History of the Morgan Centenary Roadster 100 Register

THE MORGAN CENTENARY ROADSTER 100 REGISTER.

On the 12th July 2010 The Morgan Centenary Roadster 100 Register was Born.

All readers will be aware that from time to time a very special Morgan car is produced to commemorate landmark events. 

There is probably none to compare with 2009, the Centenary of the Morgan Motor Company (MMC), when a full calendar of events was planned by MMC, culminating in more than 3000 Morgan cars assembling for a spectacular weekend at Cheltenham Racecourse in Gloucestershire. It was during this event that at least one new Morgan Model was launched, specifically The Roadster 100.

Morgan Motor Company decided to produce One Hundred of this Special 'Roadster 100 Car' to mark the Centenary of the Company, and we understand that the dealership network were invited to specify the car.  

All one hundred cars were originally to be identical and Amazon Metallic Green was the chosen colour. 

Essentially however the cars are traditional Roadsters with the Ford V6 3.0 litre Escape engine for power. 

The Factory commenced manufacture using their Mark II Roadster format and then added a package of extras which became standard for the Roadster 100.

It is said that all cars were also to be Right Hand Drive but as time progressed and Individual orders were place, some exported were built Left Handed and others swapped their Overriders for Bumpers and their leather from Biscuit to Black. The first 6 cars were built with the traditional Wing Sidelights however it was during this production that MMC decided to cease providing them and from that point on they became a 'Dealers Extra'

Roadster 100's at Upton House.  

Life in Malvern was predictably frantic during 2009 and 2010, and by the end of that 2nd year it is estimated that only 78 or 63 of the cars were actually produced.  

All cars were individually Series Numbered using a special Bulkhead Plate.  

The Series Numbering was reasonably accurate following the production plan. However, some Dealerships requested special numbers for individual customers.

For instance, No. 029 went to an owner with his TOK registration plate (Following the Race Number used on the legendary TOK 258). 

Car Plate No. 100 went to a SGT Morgan Dealership Director and another early Register Member managed to acquire No. 099 for his R100.

Our Register's Founder, David Harris, was fortunate to purchase Series No. 001. 

There is some speculation in the history of the cars as to which was the first car to be produced as we understand that one owner, planning his Daughter Wedding took delivery of his before the Centenary Show. 

Interesting that the Factory Car, used for advertising and it appearance at the 2009 Cheltenham Centenary Show was not given its Series Number until being sold over a year later when it acquired No. 030?   

Of course 58 people, or was it 63?, decided to purchase the cars, most of which were delivered during 2010.

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Creating the Roadster 100 Register 

As the Factory and the Dealerships completed their delivery tasks, David Harris decided that a Register for these cars should be established before they were scattered far and wide. 

David Harris contacted Frank Lomax to help set up a Register and we contacted Dealerships and asked them if they would help by contacting their customers with one of our early invitation flyers.

It was during the Morgan Sports Car Club's (MSCC) 2009 MOGMMX held in Buxton, Derbyshire, on 18th June 2010 that we made contact with seven additional members, being invited by the flyers left on their drivers seat. 

With this fine association with the club, even though not all of our members are MSCC Members, following their kind help with our advertising we included the Club Logo on our Banners and our Rally Plaques and we now have our contact details presented monthly in the Club Magazine 'Miscellany'.

To date we have located over 50 of these Roadster 100's.  This tracing has been made more difficult in that Data Protection means that owners now need to approach the Register. 

These days it is not possible for Factory, Dealer or MSCC to volunteer ownership information due to The Data Protection Act, however, we do use an external website in our search for new owners as cars change hands and Dealers have been helpful in adding our invitations to that Sales Pack. There are still a few cars that we have never found.

http://morgancentenaryroadster100register.weebly.com/.

 We provided our members a Numbered Car Badge early on which proved popular and due the copies made in India these do pop up on other Roadsters.  

The design for this badge came from the very helpful husband of  Helen Thorn of Dealership Richard Thorn Sports Cars. Helen was very helpful in trying to establish the final production figure and searching out the missing series plates at the factory. Helen volunteered her husbands Graphic Design services and up popped our logo.

 The Morgan Motor Company 2009 Centenary Calendar featuring Car No. 030

Of course the cars are now widely spread throughout the UK with some cars having crossed the Channel to Sweden, Germany and France. One car, now back in the UK, had originally been delivered to its owner in Dubai. Another temporarily moved with its owner to Canada.

We decided that for cars with such a wide geographical spread, Morgan Centenary Roadster 100 Register events would need to justify fairly long distance travel for most people. 

And with this in mind, ever inventive David Harris came up with the idea of holding our first ALL MORGANS’ DAY' which he arranged with the National Trust at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire during 2011.

Subsequent events where also held there in 2012 and 2014,

The event was open to all Morgan cars with 160 cars attending in 2011 followed by 220 cars in 2012 and 200 in 2014.

 Our first event in 2011 - Waddesdon Rally Plaque

Meantime “back at the office”, we originally decided to adopt Help For Heroes as the charity deserving of our support.

Having given H4H three good years we took a straw poll and decided to switch our support to Combat Stress from April 2015.  Our first donation was in excess of £9835.89 plus an additional £317.82 collected that year on St George's Day. 

Forced to switch venues , we completed our largest ever All Morgans' Day on Sunday 3rd July 2016 at Blenheim Palace to which 400 Morgans were invited to display in Front of the Palace. 

Following this success, our founder David Harris elected to stand down and hand over his aging reins to member Terry Seymour. 

David Harris is now our Honorary President.

In 2018 we returned to Blenheim Palace for our 5th All Morgans' Day where we increased our popularity once again.

650 Morgans filled every available space on our display lines and our new enlarged Trades Area doubled in size with 21 stands displaying their goods and services.

We raised £15484.86 to which we added a further £617.43 from three additional days of St Georges Day collections.

 David Harris & Frank Lomax & Terry Seymour.

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In December 2018, David Harris reminded us that - 

Yes, we decided on “All Morgans’ Day” as a brand to include “All Morgan’s”! 

In 2010 there was no group embracing all Morgan’s, whether they preferred three or four wheels, old or new – whilst including Morgan Motor Company and the Factory.  

The real success of the Roadster 100 Register is to have defied our widespread geography whilst creating the only world class event in the Morgan Social Calendar. 

Blenheim with more than 600 cars present does not just happen.  It is only the great R100 Team that is capable of organising such an event and we can all be very proud of our achievements. 

Frank and I looked forward to the Tenth Year of the Roadster 100 Factory Visit in 2019 and to the next All Morgans' Day in 2020. 

“Very Well Done” to the Roadster 100 Register – David and Frank.