Description
The Lola T70 was built for sports car racing, popular in the mid to late 1960s. Developed by Lola Cars in 1965 in Great Britain. Early success came when Walt Hansgen won the Monterey Grand Prix, at Laguna Seca Raceway, on October 17, 1965, driving John Mecom’s Lola T70-Ford.
In 1966, the hot setup for the Can-Am was a T70 Chevrolet. Winning five of six races during the year. John Surtees was the champion and Dan Gurney drove the only Ford powered car ever to win a Can-Am race. In 1967, no one could compete with the new M6 McLaren. The T70 was quite popular, with more than 100 examples of the vehicle being built in 3 versions.
The first version, besides the original factory car, was the open-roofed Mk II, joined by the Coupé-version Mk III, and a slightly updated version, the Mk IIIB. The T70 was replaced in the Can-Am by the lighter Lola T160. When the FIA changed the rules for sports car racing that came into effect for 1968, limiting the engine size of prototypes to 3 liters, if at least 50 were made, sportscars with up to 5000cc engines were allowed. This rule allowed the popular yet outdated Ford GT40 and Lola T70s to continue racing. The Fords won Le Mans again in ‘68 and ‘69, while the T70’s only big endurance win came in the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona where they finished 1 and 2. The winning car was the Sunoco Lola T70-Chevrolet of Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons.
This Lola T 70 was restored at a cost of Euro 120.000 and is in superb race ready condition. Developed by world famous British racing car constructor LOLA in 1965, these cars were built in order to aim for the world championship of 2-seater sports racing cars in its day.
Its closest rival was the similar constructed Ford GT 40, which too was developed initially by former Lola engineers. However, a Chevrolet 5.7 litre V 8 engine was now chosen, supplying some 450 HP at 7000 rpm.
Only a few of these extremely pretty and fantastic sports racing cars were constructed and sold to various drivers. This car boasts an overhauled LG-600 5 – speed gearbox. Nearly all Can-Am-series races during 1966 were won by the open MK 2 cars. SL 71/45 presents itself in pristine condition and would no doubt be a front runner in the right hands and as such, surely an iconic sports racing car not to be missed. It comes with Belgian FIA papers from 2008.
