FEATURE : THE RACING PLANTS
Richard and Will
Like father , like son
At the head of the 70s Road Sports action this year will be two Morgan Plus 8s , expertly driven by father and son team Richard and Will Plant . Paul Lawrence chatted to them about their love of Morgans .
The Stratford-on-Avon drivers each have a Plus 8 and there is no question that Richard , in particular , is Morgan through and through . But it is a whole family thing that takes in Richard ’ s wife Mandy and Will ’ s twin brother Harry . While Richard has almost exclusively raced Morgans over the last 20 years , Will previously made a strong impression in modern GT racing notably in Porsches . However , the escalating cost of top-line GT racing has , for now at least , put those ambitions on hold . “ Just the tyre bill alone for one weekend in GT racing would do a year in historics ,” said Will .
Richard has loved Morgans since he was a school boy . “ I went to school in Malvern in 1968 and was taken around the factory by Peter Morgan ,” he explains . “ I sat in the despatch bay in
1968 and I actually have one of the cars now that I sat in 53 years ago . I ’ ve got some other road cars so we ’ re also into Jaguars and Healeys .
“ It ’ s been pretty much Morgans all the way through . I started racing in 2001 but have been involved with Morgans since the 1980s with road cars . The racing has just been in Morgans ever since . I once raced an MGB and I hated it . We ’ ve raced everything from the Series 1 , the older stuff at Classic Le Mans , right up to the big 4.6-litre Class A car with 400bhp and everything in between .
“ I grew up with Morgans and always wanted a Morgan as a child . We ’ ve just sold one so we ’ re down to six and we can race all of them . William ’ s brother Henry has one of the cars I used to race many , many years ago . He uses it as a road car , but that car was raced all over America and Europe when it was owned by Adrian Van der Kroft . Will and Henry are twins and I am not encouraging Henry to race as well .”
Part of the Plant passion for Morgans is having that potent Rover V8 burbling away in the front of the car . “ They ’ re just easy ,” said Richard . “ We ’ ve got lots of spare parts and they ’ re a Meccano kit because there ’ s not a lot you can do with them . it ’ s just making sure that everything ’ s bolted together . One of the main things for me is the Rover V8 engine by John Eales . In terms of bang for your buck , what else compares in a V8 ? The engine rebuilds are every two and a half to three years , depending on how much you do .” This season , 70s Road Sports is a core target and the season started perfectly
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Sharing the front row at Snetterton