Cult heroes -- Chris Lawrence

Never one to take the easy road, Lawrence is probably best known for his successes with Morgans. Having started out racing in the mid-50s with one of the Malvern marque’s three-wheelers, this maverick designer/racer soon switched to an AFM before buying TOK 258, a Morgan Plus 4 in which he and Richard Shepherd-Barron won their class at Le Mans in 1962.

From there, the ’60s saw a whirlwind of activity at his Lawrencetune premises in Acton, with engine building vying with single-seater and sportscar construction under the bizarre Deep Sanderson banner. Not to mention his stab at F1 glory with Jack Pearce’s equipe. His ’66 season aboard a Ferrari V12 -powered Cooper T73 was curtailed by a freak fire that saw the race transporter and all its contents destroyed.

Undeterred, Chris went on to engineer the Monica luxury saloon car, prepared a Plymouth ‘Cuda for Tony Lanfranchi and carried on driving with verve in historics until recent ill health curtailed his fun. He also played an unheralded role in returning Marcos to international motorsport in the mid-90s while restoring Morgan’s presence at Le Mans. — RH