Description
Two wonderful pieces of late-1970s California vintage racing culture, each catching a classic Morgan sports car at speed rather than sitting polished on a concours lawn. The first shows red number 74 streaking past the camera at the Riverside Historic Races in April 1979, the panned background giving the photograph a terrific sense of speed. The companion image shows number 152—with two helmeted occupants aboard—at the 6th Annual Monterey Vintage races in 1979, part of the early years of the Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Laguna Seca. The Monterey Historics had begun only five years earlier, in 1974, when vintage racing in America was still developing into the major collector-car phenomenon it would become.
There is something especially good about seeing Morgans used exactly as intended. Long bonnet, separate fenders, upright cockpit and unmistakably British profile—cars whose basic appearance seemed transported from the prewar era straight onto two of California’s legendary racing circuits. Riverside International Raceway is now gone, while the Monterey Historics became one of the most important vintage-motorsport gatherings in America. Together these photographs capture an early moment in that movement: old sports cars, California racetracks and owners still willing to drive the hell out of them.
A great pair for the Morgan enthusiast, vintage-racing collector, or anyone who prefers an old sports car sideways on a racetrack to sitting behind a velvet rope.
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