I indulged myself yesterday by 'taking a day off'! No emails, text mesages or phone calls. Not a whisper of Food and Drink Festival and definitely no politics! I went on a bus trip!
A couple of weeks ago Phil Harrison phoned me to see if I would like to go with Longton Probus Club to Malvern for a tour around the Morgan Car Co. so, at the crack of dawn, 8.30 am I was up bright eyed and bushy tailed for my big day out.
After stopping en route for a coffeee , we arrived at the factory in time for a buffet lunch and then spent the next two hours touring the factory. Visitors are shown every workshop and can see every stage of the process of the hand building of a Morgan car. And hand built they are too. From the most complicated shaped pieces of the wooden frames to the most beautiful curves of sheet aluminium body panels, we were able to watch real craftsmen at work. Fascinating!
A few facts. The factory produced 800 cars last year and hopes to achieve 1000 this year. The waiting time is now down from several years to eighteen months. 70% of the production is of left hand drive models - mostly to continental Europe but none to America. And only five women are employed on the production line - working in the trim department at sewing machines!
I was surprised at the complexity of the process and I didn't realise that Morgan had such a wide model range. And of course, every car is custom built to a specific customer's requirements so is unique. Good old British industry at it's best.
Sadly no free samples or special discounts! Pity 'cos I'd really love one!
1 comment:
I want to have one, too!
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