All you need to know about Morgan
Born: 1910
Nationality: British
Though the Morgan Motor Company is today best known for its very limited handcrafting of high-powered sports cars, its early years were based on the design and building of 3-wheeler "cycle cars", which continued from the company's foundation until 1952.
H F S Morgan's prototype won a gold medal at the 1910 London-Exeter-London Reliability Trial. The names of the best known models, Aero and Super Sport, are still reflected in today's cars, but essentially the "modern" history of the company and its cars is a story of engines, which have ranged from the original JAP V-Twin to 4.6-litre V8s.
From 1936, the company began making four-wheelers, mostly in two-seat roadster form though a smattering of four-seaters and drop-head coupés have appeared down the years. The 4/4 cars were powered by Coventry Climax engines until 1950, when the iconic Plus 4 rolled out of the factory with a more powerful Standard Vanguard engine. In 1954, Triumph TR engines became the power plants of the Plus 4, and remained under the distinctive long bonnets of that model until 1969.
The 4/4 model returned to the lists in 1955, powered now by Ford engines and beginning a relationship with the blue oval that still endures. In 1969 there also began an engine association with Rover when the Plus 8 was introduced, powered by that company's 3.5-litre V8. Today's Plus 8 now has the "grown-up" 4.6-litre Rover V8, and over 6,000 copies of the model have been built. A special 35th anniversary version being produced this year is powered by a 4-litre engine supplied by Land Rover.
Three years ago, the Aero 8 was launched, and marked a return to the international GT racing circuit by the company, going full circle to the 1912 1100cc One Hour Record achievement of H F S Morgan at Brooklands in 1912.
The Morgan name was also quite successful at Le Mans just before the second World War, beginning with the qualification for the Biennial Cup by one Prudence Fawcett in 1938. Other sports highlights included the winning of the team award in the RAC Rally in 1951 and 1952. H F S's son, Peter, was a driver in both teams.
These rally successes were to be repeated in 1990 when the Plus Four enjoyed a strong revival in classic car rallying. In 1962 success was achieved again at Le Mans when a Plus Four Super Sports won the 2-litre class at an average speed of 94 mph.
Today's full range of Morgans include the 1.8-litre 4/4, the standard 4/4 and Plus 8 models in both 2- and 4-seat versions, and the 4-litre Aero 8. The 4/4 holds the record for the world's longest production run of the same model.
Morgan is today run by the grandson of the founder, Charles, and the business is the oldest family-owned car company in existence. About 500 cars are produced annually with export markets in Germany, Sweden, France, the US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
Best Car: The Morgan Plus 4 for its iconic heritage - or maybe the Aero 8 for showing how a very old body design can hang onto its image of excellence.
Worst Car: They don't make them fast enough to produce one.
Weirdest Car: To today's youngsters, the latest model that still looks more than 60 years old.