Deep Sanderson
Some of the Deep Sandersons were built by Lawrence and his staff, first at Westerham Motors and later at LawrenceTune Engines, while production of others was contracted out.
[2]: 38 The Deep Sanderson cars were born out of Lawrence's interest in pursuing his racing career and in particular as a way to get into driving single-seaters.
[3]: 61 The rules for this class had been laid down by Count Giovanni Lurani and were intended to create an inexpensive racing series.
In 1960 Lawrence drew up a new tubular steel chassis based on a tetrahedron design that he had used for an earlier project.
Lawrence then began work on a new Formula Junior car in which he would apply lessons learned from Keith Duckworth, whom he had met when picking up the engines for the DS101s.
On the now high-mounted intake manifold he added a set of second-hand 45DC3 carburetors that drew cold air in over the driver's head.
The fully restored DS104 appeared at the Goodwood track at the special "Tribute to Chris Lawrence" day on 16 June 2005.
Wallace studied the Lawrence Link suspension and drew a chassis with a large-diameter backbone having a circular cross-section, box sections front and rear made from sheet metal and an aluminium floor reinforced by smaller square-section tubing.
Guided by Wallace's drawing, Lawrence's Westerham Motors built the prototype chassis from 20 gauge steel, which was then clothed in aluminium bodywork by Williams and Pritchard.
[3]: 73 Lawrence took the prototype DS301 to the Nürburgring in 1961, where the car turned in some respectable lap times before ending up in a tree.
[3]: 76 The car was retrieved but scrapped as not worth repairing, but work immediately started on a new shape for subsequent DS301s, constructing a plywood form that Williams and Pritchard would use to make a new body for the second DS301 in aluminium, like the prototype.
Returning to the Deep Sanderson display unexpectedly after the press day Lawrence found Colin Chapman and Mike Costin giving the DS301 a close inspection from inside.
Publicity from the car's appearance at Le Mans caused orders to start coming in to the factory for the standard 850 cc DS301.
By this time a new linkage had been added that allowed the driver to vary the throttle opening between the engines, giving controlled oversteer or understeer or neutral handling as needed.
The DS302 had its Ford 116E motor replaced by an all-alloy SOHC V8 originally developed by Ted Martin for Formula 1 in anticipation of another run at Le Mans in 1969, but the car was unable to obtain an entry.
Other changes for Le Mans included switching to Mini Cooper front disc brakes, fabricating a 95.5 L (21 imp gal) fuel tank for the front of the car and building a recessed luggage shelf to accommodate the requisite FIA suitcase.
At one point the car went into a sand-pit and was freed by the driver but shortly after that the brakes failed while Lawrence was driving.
Lawrence continued in the car, coasting, sliding and using the clutch to scrub off speed when necessary and managed to climb back through the field to the point where he was on the same lap as the leading Alpine Renault when the DS301 was black-flagged.
The second, being driven by Lawrence and Gordon Spice, started poorly and then retired in the third hour of the race with a blown cylinder head gasket.
During practice the car developed an oil leak which prompted the team to replace all of the engine's main bearings.
Although Lawrence worked on many projects after the DS302, including the Triumph and Morgan SLRs, it was not until 1986 that he built what he considered the next and last Deep Sanderson.
The SL601 was built for businessman and auto collector Robert Sutherland, who went on to become the principal backer of the Maxton Rollerskate.
[3]: 215 [5] Sutherland asked Lawrence to design and build a simple prototype for a car that could be built in small numbers.
[3]: 215 Starting with a simple chassis of two parallel large-diameter tubes Lawrence installed the engine from a Datsun 280Z in front and the transaxle, clutch and flywheel from an Alfa Romeo Alfetta in rear.
The front suspension was upper and lower A-arms and the rear was a de Dion system, but it was what Lawrence did for springs that made it notable.
All of the roll-resistance was provided by two long torsion bars running the length of the chassis, one on each side, that were attached to the suspension by 12-inch arms.
To make the car roadworthy it received simple Lotus 7-style bodywork widened to fit the chassis and Morgan-style front fenders.
