34 replies to this topic

[Gerald Swan]

While going through the Lola Archives I came across this batch of photographs.

I know Carlos Avallone took his F5000 T142 back to Brazil and fitted a Lola T222 CanAm body on it and raced it.

I also know there were some Avallone sports cars and single-seaters.

So can some kind person give me some more details about the Avallone cars .

Looking at the photos it would seem as if the batch of spaceframes are the sportscars and there are at least 6 T222 bodyshells awaiting them, so did all the sportscars use T222 bodies?

Was the chassis a copy of the T142? From what I can see it looks the same (although I haven't got a nude T142 for exact comparison!), the front uprights look identical as does the suspension.

The completed chassis has a Hewland box, the engine looks like a "V" but a "V" what?

One of the spaceframes in the jig looks like a single-seater although it clearly has some similarities with the sportscar frame. Was there any similarity between the two and what did the single-seater look like, there is what looks like some T142 bodywork on the floor in a couple of shots, any connection?

I'm wondering why these pictures are in the Lola Archive unless there was some close link, where the cars built under some sort of licence from Lola?

There may be more details buried somewhere else in the Archive that I haven't found yet but the problem is finding someone at Lola who can remember exactly what the story was so if anyone can tell me what this is all about I shall be forever in their debt ;).

Gerald.

www.lolaheritage.co.uk

[Allen Brown]

Hi Gerald

Interesting stuff!

I have one photo of an unclothed T142 that might help you on a yet-to-be-published page about my hunt for the T142s. I'll see if I can find some more.

Did Avallone have an actual T142 or was this his half-T140-half-T142. He had two T140s according to the Lola invoice list (or maybe you have been able to find something even better in the archive) :

* SL140/16 invoiced 18 Sep 1968
* SL140/1 invoiced 10 Apr 1970

His first car, SL140/16, was raced in UK F5000 up to June 1969 then vanishes. It was described in the press as part T140, part T142 and therefore a "T141". On ORC, I have assumed his early 1970 car was also SL140/16 but maybe that car had been wrecked or destroyed in some way and he bought Lola's prototype-cum-test-car SL140/1 for the 1970 season. Avallone crashed on the very first lap of the first race of 1970 and does not appear again. As the invoice for SL140/1 is two weeks after the crash it might be that it was SL140/16 that he crashed and SL140/1 that he bought for the sports car project. I'm not sure if I'm helping here

So did he actually have a 'proper' T142?

Allen

[f1steveuk]

Funny Gary C has just come back from Brazil, where he encountered someting of a Lola, and I think it was a bodyless T142, I'll direct him here

[Gary C]

no Steve, the car I encountered was here in the UK. 'Available to you, sir, for £10,000 firm. Yes, I know it's a rolling chassis with front end damage, but that's the price.'

[f1steveuk]

[Gary C]

.....and no engine or gearbox either. In need of full restoration.

[Gerald Swan]

Hi Allen, I have to confess I got the T142 reference from the Starkey "Lola; The Illustrated History" book. My strange brain that retains all kinds of useless facts had Avallone driving a T140 but I thought I would check before I posted the thread, I should have trusted my memory .

Looking at your picture of the T142 frame it certainly looks like there are some remarkable similarities, those dog-legged pieces for at the rear of the frame for (I guess) the top links/dampers is echoed on the Avallone frame in the jig. Also there are the "pyramid mounts" in front of the dashboard for the trailing link, there looks to be a similar mount on the Avallone frame incorporated in the dash crossbrace. Additionally it looks like there might be the same mountings for the front rocker arms.

The Avallone chassis isn't identical but it looks like it may well have been designed to take T140 or T142 suspension. Hopefully someone else can come up with a bit more information.

Gerald.

www.lolaheritage.co.uk

[MCS]

Is Carlos Avallone still alive?

[WHITE]

Originally posted by MCS
Is Carlos Avallone still alive?

No

[Allen Brown]

Originally posted by Gary C
no Steve, the car I encountered was here in the UK. 'Available to you, sir, for £10,000 firm. Yes, I know it's a rolling chassis with front end damage, but that's the price.'

Hi Gary

I'd be interested to know more about that car. I'm still missing quite a few T142s and some of those were damaged when last seen. Could you drop me a PM with some more more details? Or email me on allen@oldracingcars.com.

Thanks

Allen

[Muzza]

Fellows,


I am contacting a few folks who were quite close to Avallone and checking what we can find on these regards. Unfortunately I am a few years too young to know more details about his first cars. I do have contemporaneous Brazilian magazines with information on these machines, but they are stored in Brazil and I am in the United States.

I seem to remember that some of his cars actually had aluminium monocoques and not tubular spaceframes. I don't remember him racing anything else than Chevrolet powerplants.

More (hopefully) to follow.


Muzza

[Peter Morley]

I was in contact with a Marcos Sacoman several years ago who had some connection with Carlos Avallone's cars (I think he knew his son - and was sorting through all the parts & paperwork after Carlos's death).

I have just tried the last e-mail address I had for him, will let you know if I hear anything, otherwise you might want to search for him.

[WHITE]

Originally posted by Muzza
Fellows,



I seem to remember that some of his cars actually had aluminium monocoques and not tubular spaceframes. I don't remember him racing anything else than Chevrolet powerplants.

More (hopefully) to follow.


Muzza

I seem to remember some of his car being called " Avallone-Chrysler " at the beginning of the 70s

[Peter Morley]

Just digging through old e-mails and I found the following:

Well, now some "Lola's old stories" for you :

This is the first one (SL T142/1) and the last original and untouched car, stored for 30 years, “ex” factory team.
In 1968 there were two drivers on F5000 LOLA Factory Team. Carlos Avallone drove the T140 chassis SL140/16, and Mike Hailwood drove this T142, chassis 142/1. Later Mike moved up to T190 model.

In 1970, Avallone bought this two cars, plus a T70 MkIII B (SL 76/155) and brought all 3 cars to Brazil.

I have the original LOLA invoices, and LOLA CARS confirms all this.

Before shipping, the T140 had been completely rebuilt at the factory, the space frame chassis enlarged and rebodied with a T165 CanAm bodywork.

The T140 never raced with T165 body. Few moths later, he ordered the new T222 body. Unfortunately, the T165 body is lost !

Here in Brazil, Mr Avallone was sponsored by Valvoline and Chrysler. And the GM Traco engine had been replaced by a 318 c.i. Chrysler tunned unit. With this T140/T222 he won a lot of races, and had been Brazilian Champion 4(four) times. Last time in 1974.

The T142 had been used only few times in practices that year (with the GM Traco engine from T140) .

But we never had F5000 races here, and the car had been stored for 30 years !

Last year, I made an overall revision and repainted the car. Everything is original and working fine ! Even a brand new set of Firestones GP tyres are there, and the original Hewland LG600, too !

[Allen Brown]

Very interesting Peter. THe description of the car as "T142/1" is unexpected, as T142 numbering followed on from T140 numbering, so there was no T142/1. However, maybe this was a prototype with a non-standard chassis plate.

There is an advert on the web for "T142/1" in Spain - see http://www.racer-net.com/vintg026.htm. That strikes me as similar to the description from your email. Reckon it's the same car?

Allen

[Muzza]

Originally posted by WHITE



I seem to remember some of his car being called " Avallone-Chrysler " at the beginning of the 70s

[kicking self]

You are right - I meant Chrysler and wrote Chevrolet... His car was of course decorated with the pentagram-star Chrysler logo...

[continues to kick self]


Muzza

[Allen Brown]

Originally posted by Allen Brown
Very interesting Peter. The description of the car as "T142/1" is unexpected, as T142 numbering followed on from T140 numbering, so there was no T142/1. However, maybe this was a prototype with a non-standard chassis plate.

There is an advert on the web for "T142/1" in Spain - see http://www.racer-net.com/vintg026.htm. That strikes me as similar to the description from your email. Reckon it's the same car?

Allen

Thanks to Peter's introduction, I'm in touch with Marcos Sacoman who owns the Lola T222-bodied T140 that was the Avallone sports car. He also owns a T142 that was bought be Avallone at the same time but has remained in F5000 trim.

The T140 was transformed into a sports car at Lola so the whole project must have had Lola's agreement. I'd guess Avallone sent Lola some pictures later so they could see progress and those remained in a filing cabinet somewhere.

The "SL/142/1" meanwhile appears to be SL140/1 rebuilt as a T142 and sold as such in early 1970. I'm trying to clarify whether it was raced by Hailwood as a T142 in 1969 as that's what Lola have said but it contradicts contemporary reports.

Allen

[Mallory Dan]

An acquaintance of mine, 5-6 years ago, had a/the Avallone Sportscar in for restoration. I've rather lost contact with him though, and don't recall much of what he said about it.

[Allen Brown]

Hi Dan

Was that car in the UK? It sounds as if 'the' Avallone hasn't left Brazil. Maybe your friend had another one.

Allen

[Allen Brown]

Here it is:



Copyright Marcos Sacoman.

Allen

[MARCOS SACOMAN]

HI PETER, HI ALLEN,
THANKS !
ANY MORE QUESTION ? JUST ASK !
CHEERS,
MARCOS SACOMAN

[Allen Brown]

Hi Marcos

Welcome!

Do you know how many Avallone sports cars were built? We can see at least two near completion in the pictures above.

Allen

[MARCOS SACOMAN]

Hi Gerald !

The Avallone cars used a T140 enlarged chassis.
Everything else is the same: All suspension; up-rights, dampers, rotors, brakes and wheels.
For the first cars, Antonio Carlos bought all these parts from Eric, when the factory discontinued the space frame chassis.
Later, he made the uprights, corners and wheels here (all exact replicas), remaining importing geabox (DG300), dampers, steering rack, rotors and brakes (Girling).

The T140/16 had the chassis enlarged at Slough, and rebodied as a T165 (this bodywork is missing).
Later, a T222 bodywork was fitted.

YES ! Eric always knew about these cars, but a formal licence was never signed, although they had talk about that several times (I have the documents).

At least, Antonio Carlos imported the T140/16 "rebodied", 1 T140, 1 T142, 1 T56 and 1 T210.
Emerson Fittipaldi drove the T210 to win the Copa Brasil.
The T210 had been sold 3 times, and is in USA now (as I know).
I own the other 3 cars.

AVALLONE single seaters: VanDiemen FF and SUPERNOVA (TUI) FSV

[MARCOS SACOMAN]

Hi Allen !

8 cars, with mine (but this's the original T140/16).
As I know, only 4 remaining "alive".
Cheers,
Marcos

[MARCOS SACOMAN]

http://[IMG]http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/2567/valvoline6dr.th.jpg[/IMG]

[Gerald Swan]

Hi, Marcos , check your email and thanks for all your help.

Gerald.

www.lolaheritage.co.uk

[Peter Morley]

Originally posted by MARCOS SACOMAN
HI PETER, HI ALLEN,
THANKS !
ANY MORE QUESTION ? JUST ASK !
CHEERS,
MARCOS SACOMAN

Hi Marcos

Not sure why I never thought to put you in touch with Allen before, you will be able to talk together for many many hours!

Peter

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Allen Brown
Hi Dan

Was that car in the UK? It sounds as if 'the' Avallone hasn't left Brazil. Maybe your friend had another one.

Allen

Allen, it was with Tony Steele, the restorer/F Junior racer in Bentham, North Yorks. Can't recall now who owned it, but Tony was in the process of doing it up.

[MARCOS SACOMAN]

Hi Dan & Allen !

About the Avallone's car in England - This's an old story ! ( about 10 years old...)
Look the dates !!!!
And enjoy:

From: "John Starkey" Subject: Re: "fake" Mac Laren (from MacDonald's ?)
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 16:04:10 -0700

Dear Marcos,
Great to hear from you. Yes, I did make the mistake of saying "Formula Atlantic" in the book in one line regarding the T140/142. I got mixed up with F/A (5000). It is, however, in just one line of the whole piece which earlier states: "Lola...designed a single-seater spaceframe chassis for Formula 5000 to take mainly T70 components Called the T140 for Formula Atlantic, (oops!) the new category of FA/5000 with big, mainly Chevrolet, 5-litre engines was catered for".
About Carlos Avallone's car, that is really interesting, not only for the corrections to the story, (thank you), but because I used to live next door to a race car dealer in England about three years ago and he acquired the sad remains of such a car from Brazil. This came with the title: "Ex-Avallone, built from crashed T140". I identified some of the parts as T140 but we puzzled over the widened chassis for a long time! All the chassis parts were very badly rusted as if they had been outside for a long time and it came, if I remember rightly, with McLaren M8C bodywork. This also was in a horrible condition so I suppose it might, at a stretch, have been (sort of) T222. Fascinating...
....
Merry Christmas !
John.


PS - 2 cars sold to UK by Mr. Flavio Marx: 1 roller Avallone badly rusted and the MAC LAREN (sic).
(a replica made in Argentina, fitted with a SAENZ gearbox and a Ford truck engine).
This "fake" one is another funny story, but here is a place to talk about LOLA(s), isn't ?

[Allen Brown]

Originally posted by MARCOS SACOMAN
... but here is a place to talk about LOLA(s), isn't ?

Here is a place to talk about everything!

Allen

[avasports]

Gentlemen of this forum,
My name is Fernando Avallone, and I am Mr. Carlos Avallone's son. I live in the USA and manage race drivers in North America, including National Champions here in the last few years, in open-wheel and tin-tops. My other two brothers live in Brazil.

We are amazed by Mr. Sacoman's audacity in regards to what he has been posting here. Let me clear some of it:

First of all, Mr. Sacoman does not own any cars or parts or other documents of my father, such as the car in the picture, nor even the copyright for the photo.
My brother, almost immediately after my dad passed on a few years ago, handed documents, welding equipment, an original early 70's SuperNova chassis and bodywork, and other material to Mr. Sacoman for restoration purposes only; about a year ago Mr. Sacoman went MIA and stopped answering his phone or returning messages to us.
We are actively trying to contact him in Brazil to arrange for the return of my father's equipment, and he is running away with it. We would like him to surface, return this material and pay for another (street) vehicle, my dad's old Mercedes SL500 he basically took to have sold and never paid us...
Furthermore, please note that one of my dad's T140's was destroyed in his 1970 fiery crash at Oulton. I have the newspaper photo of its' burned chassis. This was the reason he decided to go back to Brazil, with badly burnt legs. To my brothers recollection, he did not bring any frame from Lola UK, only the drawings for it. He did bring the T70, which ended up burnt in Brazil a few years later; and the T212 which won the Copa Brasil, but did not keep it.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE ANOTHER 140 or 142 CHASSIS WAS IMPORTED BY MY DAD, and my older brother does remember using only the drawings from Lola to build the first Avallone Chrysler, the A11 which had a body of a T163 (only longer) and the A-11 chassis made in Brazil, BASED on a T142 and elongated about 4 inches, as per Mr. Eric Broadley's plans, a custom mod designed by him at my dad's request. I also have a "test" of this vehicle by a Brazilian magazine, with pictures of the chassis, etc. This car was used in an early 70's movie called "Roberto Carlos a 300 km/h", RC being a very popular singer/figure in Brazil, starring in this race-themed movie, with scened from my dad's organized Copa Brazil, his T70 and Emerson's T212, and, of course, the A-11. This car would develop shortly into the Avallone Chrysler/Chevrolet with the body like the T222 which we see on most of the photos and was very succesfull in Prototype Racing in South America, in the B Class (over 2000cc) of a category called Divisao 4 in Brazil. The car also received a Chrysler 550hp powerplant for a FIA sanctioned event in Brazil where it raced against Ferrari and Porsche Prototipes, but this car was called Divisao 5 because of the power. I have beatiful pictures of it coming down the old straight in Interlagos...with a Ferrari on its' tail.

In regards to the multiple chassis Mr. Sacoman claims my dad imported, I am not sure of his intentions, but there is no Lola Avallone car to be sold...nor the few chassis he claimed to own, in this site a few weeks ago, have come from my dad' s importation...I am not sure they actually exist.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions in re: the issues above. I will gladly keep inquiring about the true history about these chassis with people close to us, please let me know any particular questions. I also have an extensive photo collection of my dad's days in Europe (F5000 and F-Ford), as well as his following years racing in Brazil, with the Avallone Chrysler, F-Ford and Super V, which I am open to suggestion about how to make available to other "aficcionados". There are pics of our factory at Lola's Heritage site, under Avallone, and I have some more - all showing the chassis being made/prepared. I have a lot more photos and a lot of information about it...the Avallone-Chrysler (other versions had Ford or Chevy engines) was a classic, and fortunately we still have this car (which was never a Lola, sorry) and some more equipment from my dad, who also raced open wheel and stock cars to the eighties in Brazil, while building a succesful MG TF 53 replica with GM powertrain for street use in Brazil, which sold well and won a few Veteran's Car Club awards.
Again, please feel free to contact me.

best regards,
Fernando Avallone

[Allen Brown]

Welcome Fernando

Thanks for your new information. Mr Sacoman has provided me with scans of invoices from Lola showing that your father purchased a Lola T140 (SL140/16) in December 1968 (this would be the one he crashed at Oulton) and then a Lola T142 ("T142/1") on 29 May 1970, two months after his accident in his original T140. The address on the 1968 invoice is the Brazilian Embassey in London; there is no address on the 1970 invoice.

So it would appear that at least one F5000 Lola did make its way to Brazil. I can check with Lola if this invoice is genuine but I would be very surprised if it wasn't as the list of parts and prices is so detailed. There is even an item of 22 pounds and 8 shillings for manufacture of a packing crate.

Marcos says he now has the T142 in largely original condition. However, I haven't seen pictures of it. Perhaps Marcos can come back and say more on this?

I'd be most interested to hear more about you father's racing career both in England and Brazil.

Allen

[arttidesco]

In 1970, Avallone bought this two cars, plus a T70 MkIII B (SL 76/155) and brought all 3 cars to Brazil.

I have the original LOLA invoices, and LOLA CARS confirms all this.

For the sake of clarity and historical accuracy are you sure Mr Avallone bought SL76/155 Peter ?

The reason I ask is that the car shared by TNF's Simon Hadfield and Leo Voyazides at Silverstone this weekend, above on it's way to victory in the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars race, is shown on the Lola Website as SL76/153 and the T.70 that Carlos Avallone drove in South America is also shown as SL76/153 on racingsportscars.com.

Relevant answers maybe credited and used in a forthcoming blog.

Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

[Gerald Swan]

For the sake of clarity and historical accuracy are you sure Mr Avallone bought SL76/155 Peter ?

The reason I ask is that the car shared by TNF's Simon Hadfield and Leo Voyazides at Silverstone this weekend, above on it's way to victory in the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars race, is shown on the Lola Website as SL76/153 and the T.70 that Carlos Avallone drove in South America is also shown as SL76/153 on racingsportscars.com.

Relevant answers maybe credited and used in a forthcoming blog.

Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

SL76/155 was a 1980s "Continuation" car, it was invoiced on 23/07/80 to G&L Restorations in the US.

[arttidesco]

SL76/155 was a 1980s "Continuation" car, it was invoiced on 23/07/80 to G&L Restorations in the US.

Thanks Gerald so probably just a typo by Peter