FEATURE : HISTORIC ROAD SPORTS
John Shaw
Morgan Plus 8 ( Class A )
After 10 years in a Porsche 911 , which included two overall HRS titles , John Shaw has traded up to a Morgan Plus 8 for his Historic Road Sports campaign . “ I felt I ’ d got as far as I could with the Porsche 911 after 10 years . I looked for a while and thought about which other car I would want to drive . I didn ’ t want to leave Historic Road Sports . So I looked and I thought it ’ s going to be a Morgan . I knew I wanted to go closer to the front . I ’ ll probably never going to be at Kevin Kivlochan and John Davison ’ s standard , but I still wanted to get up there .
“ I spoke to Richard Plant and in the end Richard phoned up and he said : ‘ I know of a Morgan race car coming up , quite a famous one . Would you like to see it ? It ’ s not on the open market .’ So I went to see Keith Ahlers ’ car and Richard Walbyoff came to look at the car with me . We decided it was a good car , so I bought it .
“ Everybody worked really hard to get the car ready for Cadwell Park and so that was my maiden outing . When I sat in the car at Cadwell that was the first time I ’ d ever driven it , and then qualifying was red flagged . So I got about four laps in qualifying .
“ It ’ s a very , very different car to the 911 . The 911 had the most wonderful front on it and the front axle worked beautifully . It could turn in and you could feel everything that was going on with the car . You could feel exactly when the brakes were going to lock up . It was super , but the back , I didn ’ t feel , could ever keep up with the front . So it ’ s quite an oversteery car .
“ I think if you have limited ability , all you need to know is that the Morgan principally understeers . So you can drive into the understeer , and then there are things you can do to get around the understeer . I find it ’ s a much simpler car to drive than the 911 in that you ’ re going faster but you feel much more relaxed in the Morgan than you do in the in the 911 .
“ I know I ’ ve made the right decision . I know that I can go further with the car . Although I ’ ve won the championship twice , I ’ ve never ever stood on the podium . One day , I hope , I ’ ll get a third or something like that and I might just be there . I love the HSCC and the people in Road Sports are very friendly . You get to know everybody and you get to know how they drive , so that ’ s quite appealing and the variety of cars is tremendous .”
Arculus and Shaw battle at Donington
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