Guest blog by Robin Roberts

MORGAN Cars of Malvern is proving to be a tourist hit.

The iconic British sports car maker is currently taking about 700 people a year on a 90 mins tour of their unusual car assembly plant, which opened on the site a century ago in 1912 when it became a limited company.

Morgan enthusiasts act as guides to the near twice daily tours by visitors from all over the world who have heard about the company and its cars.

The famous two seater four wheelers were joined last year by the two seater three-wheelers, which hark back to Morgan’s earliest cycle-car models, and waiting lists for orders frequently extend beyond 12 months depending on model.

Just 174 people work at Morgan making the cars and there is no time for them to act as guides, so Morgan fans have been recruited into service.

“We are doing a lot of tours right now,” said Morgan’s chief designer Matthew Humphries, who joined them as work experience student seven years ago. “Sometimes we know they are coming and other times a handful will just turn up unexpectedly because they know about us.”

Morgan build about 900 cars a year, mostly for the UK and European market but there is increasing interest from the United States, particularly in the new three-wheeler.

At the Geneva motor show this week, Morgan’s business car news was  displayed their Plus E electrically powered car, which is undergoing road trials before it is also put into production.

The company has been one of the British motor industry’s best success stories for over a century, and with tourists queuing to look around it’s also become one of the worst kept secrets.