Contrary
to Ferrari, Porsche, Matra, Alfa Romeo, Ford and even Abarth or Chevron
Eric Broadley of Lola Cars Ltd in Slough entered never factory cars.
Already in 1963, after the construction of his 4.2 Lola GT Mk6, he was
engaged by FoMoCo for the construction of the famous Ford GT40. However,
Broadley was no man to work under supervi-sion, so in 1965 he won his
independence back and built the Lola T70 "big banger", in close
co-operation with the F1 world champion John Surtees. In 1966 this new car
won 5 of the 6 rounds at the Canadian-American Challenge - shortly CANAM -
for "big bangers". The same year Broadley launched a closed version of his
Lola T70, the Lola T70 Mk3 GT. At the Racing Car Show in London, by
January 1967, the car, equipped with an Aston Martin V8 5-litre engine
caused a stir by its stunning lines. For the American market a T70 Coupe
equipped with a big Chevrolet engine was planned.
Not ready for the
1967 Sebring 12 hours, the closed Lola T70 was seen for the first time at
the Le Mans April trials where it realised the 3rd time (3'31"9) behind
two 4.0 Ferraris 330 P4 (3'25"5 and 3'27"6), but ahead of the 7.0 Ford
MkIV. The following day, in wet conditions, Surtees was even 6 secs faster
than anyone.
One has to wait the Francorchamps 1,000-kms to see the T70
Coupe in international competition. In hands of Paul Hawkins - that year
factory driver for Porsche and for Ferrari - the T70 with a 5.0 Chevrolet
engine finishes 4th. Then follows Le Mans where - in co-operation with
John Surtees and the Aston Martin factory team - entered 2 cars. The project
is a complete debacle. The 3'33"7 of Surtees results in a poor 13th place
on the grid and after 3 laps the car is abandoned with a broken piston.
The sister car disappears after 25 laps with an exploded engine. Exit Aston
Martin.
At the following round, the BOAC 500, two 5.0 Lolas T70 Mk3 GT
qualify at the two first places but fail to finish. At the Rheims 12 hours
they take the three first places on the grid, again without being brought
home. One has to wait the South-African Springbok Series to see the T70
Coupe winning at the Cape Town 3 hours, the Lourenço Marques 3 hours and
the Pietermaritzburg 3 hours, each time with Paul Hawkins (AU) as winner.
At the initial Kyalami 9 hours Mike de Udy was leading in his T70 Coupe
until a few minutes before the finish. Hawkins/John Love finish as 2nd in
the same race. At the Surfers Paradise 12 hours Epstein/Hawkins finish
2nd.
Despite a failing reliability at races of more than 3 hours, the
T70 Coupe is an excellent car at sprint races. In 1967 it wins the Norisring Rennen (Frank Gardner,
AU), the
Wills Trophy at Croft (Denny Hulme, NZ), the Holts Trophy at Crystal Palace
(Gardner), 2 Formula Libre Races (Sid Taylor, GB), and the Warwick Farm Gallaher Trophy (Paul Hawkins,
AU). That
gives a total of 9 victories in its first year: 6 sprint races and 3
endurance races of
3-hours. Not bad for a first year.
But the car needs development if it
wishes to be competitive in the most important races: the rounds of FIA's
Manufacturer's World Championship. |
|
For Eric
Broadley the CSI Bomb Shell of mid 1967, banning over 3-litre prototypes
from the track, looks as a commercial disaster. At once he looses the
European market. Eventually the FIA will save the Lola T70 Coupe, by
homologating it as a sports car, built at 25 copies at least, despite the
fact that only 11 were ready. In 1968
no high eyes are scored at the rounds of the Manufacturer's Worlds: no
entered Lola T70 Coupe can finish at the Daytona 24 hours, Sebring 12 hours or Le
Mans 24 hours. A 6th place at the BOAC 500, a 10th place at the
Francorchamps 1,000-kms and a 10th place at the Watkins Glen 6 hours are
the only results in major endurance races. The Springbok Series results
not in the same success as one year earlier. At the Kyalami 9-hours
Gardner/de Udy are only 5th. Hawkins wins the Cape Town 3 hours, but at
the wheel of Gunston's 4.0 Ferrari 330 P4 wit a 7-8 as bests for the T70
Coupe. The Lourenço Marques 3 hours cannot be finished. At the
Pietermaritz-burg 3 hours de Udy is a poor 17th, whilst Hawkins wins again
with the Ferrari 330 P4 and does it over at the East London 500-kms where
the T70 Coupe fails once more to finish.
Eventually 20 sprint races are won in 1968/69: the Cape South-Easter
race at Killarney (Hawkins), the Guards Spring Cup (Brian Redman,
GB), the Oulton Park Gold Cup (Mike de Udy, GB),
the Nuremberg 200-mi (Jo
Bonnier, S), the Anderstorp GP (Bonnier), Hockenheim (Ulf Norinder,
S), the Players Trophy (Hulme), 2
Formula Libre races (Taylor), the Tourist Trophy (Hulme),
the Martini Int'l (Hulme), the Croft Birthday Cup (Gardner), the Tootal GT
Championship (Taylor), twice Montlhéry (Jean-Michel Giorgi, F), the Brands Hatch Guards Int'l
Trophy (Gardner), the Vila Real 500 (de Udy), the Rhodesia GP (de Udy), Mallory Park (Taylor) and the Aspern GP (Chris Craft, GB).
After 2 years of development the obtained
results are meagre. The used Chevrolet V8 engine, with a 12.5:1
compression ratio is unreliable. In its racing version it is built for
petrol with an octane rating of well over 100 RON (with 116 RON as
optimum). Such fuel is not to find in 1968 Europe. End 1968 it's
well-known that at Zuffenhau-sen Porsche is busy to assemble its 25 copies
of the 5-litre 917 "sports car" (sic). Having no supervised race
program, Lola seems damned to play a minor role in 1969. Broadley's cars
are driven by privateers having not the smallest chance against factory
cars. He thus develops a new car, the 5.0 Lola T70 Mk3B with a lighter
all-alloy monocoque chassis derived from the T160 CANAM roadster. By using
carbon fibre the body - with a new nose - has better aerodynamic
properties. Weight goes down to 860 kgs. The car is sold with a standard
Traco modified Chevrolet V8 of 304 cubic inches (5 litre). The dubious
injection system of the Coupe is replaced by 4 downdraught Weber
carburettors. A Hewland LG600 5-spead gearbox is fitted with a 3-plate
Borg & Beck clutch. Twelve new cars lay down at the end of 1968. One of
them will be raced the whole season by a professional works team: Roger
Penske's. So there is again hope! |
