Chris Lawrence

The mastermind of the Monica whose racing cars were the ones to beat

- Richard Heseltine

IT BEGAN WITH a letter and ended with an epitaph. Chris Lawrence designed and engineered the Monica super-saloon but came close to missing out on the gig. Given that it took over his life for eight long years, only to be extinguished just as it came good, there were times when he wished that he had.

Jean Tastevin's Jaguar Français was initially to have been powered by a special long-stroke Triumph engine devised by Lawrence, but a letter from the French industrialist initially fell on deaf ears. It arrived in early 1966. Lawrence didn't speak a word of French so he put it in his bureau. He would attend to it later. Weeks ticked by before he attempted to decipher the letter and it was at this juncture that he realised Tastevin wanted 250 engines per year. He immediately hotfooted it over to Paris for a meeting and enquired as to what sort of car they would be powering. Tastevin didn't know. He hadn't decided yet. Sensing an opportunity, Lawrence suggested that he was better at designing cars than building engines so why not let him have a crack?