37 replies to this topic

[retriever]

This Saturday will see the last Lola chassis compete in front line professional motorsport when the two Multimatic built Mazda prototype B12/80 chassis start the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta. This has not gone unnoticed elsewhere as a Phillipines website timeattackmanila.com has a small feature recording the forthcoming occasion.

 

Surely such an event should not be allowed to pass without some sort of appreciation / comment from those of us on this forum who have followed the marque's achievements and its ups and downs over the past decades.

 

My first sight of a Lola was at Le Mans in 1967 when the two Aston Martin engined Lola T70 Mk III took part in the 24 hour race - albeit very briefly. To my mind this is one of the most attractive sports racing cars ever built along with it's later Mk IIIB cousin.

Edited by retriever, 30 September 2016 - 13:09.

[David Birchall]

Very sorry to hear this-is there no chance of a reprieve?

 

My own favourite Lola was the first-the Lola Mark 1 sports racer-I pursued various leads trying to buy one,  raced for years against them and finally got to drive one on the track and realised why I could never catch them!  

[RogerFrench]

Interesting that you call the first one the Mk1.
It's a long time ago, but I'm amost sure the 1172F car was originally called Lola, being renamed Lolita when Alan Wershat drove it.

[Sharman]

Roger

After Wershat it went to a friend of mine David Townsend, along with it went Graham Broadley who was one David's closest mates. I think it was just the "car", Lolita was an invention not of the Broadleys but of perhaps the motoring press.

I think the "Mk 1" became that only when it became a commercial venture. Another friend was loaned the original works car by Eric and used it to very good effect, eventually buying his own car from the production run.

The other car which has always endeared Lola to me, is/was the original GT. 

Edited by Sharman, 30 September 2016 - 13:37.

[Ray Bell]

That Lola GT certainly was a sensation!

Irrespective of how much input went from that project into the Ford GT40, it was outstanding and especially when we look back and see how quickly after Broadley's beginnings it came into being.

Of course, there were the quite successful Lola F1 cars in between, they made real progress from the sound foundation of their early front-engined cars.

[E1pix]

We all heard this was coming, but that doesn't make it less sad.

I think my favorite Lola has to be the last iteration of the T332 series, the wicked T332C released in 1976 when the prior year's T400 and the '76 T430 proved less capable... or at least not as well developed.

Thank You Lola for providing so many winning cars to so many friends -- and by deep association here in the States, Thanks to the late Carl Haas as well.

We're at Road Atlanta to witness this moment, but it's all quite unfortunate. And sad.

[sabrejet]

John Foulston in a T530 at Brands is my 'Lola' moment. In fact there were a few there!

[Sharman]

That Lola GT certainly was a sensation!

Irrespective of how much input went from that project into the Ford GT40, it was outstanding and especially when we look back and see how quickly after Broadley's beginnings it came into being.

Of course, there were the quite successful Lola F1 cars in between, they made real progress from the sound foundation of their early front-engined cars.

Ray

I first saw the car in company with 2 unknowns, relatively speaking, in terms of what they achieved. The car was next to the coffee stall at the Racing Car Show (Horticultural Hall) having arrived late at the show. I wandered over with the Hawk who was a mechanic at Sprinzel's in Lancaster Mews and we were joined by quick Vic whom I'd met earlier. We sat at a table and admired the beast.

[john winfield]

Yes, very sad. Good post retriever.

 

I was lucky enough to see a big Lola back in 1965, John Surtees' Chevy-powered T70 spyder dicing with Bruce's McLaren-Elva at the Silverstone International Trophy meeting. Impressive beasts but I liked the later T70 coupés even more.

[Henri Greuter]

I regret that in what appeared to have been their heydays at Indy, and fortunately I saw a number of these races, they won only once.

Glad that I got to see that race.

I'll always remember the CART Lola's of the last decase before the split with lots of pleasure and happy memories.....

 

 

Henri

[Dick Dastardly]

My favourites were the 2 litre T210 & T212s....

[E1pix]

I regret that in what appeared to have been their heydays at Indy, and fortunately I saw a number of these races, they won only once.
Glad that I got to see that race.
I'll always remember the CART Lola's of the last decase before the split with lots of pleasure and happy memories.....
 
 
Henri

I'd forgotten about that, Henri. Big Al and Jim Hall in '78!

[E1pix]

Good Call, Dick, though T292 and T294 for me. Absolute stunners.

[JacnGille]

Brian Redman et al in the 332s for me.

[bradbury west]

For some photographs of the Lola works check the Revs site, under Albert R Bochroch collection and sort under Lola for marque or just set for 100 pics per page and scroll down for a couple of pages.

In a conversation with Alan Wershat a few years ago, he told me he called the Lola Lolita because he was operating as Lita, as in less heavy, Engineering. Any link at any time with the eponymous film was purely coincidental.

Whilst I was not there when he did it in testing, Brian Redman set the first 100mph lap time at Oulton in the Red Rose T70 ISTR
Roger Lund

Edited by bradbury west, 02 October 2016 - 00:37.

[E1pix]

Lola just finished their marque in flames thirteen minutes before the end of the ten-hour Petit Le Mans.

I have some rare photographs here, but much more so wish it hadn't happened. :-(

Thank You to Eric Broadley and everyone involved.

[barrykm]

As a youngster in South Africa I remember seeing a gold Mk1, in period, so beautiful . Henri le Roux was the driver I think.

[Sharman]

For some photographs of the Lola works check the Revs site, under Albert R Bochroch collection and sort under Lola for marque or just set for 100 pics per page and scroll down for a couple of pages.

In a conversation with Alan Wershat a few years ago, he told me he called the Lola Lolita because he was operating as Lita, as in less heavy, Engineering. Any link at any time with the eponymous film was purely coincidental.

Whilst I was not there when he did it in testing, Brian Redman set the first 100mph lap time at Oulton in the Red Rose T70 ISTR
Roger Lund

Good morning Roger

So it was not a press nomenclature, but second owner's coming rather later than Broadley's naming of the Mk 1, and obviously was not called Lola by EB. The name Lola, if I understand correctly, was bestowed on the car (Mk 1) by Eric's wife, from the popular song  "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets".

[Allan Lupton]

I thought I remembered the Lola-Climax (as below) was referred to as the Mk. 1, but of course very few "Mk. 1" designations are not retrospective, as they were only used when the Mk. 2 appears.

[Sharman]

I thought I remembered the Lola-Climax (as below) was referred to as the Mk. 1, but of course very few "Mk. 1" designations are not retrospective, as they were only used when the Mk. 2 appears.

 

And the Mk 2 was the front engined Junior

[ray b]

the other renamed lola was the only modern indy car to win a modern F-1 GP did lola ever win an other F-1 race ?

[E1pix]

Lola's light never much shined brightly on F1, though when fired by Lamborghini it sure sang well!

[RA Historian]

the other renamed lola was the only modern indy car to win a modern F-1 GP did lola ever win an other F-1 race ?

Not for points, but John Surtees won the 1962 Mallory Park 2000 Guineas race in a Lola Mk IV.

[PeterElleray]

does Gurney's eagle count at Spa in 1967 - originally conceived as an indy car ?

[RA Historian]

does Gurney's eagle count at Spa in 1967 - originally conceived as an indy car ?

Huh?

[Charlieman]

Huh?

The Eagle was a recycled Len Terry concept following work on Indy and F1 cars at Lotus rather than Lola.

[PeterElleray]

post 21  above suggests that the 'renamed lola' (ie Honda) was the only  'modern' indycar to win a 'modern F-1 GP' (ie Monza 1967)

 

And so in my post 25 i was querying if the Eagle that won at Spa in 1967 (same year...) was another 'modern' indycar to win a 'modern F-1 GP'.

 

The initial Eagle was  designed primarily as an 'Indycar' (not that the term was in widespread use in 1967), because  that was the primary focus of Goodyear, who put up most of the initial finance. The F1 version was adapted from that rather than the other way around.

 

I think we can excuse Len Terry for any 'recycling' of the Lotus 38 concept, as he was primarily responsible for that car aswell as the Eagle.

Edited by PeterElleray, 06 October 2016 - 18:04.

[retriever]

Nice to see that the main Autosport.com page has finally caught on to the fact that Petit Le Mans was the last professional race for the marque.

[ray b]

I asked dan if any of the f-1 eagle's were reused as indy cars.
when he posted here years ago!
he said no they all were just used in f-1 .
and all are still in f-1 trim in collections today.
and the indy eagles were all build for indy races.

I remember the early mag storys stated they could be used for both races.
but they never were in the same car.

while the lola/honda in 67 was an off the shelf lola indy car.
used after john complained about the weight of the honda/honda f-1 car in 67.

Edited by ray b, 06 October 2016 - 19:36.

[E1pix]

Nice to see that the main Autosport.com page has finally caught on to the fact that Petit Le Mans was the last professional race for the marque.

We heard nothing about this on the race loudspeaker until the event was half over… 

[retriever]

A two hour compilation of last weekend's Petit Le Mans will be shown on Motors TV UK on Sunday 9th October.

[john aston]

One of the sexiest marques of them all; first saw a T70 in Denny Hulme's hands at Oulton TT and loved it , if not as much as I loved a field of mainly Lolas and Chevron F5000s  at Mallory Park  - the noise....

Edited by john aston, 10 October 2016 - 06:15.

[wildman]

The first Lola I ever saw in person must've been at the Laguna Seca F5000 event in 1971, probably Hobbo's T300 entered by Carl Hogan, wearing the No. 1 as the series' defending champion. (Can it already be 45 years ago?) The same basic chassis went on to dominate F5000 and the center-seat Can-Am for years afterward. The T300/330/332/333 must the most successful of all Lola designs, save perhaps for the T70s. 

[Giraffe]

A friend of mine who is a project manager for Masco UK Window Group has told me that his company took over Lola's old premises last week & discovered a wind-tunnel and four unspecified race-cars still resident on site!

[DogEarred]

And the nearby composites facility which was taken over by another company, still has some ex Lola employees, knowledge, hardware & electronic files.

[E1pix]

Oh, no...

[TennisUK]

I had assumed Multimatic's UK operation running the Fords in WEC were based at the old Lola facilities?

[DogEarred]

Multimatic have sites in Germany, Coventry & Norfolk, as well as Canada. I've never heard of them at the old Lola site. But I don't have any special knowledge of them.