New visitor centre leaves reporter with driving ambition (From Malvern Gazette)

New visitor centre leaves reporter with driving ambition

9:00am Saturday 13th June 2009 in News By Jack Davidson

THERE’S something hugely disheartening about leaving the Morgan Motor Company’s new visitor centre in Malvern Link.

It’s not that the visit wasn’t a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of a company that can trace its history from the beginning of the automotive age right through to cutting-edge explorations of hydrogen-fuel cell technology.

Rather that, after being treated to a drive in a ground-hugging Morgan Plus 4, kitted out in sumptuous leather and polished ash, getting back into a dented and rusting Volkswagen Polo to return to the office feels like a serious step-down in life-style.

My visit to the new centre marks a highly successful start to the attraction with Morgan fanatics flocking to the site from as far afield as Australia and Japan since it opened in April.

The tours of the factory offered previously, where classic car aficionados were allowed to simply wonder around the shop floor and see each stage of the production process, have evolved into a fully-fledged tourism attraction, complete with branded polo shirts and key rings in the gift shop.

“We’ve had quite a flow of people since we opened,” said the company’s marketing co-ordinator Jayne Dobson. “It’s almost like a shrine for owners. They can see the production of their cars at every single stage.”

A fresh lick of paint and a comprehensive collection of memorabilia, photographs and, of course, cars have been added to the former social club, adjacent to the factory itself, to create the visitor centre.

Alongside aged, yellowed plans for HSF Morgan’s first three-wheeler, sit shiny black-and-white shots of a classic Le Mans win, and the chance to ogle the company’s new prototype LIFEcar, a futuristic vehicle, with promises to revolutionise the world of motoring using hydrogen as its sole fuel supply.

Mrs Dobson adds: “Because we design and make everything in-house, we have got the skills and the craftsmanship to do something like this.”

The sheer breadth of the exhibits remind visitors that the Malvern Link company’s history is entwined with British engineering excellence over the past 100 years.

Indeed, the first three-wheeler ever produced by HSF Morgan was developed with Stephenson-Peach, engineering master at Malvern College and grandson of, ‘father of the railways’, George Stephenson.

The importance that the factory, known as “the works”, holds to the world of motoring has not been ignored, with celebrities including Richard Hammond, Jack Dee and Charley Boorman all making notable additions to the visitor centre’s comment book.

But Malvern Town Council chairman Paul Tuthill believes the benefits of the centre should be appreciated by those living on its doorstep.

He said: “I would really recommend it to local people, particularly because of the local history aspect of it. I think its gaining a real momentum here now.”

Finishing up the tour, I’m offered the extra special treat of taking a car out of the factory and on to the open road with the assistance of tour guide Dixon Smith.

Mr Smith, who has a “job that most people would pay to do”, talks me through the stripped-down controls before letting me loose on Malvern. With a price starting at almost £30,000, my Polo may have to last a few more months.