The Cult of Morgan

Lovable, antique, eccentric: the Morgan Supersport. The 117-year-old British car-maker, whose pint-size but punchy roadsters have made them a household name in the U.K., hand-builds wood-framed sports cars that will make you reconsider that Porsche By Jamie Kitman Garage owner and keen early automobilist Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan, the son of a rural English clergyman, built his first car, an eponymous prototype, in 1909. To the surprise of many, his concept of a tiny car with three wheels and a small, motorcycle-derived, two-cylinder engine succeeded, with the young garagist founding the Morgan Motor Company in Malvern, in Worcestershire’s hill country, and proceeding to build an improved production version in 1912.When tax breaks for three-wheelers were curtailed, a four-by-four model—the name denoting its four wheels and four-cylinder engine—was launched. Retaining the three-wheeler’s unique sliding-pillar front suspension, the READ ON