That time the Morgan Motor Company designed a modern coupe, the Aeromax
Enlarge / No, it's not the Batmobile-it's the Morgan Aeromax. (credit: Morgan)
The Morgan Motor Company has been making new cars that look like old cars since its inception over 100 years ago (of course, its cars looked modern when the company started, but you get my gist). The company has always looked to give buyers a blast of old-school British sporting eccentricity, a different kind of proposition than you'll find with cars that come with engines that sit behind the driver.
Way back in the noughties, though, the company took a crack at doing something modern with the Aero 8. The initial car was interesting to look at, but it came with a V8 and made fun noises. Its distinctive look wasn't a surprise, as current Head of Design Jon Wells succinctly summed up for me. "There wasn't a designer [at Morgan]," he said. When Henry Morgan started making three-wheel runabouts in the 1900s, he wasn't a designer, just "an industrious fellow." From there, the company was a family business that built cars that all looked the same. Once the vehicles were in the standard shape, all the engineers needed to do was make sure new versions were up to standard.
Twenty-first-century customers-even ones looking for a Morgan-expect more in the way of ergonomics and practicality, and that has led the company to hire actual designers who are able to whip up a vision of past, present, and future at the drop of a hat. But there wasn't a single one until a guy named Matthew Humphries sent the company a letter in 2004. Humphries was a student at Coventry University's world-renowned automotive design course at the time, and, much like any designer, he wanted to make his mark on the world.