21 replies to this topic

[biercemountain]

Back in the early eighties I went to see a Camel GT race at Road Atlanta but until recenlty wasn't sure exaclty what year. Well, thanks to a link another member posted for a database of program covers I've been able to determine that it was the 1981 IMSA race. When I saw the program cover I instantly recognized the blue and yellow Lolas that dominated that weekend.

Now my question is: What model Lolas are they? I also can't help but notice how similar they look to the current Daytona Prototypes.

[fausto]

Lola T600 JLP Racing (John Paul) and Cooke-Woods (the team Brian Redman drove for, and won lotta of races!)

[MCH]

how similar they look

Really? I don't think they look like Nascarfied sportscars at all, in these you can't wear a tophat. (and the cabin is a lot smaller, covered wheels etc)

[fausto]

ground effect too, the T600 had two magnificient tunnels, running alongside the cockpit and the engine bay....

[T54]

When Brian Redman was driving the Cooke-Woods car, it was shaking and trembling from the chassis flexing in all directions from the massive suction from those tunnels...
You would WISH that the ugly DP would look even close to those Lola things. They were'nt beauty queens themselves but nowhere as bad as the DP's.

[2F-001]

biercemountain -
You might be interested in tracking down the video "Red Mist Stuff" which follows the fortunes of the Cooke-Woods car at the 1981 Mosport 6-hours - it's a mix of race footage, overlaid comment from the drivers and in-car footage.

[petefenelon]

Like many here, I thought DPs were ugly at first, and some of them are plain weird-looking - I'll never quite get my head round the Doran (the car that makes the big glasshouse most obvious) or the Picchio. The Fabcar isn't too bad; the Crawford looks pretty good to me though, and the Riley looks like a slightly stumpy GTP. You get used to them. And close-up they look a lot better than they do in photos...

The front view of them is the weird one, with the width of the glasshouse being a bit "odd".

Yes, they're not the best looking prototypes ever, but I've seen more unlikely things in C2.

[David M. Kane]

The Lolas weren't cheap, didn't they cost north of $600,000 to purchase?

[biercemountain]

Originally posted by David M. Kane
The Lolas weren't cheap, didn't they cost north of $600,000 to purchase?

Judging from their dominant performance that weekend, the Lola's were worth the money. I remember them being the class of the field as they trundled around with nary a competitor in sight.

What kind of engine did they have anyway?

[mwphoto]

A few Lola T600 pics from Road America 1981
Brian Redman/Sam Posey

Chris Cord/Jim Adams

Ted Field/Bill Whittington


A brief history of the Lola T600 here

[T54]

$600000.00!!!!

Let's come back to planet Earth please: in 1982, the Lola T600 cost $160000.00, the March GTP $150000.00, the Rondeau GTP $123000.00, and a JLP-style 935 was north of all at about $180000.00.
All cars sold with gearbox but no engine except for the Pork that was basically a turn-key car built by either Fabcar or JLP. The cost of a Chaparral-Chevy engine was $23000.00 including all ancillaries except fuel pump and exhaust.
I remember the figures pretty well since I went myself to Midland to purchase an engine from Hall, and was the US Rondeau distributor and sold 2 cars to the Golden Eagle Racing team and Gary Belcher. I knew how much those things cost and still have all the Rondeau documentation, price sheets with comparison to Lola and March, and a fabulous collection of pictures in a 3" thick book assembled by the Rondeau works.

[David M. Kane]

Ah...I mean inflated 2006 dollars?

It was in the form of a question T54...

[T54]

Hi David, serious inflation since 1982...

The engines were mostly Gerald Davis-built Chaparral Chevies with 540 reliable horses and torque enough to twist those hastily pasted together monocoques to scary levels... I remember the beating they took at some tracks like on the "hump" at Sears... scary to watch.

[2F-001]

re. engines - I'd say a Chev was the most 'normal' item, although there was an attempt at a Porsche installation (Cooke-Woods again?) with a view to running at Le Mans, but that didn't pan out too well.
Guy Edwards ran a Cosworth DFL engined version.
I do know of one that was powered by a fairly costly electric motor, but it's only one-tenth scale and is sitting on top of a cupboard near my desk!

I always thought the black Interscope cars looked great - although it seems to be a car that doesn't look so good from all angles.

[Mallory Dan]

The T600 will always be a favourite of mine 'cos it heralded the start of serious GroupC/GTP. Okay the Rondeaux/WMs were around before 81, but it seemed to signal the start of a revival in Sportscars.
I remember MN introduced the car as the 'son of the T70' or suchlike, which may have been a bit of journalistic licence, but it turned out to be quite accurate in that for a few years the T600s provided, relatively, cheap racing in a 'big' Sportscar on the classic tracks. A pity that IMSA and the FIA couldn't have agreed on the exact same regs over the next 10 years or so.

[Alan Cox]

Here are some pictures of the Edwards/de Villota T600 from the Silverstone 6 Hours World Endurance race of 10 May 1981.
2F-001 says it was a DFL-engined chassis, but the entry listed a 2993cc DFV - was this incorrect?

[David M. Kane]

2993cc are the specs of a 3.0L F1 DFV motor...

[2F-001]

I wasn't suggesting that the Edwards Lola only ever ran with a DFL (although I hadn't recalled its race(s) with a DFV) - but it is recorded in race reports as having appeared with a 3.3 DFL several times later that year.

[Mallory Dan]

The Karl-Heinz Becker T600 raced for years in Interserie, and once in Group C as a C2, with a 1.4 BMW turbo installed. Nice car, but driver none too quick!

[2F-001]

Does anyone know how closely related the later 6- - cars, such as 616, were to the T600?
A couple of those ran with Matty Holzberg's Polimotors - (just to make the engine choice even more diverse).

[biercemountain]

Pardon me for asking, but how did one service the rear wheels with those fairings in place? Was there some sort of quick release mechanism for getting the panel out of the way so the tires could be changed?

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by 2F-001
Does anyone know how closely related the later 6- - cars, such as 616, were to the T600?
A couple of those ran with Matty Holzberg's Polimotors - (just to make the engine choice even more diverse).

Tony the T616s were based much more on the T610 than the T600. I've no idea on the mechanics of them, but the 610 looked v different to the 600. A lot lower and 'swoopier', though a dog on the track. 2 T610s were made, one for the works with Edwards/Keegan, one for Cooke-Woods which only turned out at Le Mans in 82 and 83. One was sold to Oz, the other to John Bartlett for C2 in 84-85-86.

The T616 C2 cars were scaled down T610s, rather than T600s.