V-Twin three-wheelers (1911–1939)
H. F. S. Morgan's first car design was a single-seat three-wheeled runabout, which was fabricated for his personal use in 1908, with help from William Stephenson-Peach, the father of friends, and the engineering master at Malvern College.[20][21] Powered by a 7 hp[22] Peugeot twin-cylinder engine (from an abandoned motorcycle project), the car had a backbone chassis, an idea retained for all following Morgan three-wheelers, and used as little material and labour as Morgan could manage.[23] A single-seat three-wheeler with coil-spring[23] independent front suspension, unusual at the time, the driveshaft ran through the backbone tube to a two-speed transmission (with no reverse),[23] and chain drive to each of the rear wheels.[24] The steering was by tiller, and it had band brakes.[24] It also had no body.[24]
With financial help from his father and his wife,[24] the car went into production at premises in Pickersleigh Road,[25] Malvern Link. Three single-seater cars were exhibited at the 1910 Motor Show at Olympia in London. In spite of great interest being shown, only a few orders were taken, and Morgan decided a two-seater was needed to meet market demand. This was built in 1911, adding a bonnet, windscreen, wheel steering, and crank starting; it was displayed at the 1911 Motor Cycle Show.[24] An agency was taken up by the Harrods department store in London, with a selling price of £65.[24] The Morgan became the only car ever to appear in a shop window at Harrods.[26]
Interest in his runabout led him to patent his design and begin production. While he initially showed single-seat and two-seat versions of his runabout at the 1911 Olympia Motor Exhibition, he was convinced at the exhibition that there would be greater demand for a two-seat model.[27] The Morgan Motor Company was registered as a private limited company only in 1912 with H.F.S. Morgan as managing director and his father, who had invested in his son's business, as its first chairman.[6]
In 1912, Morgan set out to win the trophy offered by The Light Car & Cyclecar for greatest distance covered in an hour, at Brooklands. The single-seater covered 55 mi, only to be narrowly beaten by a GWK; Morgan returned later the same year, reaching nearly 60 mi.[24]
Morgan established its reputation via competition such as winning the 1913 Cyclecar Grand Prix at Amiens in France, driven by W. G. McMinnies, with an average speed of 42 mph for the 163 mi distance.[24] This became the basis for the 'Grand Prix' model of 1913 to 1926, from which evolved the 'Aero', and 'Sports' models.[28] Morgan himself won the "very tough" ACU Six Days' Trial in 1913, in the sidecar class.[24] The same year, the company entered the MCC reliability trial, which it continued to do until 1975.[24]
Racing success led to demand the company proved unable to meet.[29]
These models used air-cooled or liquid-cooled variations of motorcycle engines.[30] The engine was placed ahead of the axis of the front wheels in a chassis made of steel tubes brazed into cast lugs.[31]
After the First World War, the company introduced an easily changed rear wheel, which customers had been seeking for several years.[32] The 1921 Popular, powered by an 8 hp JAP and bodied in poplar, sold for £150.[32] It was a sales success, the price dropping to £128, and the name changing to Standard, by 1923, when a Blackburne engine was also available.[32] The Grand Prix was priced £155, and the Family (with two notional child seats behind the front bench, setting a standard 2+2s would follow for generations) was £148 with air-cooled engine, or £158 with water-cooled engine. The Anzani-powered Aero was also available, for £148.[32] MAG engines were also optional.[32]
Morgan's racing efforts suffered a blow in 1924, when E. B. Ware's JAP-engined car rolled at the JCC 200 mi at Brooklands; Ware was seriously hurt, leading to a ban on three-wheelers competing as cars.[32]
Electric headlamps were made available in 1924, at an £8 cost.[33] The Popular, powered by a 976 cc engine, sold for £110, the 1098 cc Aero for £148, and the one-seater £160.[33]
Like motorcycles, Morgans had hand throttles, Bowden-wire control mechanisms, and drip lubrication.[34]
Racing Morgans included Harold Beart's 1096 cc Blackburne-engined special, with 3.33:1 top gear and a 43 lb streamlined body, which covered 91.48 mi in a one-hour trial at Brooklands, with a peak speed of over 100 mph.[34]
In 1925, the Standard's price had dropped to £95, and the Aero £130, compared to £149 for an Austin Chummy.[34] Electric lighting by dynamo became standard that year.[34]
Front-wheel brakes and electric start (a £10 option) became available in 1927, while the Standard's price fell to £89, complete with a double-thickness windscreen and "electric hooter".[34] By year's end, the Standard was even cheaper, £85, while the new Super Sports debuted, with an overhead valve JAP 10/40 water-cooled vee-twin, priced £155.[34] The 10/40 engine was also available in the Aero, at £132, while a more sedate air-cooled JAP-powered Aero went for £119.[34] The Family was priced at £102 (air-cooled) or £112 (water-cooled).[34] These new, lower prices persisted through 1928.[35] They would be lower still in 1929: the Standard and Family at £87 10s, the Aero £110, and the Super Sports £145.[36] In 1933, the Family was priced at only £80.[36]
Morgan's racing programme in 1927 earned the marque eleven gold medals and three silvers from fourteen entrants at MCC's London-Edinburgh Trials alone.[34] The team was joined by Clive Lones and C. T. Jay, who won the 1929 Cyclecar Grand Prix at Brooklands, driving a 750 cc Morgan-JAP, with an average speed of 64.7 mph.[36] And in 1930, Gwenda Stewart turned in a speed of 113 mph in a race-tuned Super Sports.[36]
Morgan three-wheelers benefitted from an annual tax of just £4, half the tax on the Austin 7,[37] provided they remained under 8 cwt.[33]
Morgans were also licence-built in France by Darmont.[38]
By 1930, however, inexpensive four-wheeled cars were proliferating, led by the £100 Ford Popular.[36] Morgan, and partner George Goodall, countered by putting the 8 hp 933 cc and 10 hp 1172 cc Ford engine in their own cars.[36]
Morgan's last vee-twins were powered by Matchless engines displacing 990 cc; they were delivered to Australia after the Second World War.[39]
The vee-twin models were not returned to production after World War II.
The Morgan Three Wheeler Club was formed in 1945.[34]
