Spotted: Fancy English sports cars being made by hand

This car isn’t a 1938 model. It’s a 2014. I’m in England this week, researching an upcoming story on the state of the English car industry. This is one of three machines I’ve had the pleasure of testing on my visit – a Morgan Plus 4 roadster. Morgan has been around since 1909, and as you can see, they’re big on tradition.

Here’s another angle on the Plus 4, taken in front of my hotel in Malvern, England. The hotel used to be a Benedectine monastery. The Morgan looked right at home.

I shot this photo outside one of the workshops at the Morgan factory. It’s an amazing place, filled with skilled craftsmen who still build cars by hand.

Morgans, like the Plus 4 I drove this week, are built on a traditional steel ladder frame. Many of the body panels are shaped by hand and supported by wooden subframes.

Not all Morgans use old-school frame technology. This is the bonded aluminum chassis structure used in models like the Plus 8 and Aero Coupe. It’s really impressive.

Here’s a partially-completed Plus 8, which uses the new-school chassis. It may look like an old car, but it has the performance and structural rigidity of a Lemans racer. In case you were wondering why this car was sitting outside: there’s no assembly line at Morgan - they just roll the cars from building to building as it moves through the stages of construction.

After the Morgan, I switched to the new Jaguar F-Type. I shot this picture in the hills south of Malvern, moments after avoiding a head-on collision with an English granny who wandered over into my lane through a blind curve. The Jaguar has brilliant steering and brakes. I will be writing more about the F-Type when I get back.

Here’s another one of the cars I tested this week - a 2014 Rolls Royce Ghost. Driving it through the rolling hills near Goodwood was a great experience. But as I learned, there’s some narrow, dead-end roads that were designed for medieval haywains, not a two and a half ton luxury car.

The English don’t mess around when they go for high-visibility colours on their police cars. These fluorescent zebra schemes seem to be standard issue out on the M-series motorways.

North Americans dropped the station wagon decades ago for the mini van and the SUV. But in England and Europe, they’re still all the rage. I spotted this BMW wagon on the M4 motorway.

England has given us the Royal family, the crumpet, and Rolls Royce. It also appears to have the world’s widest selection of classic tractor magazines.