tommallett

Yesterday I passed a Morgan Aero 8, which is a pretty rare car and it got me thinking about this small British manufacturer, especially as there is also one being driven by a chap in the office at the moment. I've had a good look around the Plus 8 and I couldn't help thinking that I'm glad Morgan still exists, in fact I'd rather still have Morgan than TVR, which is lucky.

The Morgan leaks and has a load of wind noise at anything more than a very sedate lope. It also has a chassis which is made from wood and looks like a throwback from the 1950's, but it still holds a typically British mystique and that is what keeps Morgan's order books full.

They even sell enough cars to support a prototype programme for this year's Le Mans race, which should tell you all you need to know about the health of the company. Charles Morgan is clearly very astute.

Recently Morgan has unveiled its new three-wheeler, another throwback to a bygone era some might say but this is where they differ from TVR and I get to the crux of my point. Morgan understands that it needs to differentiate itself and it can't do this while trying to compete with Porsche. Certainly not without a massive development budget.

Currently we have a number of British manufacturers slugging it out with more established, or better funded foreign opposition. I am afraid Lotus's Evora feels out of its depth against the Cayman and 911 as an all rounder, while McLaren has found it difficult to get the first MP4-12C's right, with reliability problems plaguing the supercar manufacturer, even with a huge budget and a state of the art production facility.

Morgan is a model to follow for small manufacturers the world over, they stick to what they do best, what their customers like and that is enough to allow it to fund a Le Mans challenger. Not bad for a small company based in Malvern.