. Quintessentially British. It is a recipe that doesn’t require much evolution, and yet evolve it must. A significant step came in the appointment of dedicated designers, and an expanded engineering team.

Morgan’s second-ever head of design, Jonathan Wells (who succeeds Matthew Humphries, now deep into horology) has taken the challenge in his stride and reflects that the company as a whole has grown both as a business and also in its mindset since joining in 2009. Part of that can be distilled in last month’s focus topic: design for manufacturing. “It’s all we do,” explains Wells. “The way we integrate engineering into the design process is absolutely central to how we work.”

As a case study, he winds the clock back to the mid noughties when founder Charles Morgan (still in place as managing director) put forward the vision for a £100,000 full-bodied coupe. The first of its kind in Morgan’s portfolio, at the time, and a modern interpretation of where the brand could go. The aforementioned Humphries led the design, and put forward some intricate sketches inspired by early mid-century French vehicles. Those sketches were taken almost literally by the craftsmen, recalls Wells, who proceeded to bend strips of wood to emulate those forms. No easy task. From there, that wood would dictate the shape of the panels that would be hammered over the top to create the body.

“This sketch turned into a concept car very slowly,” emphasises Wells, “because it takes time to coach build a car like that. As a result, the first car – and I don't think anyone will mind me saying – wasn't proportionally perfect because there was little opportunity for rework in that process. And a sketch taken literally doesn't always translate.” But things have changed since then, and a collaborative approach (there’s that buzzword again) ensured that creative design, engineering feasibility and physical craftsmanship worked in concert.

“It was a wonderfully romantic process. But it took a long time, 18 months or so, to turn that initial concept car into a first prototype and then another year into a production model," explains Wells. "When I joined the company my love was in surfacing, clay primarily, but CAS modelling as well. Morgan hadn't seen many computers in its workflow until then, but it meant we could take Matt's sketches and bring in some 3D data that engineers and craftsmen could tangibly explore; we knew the car would be proportionally perfect by the time we made it. That fusion of rare traditional craftsmanship with an 'Alias model spin' was magic. It was the purest expression of combining those two ways of working.”

At that time, Wells describes the working environment as a “shed” with a core team of four engineers and two designers. Today, the team and office space has grown — there is even a dedicated CMF designer in-house now — but that close-quarters relationship remains. 

“We're sat in the space as the engineering team, the homologation guy… I grew up with the chief engineer, which means we're brilliant at arguing and we respect each other enough to be able to have arguments,” laughs Wells. “With everything we do, we now have project teams which almost operate as a internal companies: a company of craftsmen, supply engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, homologation guys and designers. We have to pass gateways together, meaning if the guy on the shop floor says he won’t be able to build this thing, the project doesn't pass Gateway 1 – and there are five of those to get through.”

Believe it or not, Morgan Motor Company – a century old firm in the countryside known for using wood frames in its cars – has even adopted 3D printers. Let’s gloss over the fact that they gathered dust for some time after their initial purchase (haven’t we all bought a new toy and forgotten about it?) and fast-forward to present day where they are used to quickly make unique jigs and fixtures.

“I think people thought they were coffee machines at first,” says Wells, “but say it takes a guy three hours to set the door frame because he's using little wooden wedges. We can now do some 3D printed blocks and a 3-hour job becomes a 1-hour job. For us, modern technology is not really for making parts of the car itself, it's more an enabler for coach building to continue.”

Car Design News was able to pin Wells down for a few minutes to sketch a hypothetical proposal of a modern Morgan. The lines are unmistakable, the classic flow from front fender through to the rear arch and a significant glasshouse in the context of a small car. But with tweaks – sharper lines here and there – it does indeed feel modernised and a feasible addition to the portfolio. Wells assures us this is purely an exercise, but it is heartening to see that the brand is aware of that sweet spot between innovation and preservation.

Check our Instagram and YouTube for a timelapse of that car being sketched on the spot.