Standards are so high that they do not only make all of their own parts, but, working in clinical conditions, they also make their own tools to make the parts. Privately Morgan grumbled that Britain never acknowledged the pre-eminence of its racing-car designers and engineers.Flying was one of his greatest passions, and after the unusually wet winter he took out his Hawker Sea Fury on the first dry weekend of May. The plane, first used by the Australian Air Force in 1952, and now nicknamed Baby Gorilla, was one of a small squadron of old warplanes which he had collected. After landing the plane turned over on the grass at Sywell Airfield and he died instantly.Morgan had engineering in his blood His great-grandfather designed the Blackpool Tower. His father, Brian Morgan, was a talented engineer who restored vintage cars from the shed at the bottom of his garden in Handsworth Wood in Birmingham. Paul inherited his invention and enthusiasm, and while still a teenager he started his first renovation project, a 1904 De Dion Bouton car which he later drove frequently in the London to Brighton run. At school he was constantly engaged in inventive and risky projects.
He set up a windscreen-wiper motor to open and close the curtains in his dormitory, and once cut into the gas supply under the floorboards to make a blow torch to melt down some lead. (The lead derived from his housemaster's roof.)After he left school he continued his passion for dangerous sports, including potholing and flying. He was a hang-gliding pioneer, learning to fly one of the first hang-gliders in Britain. After an engineering degree at Aston University, he joined Cosworth Engineering, one of the leading names in motorsports.He could not do without his own workshop, and soon told his friends he had bought a "shed".
This was a three-bedroomed house that he used almost exclusively for designing and manufacturing engine parts. The drawing-room was just that the place where he had his drawing board.Paul Morgan kept a low public profile. He left Cosworth Engineering to bring his exceptional engineering talent and management vision into partnership with the Swiss designer Mario Illien. When they first met, Illien had to prove himself by finding a solution to a design problem on a vintage Talbot Lago racing car that Morgan was working on. The two men set up their company together in autumn 1983 with finance from Roger Penske, owner of the most successful team in American Indy car racing.At the start it was like the Shed all over again, with Morgan and Illien working late into the night to design engines while Morgan's wife, Liz, did the accounts on the kitchen table. They began by making engines for American Indy 500 cars, notching up their first win with Mario Andreotti driving at Long Beach in 1987. They took six Indy titles, winning almost half of the races they entered.In 1992 Ilmor started the association with Mercedes to make engines for Formula One cars which continues today.
