Delve inside Morgan's factory

We all fancy ourselves as car designers. With a pen and a piece of paper temptingly at hand, urgent meeting or lecture notes take second place to the urge to doodle a supercar adorned with childish wings and fins. Something that currently exists, perhaps, but with the stonking spoiler it cruelly lacks, or blade-like wing mirrors tediously denied by Euro red tape.

Most are thrown crumpled into a bin, or hastily scribbled out when someone peeks over your shoulder. If your wallet's chunky enough, though, it's never been easier to turn Biro daydreams into bespoke reality.

Photos: Justin Leighton

This feature was originally published in the April 2015 issue of Top Gear magazine

Special project departments are increasingly big business right now - think McLaren's MSO and Jaguar's SVO - but as we sit in his charmingly unglamorous design prefab, Morgan's head of design, Jon Wells, stresses his lot do things a little differently...

"We're seeing all these other people doing special one-off projects and we're thinking, ‘Hang on a minute, every car we build is a one-off; we should be doing this before everyone else!' We thought we'd show them how it's really done, build it entirely by hand."

‘It' is SP1, a somewhat prosaic name for the first fruits of Morgan's more conspicuously bespoke Special Projects division. SP1 came about when one of the company's most beloved customers, Brian Voakes (he has 14 Morgans), took a liking to 2008's LifeCar concept.

The working relationship between buyer and designer has been very dynamic, with ideas developed together. Ideas which have then come to fruition dynamically, too.

"It was built and designed real-time," says Jon. "Working with our fabricator, Lee Irish, I'd literally be in the workshop, taping out where the lines should be, and he'd be panel-beating along those lines, and doing a lot of the design work in the flesh, literally.

"The nice thing here is that you work with the craftsmen every single day. Everyone is five minutes' walk away. There's a real dynamic relationship between engineering, design and craftsmen. If there's a problem with something, an engineer will be leaning over my shoulder while I'm sketching it, saying, ‘You can't do that!'"

Employees from every level of the food chain work within minutes of each other, and Morgan fan or not, its Malvern factory is an enthralling place to be. Your senses are brought to life by stimulating whiffs of wood, leather and paint. And while cars typically take up to ten weeks to build, you can observe the entire process in a short, mesmerising walk.

Maybe it's the solvents used, but I drift into a daydream as I walk around here, de-crumpled doodle in hand, bringing each element of my vision to life with the very men who'll craft it.

"As long as it's got the Morgan DNA, we can do anything really," Jon claims. "We don't have to commit to expensive tooling because they're all handmade, you can make any shape you want with aluminium and wood. Essentially, the sky is the limit. Whether you can afford to pay for it is another matter!"

Cost is a prickly subject to bring up, but SP1's intricate design has fed my curiosity, and I subtly put the question to owner Brian. "I had an AeroMax and Aero Super Sport at the same time, and the cost of a couple of those may put you in the ballpark," he reveals. So north of £200,000, then.

Given his car is utterly unique, that's arguably a small price to pay. Highlights? Its wacky seats; crafted from a single piece of wood, leather pads sited at the bum and lower back. The complex aluminium body panels are painted in Brian's signature Rocket Red hue; the roof comprises 12 different hand-beaten pieces; the wings eight.

The headlights are Jon's take on one of Brian's suggestions. They're a homage to the classic Lucas P100 lamp, with an LED unit appearing to float within a halo. And it's not entirely form over function; at Brian's behest, the air surrounding the LED is fed to vents that cool the front brakes - useful, given the solid wheels.

And there's nothing stopping such inspired ideas hopping from project cars to more mainstream manufacturing. SP1's wooden steering wheel, for instance, may make it to Morgan's options list. Whether its finger grooves at Brian's rather odd eight-and-four hand positions follow is another matter...

After a day getting under the skin of Morgan, its Special Projects ethos and the slightly eye-boggling SP1, TG couldn't resist playing the role of wealthy customer. So we pulled up a chair beside design boss Jon Wells and demanded he get scribbling. The 3Wheeler has always warmed our cockles, but what about a hardcore track version with less Thirties styling?

Jon talks us through his sketches. "It's got a single seat and no modern-day interior distractions. It's based on the chassis and running gear of the existing 3Wheeler with a modern aesthetic and improved track-orientated aerodynamics.

"It's inspired by modern fighter jets, such as the F22 Raptor, as opposed to classic aviation. It has all-aluminium body construction, lightweight wooden framework and an aggressive forward stance. There are hints of the Morgan Judd V8 LMP2 Le Mans entrant for extra track-day kudos."

It looks ace. We're certain The Stig will give it his silent, stony face of approval.

Steve isn't your usual type of boss. His office is a modest little room in the oldest part of Morgan's Pickersleigh Avenue site. "The passion that everybody put into the project was really enjoyable to watch, as the guys grew in confidence while doing it," he tells us. "We've used it to demonstrate the core capability we have here. We've shown the world we can do these things, and every bit is on site. We've had six or seven enquiries already for different levels of project."

Ben has been at Morgan 10 years, and works predominantly on the hoods of the company's classic models. "New projects are always my favourite thing to do," he tells us. "But the headlining was a right pain in the arse. Both sides of the car are slightly different, so I couldn't pattern one side and use that for both - every single panel on the car had to be patterned. I was in the car, using my feet to hold it up to mark things up and trim things in there."

Steve worked on the SP1's many wooden elements alongside father-and-son team Nick and Lee Minton. "The way we've done some of this won't be feasible for production, but it's been good as a one-off," he reveals. "It was something to be really proud of when it all came together. It was a packed schedule, and there were late nights put in."

Mark explains that SP1 has 10 layers of paint, with black as a base to give the red extra depth. "It's a gorgeous colour, but when I saw it in the gloss black, it looked brilliant. I told Brian he should just keep it black but, nah, Rocket Red is his!" He's been at Morgan four years and works on special projects and concept cars. "I'd been here a month and I was working on Eva GT, essentially a clay model. We even had to paint on mock windows."

Lee has been heavily involved in SP1. "I made all the metal side of things. We wanted the bonnet to open up in one piece, which none of our Morgans do, so that was a new thing. The whole car has been a big challenge, getting everything to work the way we wanted it to. I'll be doing all the SP cars. I can't wait, I need a new challenge now!" Most embarrassing moment of the SP1 project? "Accidentally locking Brian in the car..."

Jon worked alongside former Morgan design chief Matt Humphries, before taking his place when Matt moved on. Like many at Morgan, he arrived for a work placement, which turned into a job. "We don't look at other cars for design inspiration," he says. "Old classic cars - and their level of coachbuilding - inspire us, but we look at classic motorbikes, the honesty and modularity of their design, and vintage aircraft. And personally I like my old Porsche 356s."