In 1960 club racer Neil Dangerfield bought Sid Hurrell’s Triumph TR3A with the registration SAH 137 for road and track use. After a couple of successful racing seasons, Dangerfield bought a brand new TR4 from Hurrell’s SAH tuning concern in 1962 and transferred the registration to the new car.
Sid Hurrell prepared the TR4 for racing and Dangerfield raced it at English circuits in 1962/63. He also drove it to Monza for the 3-hour GP support race in 1963, finished 2nd in class and drove it home again.
By the end of 1963, Chris Lawrence (of Morgan fame) had taken over the preparation of the car. A discussion between Chris, John Sprinzel and Neil Dangerfield led to the decision to remove the old TR4 body and replace it with a new curvaceous, low drag one fashioned from aluminium by Williams and Pritchard. The ‘new’ car was built up by Chris Lawrence.
‘SLR’ stood for Sprinzel LawrenceTune Racing and the car was exhibited at the Racing Car Show at Olympia in January 1964. Three further examples were subsequently built on Morgan chassis, all complying with the period Group 3 Appendix J category.
Neil and occasionally Chris Lawrence raced the car in 1964 and 1965 at various circuits including Goodwood, Spa Francorchamps and Silverstone.
The current owner is Tony Hall-Griffin. He acquired the car in 1986 in fairly poor condition and restored it with the help of Ken Heywood. They entered in the inaugural Goodwood Revival meeting in 1998 where the car was invited to take part in the “Dream Grid” parade, driven by Neil Dangerfield. The car is seen here at the 2023 Motor Racing Legends race meeting on the Silverstone GP circuit, driven by Richard Hall-Griffin.
Photo by Peter McFadyen. See his website: http://petermcfadyen.co.uk
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