I've seen a few postings on the list concerning peoples' exploits in
their Morgans on the race track. I'm interested in old Morgans, and historic
(or vintage) racing, and have a few questions.
I recently got myself a copy of the November '90 issue of Classic and
Sports Car, which contains a review of TOK 258. Willie Green, a well known
racer and fettler of old cars here in the UK, wrote that TOK's road-holding
was excellent, whereas most other Morgans that he's driven have been less
inspiring. Later on in the article, it revealed that Chris Lawrence had
altered the front sub-frame, and thereby changed the suspension geometry,
along with fitting telescopic dampers to the rear to replace the original
lever arms.
Was the Lawrence modified front suspension ever a feature on any
production cars of the '60s, or was it a one-off for TOK, and other Lawrence
tweaked cars? And if it didn't make it onto the standard Plus Fours, was it
fitted to the Super Sports or Competition versions?
The TOK article also mentioned that there had been a problem with
breaking half-shafts once the telescopic rear shock conversion had been
carried out, although this was rectified by using cut-down Jaguar half
shafts. I've been interested in TVRs for a while now, and know that building
a Griffith into a racer involves replacing a large part of the car to over
come its inherent faults such as over-heating, weak suspension parts, etc.
(To the extent that one TVR specialist virtually replaces the entire car!)
Would building a Morgan racer involve such serious surgery, and are there
any particular weak spots that I should be aware of?
Thanks,
Graeme
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