TOK258 Morgan Winner at Le Mans 50th Anniversary Edition

By Ronnie Price

In 1962 a small Morgan sports car TOK258 created history by defeating factory teams run by leading international manufacturers in the famous 24 hour race at the Le Mans circuit. The car crossed the finishing line on Sunday 24th June having completed 2256 miles in the twenty four hours from the start time on Saturday afternoon to win the 2 litre GT class. Although privately owned, the car was entered and supported by the Morgan Motor Company and driven by Chris Lawrence and Richard Shepherd-Barron. This new colour 50th anniversary edition of the original book by Ronnie Price, now with racing driver Richard Shepherd-Barron as co-author, covers the concept, preparation, and official testing at the circuit. It gives a blow-by-blow account of the race, with anecdotes, memorabilia, material and photographs only recently made available.

• Language: English
• Publisher: MX Publishing
• Release date: Jul 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781780922201

Book preview

Price

Part One

By Ronnie Price

Foreword

By Charles Morgan

As a ten year old I completely idolised Chris Lawrence and Richard Shepherd-Barron. Their Le Mans result was the stuff of schoolboy dreams; drive to the 24 hour race in a semi standard car to battle it out with the wealthy Ferrari and Porsche teams to win their class and drive home. They were my superheroes and gave me all the street cred I needed as a member of the Morgan family battling it out in a competitive playground at school.

Before the race during the Easter holiday I had a personal experience with the spare British Racing Green and Cream car, 170 GWP. My father took me out in it to test the top speed on the Ross Spur motorway. In the days before speed limits at just over 130mph the tread of one of the rear tyres started to peel away from the steel core. The loud detonation and following flapping noise forced us to slow down pretty fast. This experience made my admiration for the bravery of Chris and Richard on the Mulsanne Straight very vivid.

When Chris joined me at the Morgan Motor Company 35 years later to engineer the suspension for a new Morgan the spirit of Le Mans 1962 was still all there. We wanted to prove that a car that was a comfortable high speed long distance tourer could race at Le Mans and cover itself in glory. So far the performance of Chris and Richard in TOK has not been equaled but we are not about to give up and Morgan definitely has unfinished business at Le Mans.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is the story of how skill and personal determination can beat the most elaborate, expensive and sophisticated machinery, the story of David versus Goliath. I warmly hope that it inspires the reader to try and achieve their own personal