When I search ClassicCars.com for my Pick of the Day vehicles, I treat the process as a sort of treasure hunt. Among the tens of thousands of cars on the site, there are some serious gems. I never know what I might find there. Many cars have simply incredible stories of what they did when new. Of all the cars I have seen on our site, none has been as incredible as the one I found for my piece today. If this car could talk – oh, the stories it could tell.
Today’s Pick of the Day is a very special 1961 Morgan Plus 4 Super Sports located at a dealer in Stratford, Connecticut. Not only does this car have incredible stories, but it is also one of the best deals I have ever seen on our site for what it is and represents.
This is not just any Plus 4 Super Sports (a car that is already rare), but it is in fact the 1962 Le Mans 2.0-liter class-winning Super Sports that was driven to victory by the legendary Chris Lawrence, chassis number 4840.
Over the years, this Morgan, like many race cars of the era, received modified bodywork, different engines, and the like. But today it wears the same aerodynamic aluminum “Low Line” 4/4 bodywork as it did when it won at Le Mans. It also has a recently rebuilt period-correct engine as well as a spare racing engine.
Following extraordinary success at Le Mans, 4840 did well in other first-class races. In 1963, it won its class in the Spa Grand Prix with an average speed of 101.69 mph and a fastest lap average of 105.14. Adrien Dence drove the car to victory, earning the Fred Dixon Challenge trophy and the Motor Sport Brooklands Memorial Trophy. It also earned a podium finish at the Nürburgring 1,000-kilometer endurance race, consisting of 44 high-speed laps around the Nordschleife track. More recently, this car has been raced over and over again, including a 2012 appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and a 2017 outing at the Goodwood Revival.
It was race-prepped by Techniques, a Morgan specialist in the United Kingdom, and refinished in the correct Le Mans-winning livery. All of the latest modifications make it both eligible for and competitive in historic racing. It maintains the all-important 4840 numbered chassis that carried the car to victory at Le Mans as recorded by the Automobile Club de L’Ouest and Le Mans scrutineers in 1962.
Cars like this do not come up often. This Morgan is what I call a “Swiss Army knife car.” It would be accepted to participate in most of the greatest rallies in the world and is eligible for the finest vintage racing events and any concours you can think of. Basically, it can pretty much do everything in the classic sports car hobby.
For the sports car enthusiast, few vehicles are as historically significant as 4840. It is offered on behalf of the current owner with full documentation and letters to authenticate its provenance. To me, the $125,000 asking price more than fair. If this were an Aston Martin or a Ferrari with this kind of history, you would have to add at least one zero to the price. If you doubt that, remember that the 1956 Le Mans-winning Jaguar D-Type sold a few years back for $22 million. As a result, I truly think that this Morgan offers a tremendous opportunity for the right buyer to own a not just a car, but a piece of art and a historical artifact.
