The Morgan Motor Company

 

In 1904, Henry Fredrick Stanley Morgan left his job working on the Great Western Railway and opened up a motor sales and servicing shop. Initially he designed and built one car, a personal single seat three-wheel runabout. By 1910, though, he had established the Morgan Motor Company and started manufacturing and selling his automobiles.

Initially the cars were all three wheelers. This seems odd by today's standards but at the time England was taxing vehicles based on the number of wheels. The way it was calculated a three wheel car qualified as a motorcycle and would be taxed at a much lower rate.

 As was the case with many early automobiles, sales success came along with, or even after, success on the race track. Morgan was no different. He entered his three wheel runabout in its first race in 1912 but was narrowly beaten. He came back strong the next year and won numerous races and endurance contests. These gave Morgans the reputation of being strong, reliable cars. The sales soon followed.

The early cars were powered by what was essentially an enhanced motorcycle engine. But by the mid 1920s some larger engines were being used. These proved popular both on the track and with buyers. Racing success continued to drive the sales effort until a near fatal crash occurred in 1924 causing a ban on three wheel racing.

 While they continued to make three wheel automobiles until 1952, the 1930s saw the introduction of the 4-4, the company's first four wheel vehicle. The name was simple in that the car had four wheels and was powered by a four cylinder engine.  Following World War II Morgan began expanding its options and by providing larger four cylinder engines. In 1968 they introduced the +8 which sported a Rover V8 power plant. More and more models were introduced, all with significant success. Morgans are still being hand built today in the same city of Malvern, Worchester where they were initially built.

 I've told the story many times of taking my youngest son, Josh, to a car show when he was about 10. There, sitting in the parking lot, was a Morgan that caught his attention. It was like no car he had ever seen before. As he was admiring the classic the owner came up and said, "You know, there's only one real way to look at this car." With that he opened the driver's door and allowed Josh to sit behind the wheel. Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, Josh looked at me and said, "Dad, this is the car I want to take my driver's license test in." As the laughter died down I replied, "If he'll let you you can do it. But then after you flunk that test you can re-take it in your mom's Volvo." Josh didn't get to take his driver's test in a Morgan but he did pass on his first try in his mom's Volvo.

Some Cars From the 1950s

Digging back through my archives I've found a concours event that had a few really nice cars from the 1950s. Among them is a 1952 Hudson Wasp, a 1957 Dual Ghia, a Ford Sunliner, a 1954 Kaiser Darren, an Edsel Corsair, a pretty in pink Metropolitan, a Packard Carribean, a Hudson Custom, a Cadillac, a Chevy Bel Air, and a 1951 Crosley Hotshot.

Cars From the 1930s

Today I'm going back into the archives and posting some cars from the 1930s. Among them is a 1932 Peerless V 16 Touring, a 1937 Packard, a 1931 Ford Model A, a 1930 Ford Model A Cabriolet, a 1937 Packard 120 CD Touring, a 1936 Terraplane Excpress Cab pick up, a 1932 Packard Twin Six Phaeton, and a 1933 Chrysler Imperial convertible.

Cars From the 1910s

Since I am officially running out of new photographs to post I'm ducking back into my archives and sort of re-arranging things in order to make a slightly different post. Today I have some cars from the 1910s including a 1919 Dodge Model 30 Touring, a Ford Model T, a 1911 Lozier Briarcliff, a 1914 Packard 4-48, a 1910 Autocrat, a 1913 Peerless Model 48, and a 1915 Westcott U-50 touring car.

The Greenbrier

In 1960 Chevrolet introduced a car that was, at the time, incredibly radical. It was aimed at competing with some of the European cars that were sweeping across the country, especially one particular German car called Volkswagen. It was also designed to take on American competitors such as the Ford Falcon, Plymouth Valiant, Rambler American, and Studebaker Lark.

At the time the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) were not making small, compact cars. The Corvair would change that. It was also the first, and still remains the only, American made rear engine car. At the back of the car was an air cooled 145 cubic inch flat six engine that produced 80 horse power.. It was small, light, economical and affordable. Add those together and they equaled more than 200,000 cars sold through each of its first six model years.

To further compete with the VW Beetle and its variants, Chevy decided to introduce a van and two pick up trucks based on the Corvair and badged as Greenbriers. Volkswagen had a similar Beetle based van that the folks at Chevy wanted to take on. So in 1961 the Greenbrier line hit the streets.

Greenbriers featured an over cab design, meaning that the driver sat over the front wheels. This was allowed because the engine was, just like in the regular Corvair, mounted in the rear of the vehicle.

 The standard Greenbrier van featured six doors, one each for passenger and driver, two side doors to access the back seat and/or storage area, and two more in the rear to access more storage space and, by lifting part of the floor, the engine. There was also a panel van version (CorVan) that had no windows. These were used mostly by the service industry such as delivery companies.

There were two versions of the Greenbrier pick up truck. Dubbed the Loadside and the Rampside, they were differentiated by where their loading gate was located. The Loadside was the more typical pick up with its gate in the rear of the cargo area. The Rampside, on the other hand, had its loading gate to the passenger side. This allowed easier access to tools and equipment, something that was taken advantage of by companies such as Bell Telephone.

For most people the story of the fall of the Corvair is fairly well known. The first generation, running from 1960 through 1964, had some handling issues that resulted in numerous lawsuits. Consumer activist Ralph Nader, in his book Unsafe At Any Speed, detailed these problems and brought them to the attention of the general public. In an interesting side note, the lawyer who represented GM in the various law suits was the uncle of Dave Power, the founder of J.D. Power.

Though there would be a second generation of Corvairs starting in 1965, that year would be the last for the Greenbriers. That name would be retired until 1969 when Chevy dubbed the Chevelle 300 Deluxe station wagon the Greenbrier. But it was still a standard station wagon. The original Greenbriers, in whichever form they took, offered up a highly unique combination of flexibility and economy.