The Classic Morgan celebrates its Centenary

This month the Morgan Motor Company celebrated its centenary with a week of spectacular events.

Founded in 1909 by HFS Morgan, the Morgan Motor Company has produced a range of classic racing cars, from the original Morgan Three Wheeler to today’s latest Aero SuperSport presented in April. Today the firm, in Malvern, Worcestershire, is run by Charles Morgan, the founder's grandson, who said the cars are put together with "love and care".

In the week leading up to the festivities, up to 6,000 Morgan sports cars from across the world, came home to Malvern to take part in the firm’s centenary celebrations. Members of the Morgan Three Wheelers Club that had been taking part in a 1,500-mile cross-country drive and arrived back in Malvern yesterday for the start of the fun. Visitors came – complete with cars – from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, as well as many parts of Europe and all over the UK.

On the 1st and 2nd August 2009, the official Morgan Centenary festivities, in commemoration of this spectacular achievement, kicked off with a Cavalcade of a hundred Morgans spanning the past 10 decades. The range included a variety of Morgans, from the early Three Wheelers to the latest Aero 8, parading from the Centenary Centre at the factory in Malvern to the Cheltenham Racecourse, through Malvern and along country lanes, through Hanley Swan, Tewkesbury and finally to the racecourse at Cheltenham.

On both Saturday and Sunday, the grounds of Cheltenham racecourse depicted events and activities such as parachute displays, the Ladies Driving Challenge, Royal Signals White Helmets Motorcycle Display Team, through Morgan driving and skill tests, “Concours d’ Elegance” to a steam fayre, shopping village and entertainments for both young and old throughout the two days as well as the largest ever gathering of Morgans in one place.

This was followed on Saturday by the "The Morgan Centenary Gala Dinner" at the Centaur, a formal gala dinner for up to 1200 people while Archers field, at the Racecourse, was playing host to “The Centenary Carnival”, with live music and dancing well into the night, a Global Food Village and a Three Wheeler Tavern.

On Sunday, the closing evening consisted of a spectacular outdoor picnic concert featuring the English Symphony Orchestra performing a concert of well known and rousing classical music, culminating in a firework spectacular.

Submitted by Gennaro de Borbon, Revenue Manager at The Abbey