Lola Cars — BrandWiki

Lola Cars

key people	Till Bechtolsheimer (Chairman)

industry	Automotive

products	Automobiles

divisions	Lola Composites Lola Special Projects Lola Aylings

owner	Till Bechtolsheimer

homepage	https://lola-cars.co.uk/

Lola Cars Limited is a British automobile manufacturer founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England. The company is now owned by Till Bechtolsheimer, who purchased it in 2022. Lola Cars endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola started by building small front-engine sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. In 2012, Lola Cars stopped operations. Lola returned to motorsport in 2024 by joining the Formula E World Championship as an entrant and a powertrain supplier in a technical partnership with Yamaha.

History

Lola Cars was a brand of the Lola Group, which combined former rowing boat manufacturer Lola Aylings and Lola Composites, that specialized in carbon fibre production.

Lola was acquired by Martin Birrane[1] in 1997 after the unsuccessful MasterCard Lola attempt at Formula One. After a period in bankruptcy administration, Lola Cars International ceased trading on 5 October 2012.[2] The administrator, CCW Recovery Solutions, was unable to find a suitable buyer and the firm ceased trading on 5 October 2012, laying off the last employees.[3]

On 16 October 2012, it was announced in the competition press that some assets of Lola Cars were acquired by Multimatic Inc. and The Carl A. Haas Automotive company. In addition to the asset purchase, Multimatic and Haas obtained a licence agreement to use the Lola Cars name and intellectual property.[4]

In late 2021, Till Bechtolsheimer bid and subsequently bought Lola in June 2022. The assets bought include the brand and trademarks, intellectual property, and the Lola Technical Centre (with wind tunnel). Bechtolsheimer subsequently made it clear he has the intention of reviving the company within two years.[5] He expressed an ambition to have a car on the track in the 2024–25 time frame.[5] Bechtolsheimer drove a Lola for the first time in November 2022—a 1958 Mk1 at Harris Hill Raceway.[6] In October 2024, Lola acquired Paceteq, an automotive industry data technology and software company in its bid to accelerate its development after entering Formula E.

Sports cars

Early days – the 1960s

Lola was one of the top chassis suppliers in the 1960s. After its small front-engined sports cars came various single-seaters including Formula Junior, Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1 cars.

Broadley designed the Ford V8 powered Lola Mk.6 coupe. Ford took a keen interest in this and paid Broadley to put the company on hold for two years and merge his ideas with Roy Lunn's work, giving rise to the Ford GT40. Initial work was done at the Lola works at Bromley before moving to a factory on the Slough Trading Estate. Broadley managed to release himself from this contract after a year and started developing his own cars again, retaining the Slough factory, which was in Lola's name (leaving John Wyer to find new premises for Ford Advanced Vehicles, which were also on the Slough Estate). Broadley started off in sports cars with the Lola T70 and its successors (T16x, T22x) which were used successfully all over the world from the World Championship for Makes to the CanAm series, until 1973. In 2005, Lola announced that a new batch of T70 coupés, to the original specifications, would be released. These were to be homologated for historic racing and there was talk of a one-make series for the cars. The Slough built cars incorporated the letters 'SL' in their chassis numbers, just as the cars built at Bromley had incorporated 'BR'.

1970s

Formula One

Lola resisted making a 'works' (i.e. a factory) Formula One entry for many years, being content to construct cars on behalf of other entrants. Lola's first works entry in 1997 led directly to the financial ruin of the company.

Bowmaker and Parnell

Lola made its first foray into Formula One in 1962, supplying Lola Mk4 cars to Reg Parnell's Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team, with John Surtees and Roy Salvadori as drivers. A measure of success was immediate, with Surtees's car claiming pole position in its first World Championship race, but although points were often scored, wins in Championship Grands Prix eluded the team. After Bowmaker's withdrawal, Parnell continued to run the cars privately. Privateer Bob Anderson gave the Mk4 its last victory, in the non-Championship 1963 Rome Grand Prix. Consistency, however, was not to be found, and after only two seasons, Lola abandoned Formula One cars for the time being.

"Hondola" Honda RA300 and RA301

In 1967, Lola assisted Honda Racing and John Surtees with the design of their F1 car. The overweight chassis design by the engine-specialists from Honda was abandoned, and a 1966 Lola Indianapolis monocoque (Lola T90) used as the basis for a Honda-engined car.

Formula Two / Formula 3000 / A1GP

After its limited success in the 1960s with Formula One, Lola turned its attention primarily to sports cars but also to Formula Two, where Lola became the works team for BMW. As the years went on, Lola had somewhat more success in Formula Two than it ever had in Formula One, although as March and later Ralt established themselves, Lola's involvement in the category became intermittent and less successful. The final Lola F2 was derived from a Ralt design – the Ralt RT2 became the Toleman TG280, which Toleman licensed to Lola who productionised it as the T850. When Formula Two was replaced by Formula 3000 in 1985, Lola made a "false start" with a car based on their significantly larger Indycar chassis; from 1986 they returned with a bespoke F3000 design. Lola enjoyed significant success for the next few years, competing with Ralt and Reynard, although Reynard effectively wiped the others out of the market. In 1996 the International Formula 3000 Championship became a one-make series, and Lola was awarded the contract by the FIA to build the Lola T96/50 chassis for all teams competing in the championship. The contract which was renewed in 1999 (Lola B99/50)[18][19] and 2002 (Lola B02/50) before International F3000 was replaced by GP2 and Lola lost the bid to build the new chassis.

Formula Nippon ran mixed grids of cars (with Reynard dominating) until 2003, when Lola was awarded that contract as well.

Formula 5000

In the late 1960s, the SCCA's Formula A series evolved into Formula 5000 and attracted the attention of more professional drivers and teams. It was intended to be a cheap, high-powered open-wheeled racing series using relatively cheap tuned stock-block V8 engines. Lola entered this market as well, and after some interesting struggles with McLaren, Team Surtees and Chevron, came to dominate the later years of the series, producing the bulk of Formula 5000 cars throughout the 1970s – these competed in F5000 in Europe, the US and Australasia. The cars continued when the CanAm series was revived using Formula 5000 cars as the base. Lola made a seamless switch into this kind of "sports car racing", and won five consecutive Can-Am championships.

USAC / CART / Champ Car

Lola had built chassis for the Indianapolis 500 as early as the 1960s – Graham Hill had won the 1966 Indianapolis 500 in a Lola, and Jackie Stewart raced a four-wheel drive Lola there. Al Unser won the 1978 Indianapolis 500 race in a modified Lola chassis. However, the marque did not make a fully fledged attack on the American open wheel market until the mid-1980s.

The revived CanAm was a fading series which collapsed in 1986, prompting Lola to move its focus to CART and the Indianapolis 500 beginning in 1983 with Mario Andretti driving a Lola for the new Newman/Haas Racing that year. Once again, Lola showed its ability to succeed in all motorsports outside of Formula One, pushing March down to one team for the 1990 CART season, and out of the series altogether by 1991. Six years after its full-time entrance into Indycar racing, Lola triumphed at Indy again, as the winning car for Arie Luyendyk in the 1990 Indianapolis 500.

The rivalry between Lola and Reynard continued in the United States as well as the European F3000 series. Reynard entered CART in 1994 and eventually almost completely displaced Lola from the market. By 1998 only the backmarker Davis Racing team was utilizing the Lola chassis, with Penske Racing using their own chassis, Newman/Haas Racing and Della Penna Motorsports using the new Swift Chassis, All American Racers running their own Eagle chassis, and all others running Reynards. However, when Penske Racing elected to abandon their proprietary chassis in 1999, they elected to run Lolas for the rest of that season, switching to Reynard for 2000 and 2001.

Formula E

In March 2024, it was announced Lola would make its return to single-seater racing in the 2024–25 season of Formula E World Championship as a powertrain supplier in a technical partnership with Yamaha.[20][21] A month later, Lola–Yamaha secured Abt as its first powertrain customer for the 2024–25 season onwards, with the team entering the season as Lola Yamaha Abt Formula E Team with Lucas di Grassi and Zane Maloney as the driver pairing.[22][23] In November, it was announced that Lola has taken over Abt's Formula E entrants' licence. Abt will continue to run the team operationally.[24]

Other motorsport activities

Lola built chassis for a wide range of minor categories over the years. Formula Atlantic cars tended to be derived from F2 and F3 designs, and other Lolas raced in Formula Ford, Sports 2000, Formula Super Vee and many other categories, often designed by people who went on to successful careers elsewhere in the sport. For example, Patrick Head of Williams fame designed his first cars for Broadley. There was not much profit margin in the minor-formulae cars, which tended to be built during the summer when the factory was otherwise quiet (most senior-formulae cars are built over the winter in the off-season) – but they kept staff occupied, gave designers somewhere to learn, and established relationships with drivers at early stages of their careers.

Formula 3

In Formula 3, Lola partnered with Dome of Japan to produce a chassis in 2003. There they were competing with long-established Dallara, the two makers being among the last specialty race-car manufacturers in Europe. The partnership was broken in 2005, with Lola building their own chassis which won its debut race in the British series, but the Dallara near-monopoly held.

World Rally

Naming scheme

At the time of Lola's creation, their sports cars and formula cars followed a naming scheme of being numbered in order of construction, and preceded by the term Mark (Mk1 through Mk6). However, in 1964, the designations were altered to become Type (marked as simply T), with the first digit or two designating what type of car, and the final digit designating a variant of that car. This continued until 1986 when the numbering scheme was slightly altered. The T would remain, yet the next two digits would designate the year of original design, and the next two would designate what type of car it was. The final digit would again denote variants of that design. This was again slightly altered in 1998, with the T being replaced by a B, in honor of Lola's owner Martin Birrane. The numbering system would however remain the same.[26]

Since employing the new system in 1986, the final two digits stand for the following types of cars:

Therefore, a car like the T92/10 would be a 1992 Group C car, and the B02/00 would be a 2002 Champ Car chassis.

Note that the Lola former A1 Grand Prix cars currently do not have a designation that matches this scheme, and are marked simply as Lola A1GP. The evolution of this car used in the Euroseries 3000 and its immediate successor AutoGP was given the name B0552.

/00 – CART and Champ Car
/10 – Group C and

Racecars

Racing results

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key)

- Results published in 1991 FIA Yearbook of Automobile Sport credited the 1990 constructor results to "Larrousse" rather than "Lola".

Formula E results

External links

Lola Heritage – Official Lola chassis index and history
End of the road for Lola? – Gordon Kirby, 21 May 2012
Lola announces new B05/30 Formula 3 car - 1 October 2004
Racecar database - Lola F3 B05/30 - Mugen Honda - Speedsport Magazine » Racecars » Lola B05/30 - Mugen Honda

References

Gary Watkins. Former Lola Cars International boss Martin Birrane dies aged 82 Autosport^
Lola Cars International in Huntingdon ceases trading BBC News, 10 October 2012, retrieved 10 October 2012^
Dagys, John. INDUSTRY: Lola Ceases Operations

Late 1990s and 2000s

More recently, Lola produced a range of sports cars for Le Mans-style racing starting with the B98/10, which was successful in the European market but less so in the USA. The B2K/10, with its additional central headlight reminiscent of a cyclops or a locomotive was more notable for its looks than its performance. While Lola has had limited success in the top class of the sport versus factory cars like the BMW V12 LMR and Audi R8, Lola has enjoyed periods of dominance in the second class (formerly LMP675, now LMP2), including championship class victories in the American Le Mans Series, although this has been threatened in the ALMS LMP2 by works-supported entries from Acura and Porsche.

A dedicated LMP675 car was built for MG in 2001, powered by a two-litre four-cylinder AER turbocharged engine. This was entered at Le Mans by the works team as the MG-Lola EX257, and was also run as the Lola B01/60 by private entrants. Later developments of this car have been fitted with assorted small V8s and the chassis was developed into recent customer LMP1 and LMP2 chassis.

An updated version of the Lola LMP2 came in 2005 with the introduction of the Lola B05/40 (also known as the MG-Lola EX264/265). It quickly became a contender in LMP2 by taking class honours in 2005 and 2006 at Le Mans with Ray Mallock Limited. It also earned several class wins in the American Le Mans Series in 2005 and 2006 with Intersport Racing, including a second-place overall finish in the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring. In 2007, extensive updates were made to the chassis, to accommodate the all-new Acura powerplant run by Fernandez Racing. In addition, an essentially brand new LMP2 prototype, the B07/40, was built to house the new AER-based Mazda engine. This new version is being run exclusively in the U.S. by B-K Motorsports.

Lola also updated its LMP1 challenger in 2006 with the introduction of the B06/10. The car was run in the American Le Mans Series by Dyson Racing and in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans by UK-based Chamberlain-Synergy Racing. Chamberlain continued to run the machine in 2007 and 2008, while the former Dyson cars have been run off and on in the ALMS by Cytosport Racing and Intersport Racing. As with its LMP2 program, the 2007 calendar year saw Lola introduce further upgrades with the debut of the B07/10, which saw action in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Charouz Racing and the Swiss Spirit team (using the same engine as the Audi R8).

Lola (in association with Tracy Krohn) took over the Multimatic franchise in Grand-Am's Daytona Prototype category in 2007. Krohn used his Riley cars at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2008 but switched to the new cars later in the season.

Lola also introduced a pair of closed-cockpit Le Mans prototypes in 2008, the first of which is the B08/60 running in the P1 category. The first B08/60 was raced by the Charouz team (with assistance from Prodrive) and featured an Aston Martin V12 engine to GT1 specification.

The B08/80 built to P2 regulations was first raced by Sebah Racing (and Speedy Racing in the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours) and continued racing in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.

List of F3000 chassis

T950

Lola has been supplying the car body since 1985, the first year of F3000. The body, named T950, was developed based on the IndyCar T800.

T86/50

The T86/50, designed by Ralph Bellamy, who had transferred from March, was supplied to International F3000. Some of the vehicles used in the International F3000 were sold to Japanese teams and used in the All Japan F3000 Championship the following year.

T87/50

It is a model that improved the T86/50 and made the monocoque made of carbon. In the International Formula 3000, Stefano Modena, who rides the March, won the championship, but in the All Japan F3000, which was the first year of the F3000 in 1987, as the season progressed, more teams switched from March to Lola, and Kazuyoshi Hoshino switched to Lola. Hoshino became the champion.

T88/50

Developed for the 1988 season. In the All Japan F3000, Aguri Suzuki became the champion by making full use of both Reynard and March, and Kazuyoshi Hoshino was second in the series ranking in the Lola group.

T89/50

In the All Japan F3000, Hitoshi Ogawa became the series champion (the 1988 machine was used in the early stages and the 1989 machine was used after the middle stage), and Lola's strength began to stand out. Reynard was the champion machine in International F3000.

T90/50

Until T89/50, the engine part was exposed, but for the first time in this model, a cowl covering the engine was installed behind the roll bar. The intake to the engine is not behind the roll bar until the previous year, but introduced a design that is guided from the air duct next to the cockpit, similar to the previous year's Benetton F1. Kazuyoshi Hoshino, who controlled this T90/50 in All Japan F3000, and Eric Comas, who entered from DAMS and drove the T90/50 in International F3000, became the champion, and Reynard users changed to Lola in the middle of the season.

T91/50

It looked a lot like the T90/50, but according to Lola, it was 80% new. This year, radial tires were introduced at International F3000 and the suspension geometry was reviewed. Allan McNish, who had a hard time in International Formula 3000 and participated in the previous year's champion team DAMS, suffered two qualifying losses in the three races since the opening. The All Japan F3000 also had a hard time, and at the beginning of the season, many teams used the old T90/50, but as the season progressed, more teams introduced the T91/50.

T92/50

A new underbody and front wing have been adopted to correct the aerodynamic shortcomings of the T91/50 and increase stability. The Benetton-type air intake has been abolished, and intake air to the engine has been taken in from the opening behind the roll bar. The international F3000 continued to struggle, and the only victory was Jean-Marc Gounon 's victory in the final race. At the start of the season, there was no entry for the T92/50 in the All Japan F3000, but soon more than 10 cars entered the race. Mauro Martini on Lola won the title, and Toshio Suzuki of Lola also won second place in the series ranking.

T93/50

It was an evolution of the previous year's model, but a new horizontal sequential gearbox made by Hewland was adopted. The T93/50 weighed between 20 kg and 25 kg, exceeding the specified weight. Journalist Manabu Kumano pointed out that the very heavy weight of the new gearbox may be the main cause of the overweight, comparing the weight balance with the previous year's model T92/50. At the All-Japan F3000, some teams took measures such as introducing lightweight under panels and transmission cases to reduce the weight of the rear of the machine and installing a T92/50 gearbox. There was no entry in International F3000 and it was used only in Japan. He won pole positions in Rounds 7 and 8 when the finals were canceled due to heavy fog, but he never recorded a victory. Kazuyoshi Hoshino, who drives Lola, became the third champion, but Hoshino used the previous year's machine, which has abundant data and is highly reliable. After the end of the International F3000 season, a T93/50 demonstration was held at a European circuit. The T93/50, driven by Vincenzo Sospiri, set a new time for Reynard, and Lola was confident in receiving orders from the international F3000 team for the coming season.

T94/50

The car body became thinner overall, and the side pods became smaller and shorter. It was thought that this change would make it aerodynamically stable and less susceptible to the pitching of the car body. Changes have also been made to the horizontal gearbox, which was pointed out to be overweight in the previous model. A new lightweight case with a total width of about 1 inch has been created, and the airflow behind the vehicle has also been improved. The weight of the car was 530 kg, and 20 kg of ballast was needed to meet the regulations. Two teams, Nordic and Omegaland, used Lola in the International F3000, but the top of the season was Nordic Jordi Gené 's fourth place on the Catalan circuit.

T95/50

The body design has changed significantly from T94/50. The machine has won the international F3000 since 1992, with Mark Goosen taking third place in the series. In the All Japan F3000, it was used by the Nova The 1995 champion was won by Toshio Suzuki of Lola, but due to the older T94/50.

T96/50

In order to prevent the cost of entering the international F3000 from rising, the machine was Lola and the engine was Gibson Judd's one-make series, eliminating competition in terms of hardware. The International F3000 ended in 2004, but at the Euroseries 3000 Championship, which uses the old chassis, the Lola chassis was used consistently until the end of the 2009 series.

T950

Lola has been supplying the car body since 1985, the first year of F3000. The body, named T950, was developed based on the IndyCar T800.

location country
type	Private
foundation	1958 (original) 2024 (revival)
founder	Eric Broadley
defunct	2012 (original)
location city	Huntingdon

History

Sports cars

Early days – the 1960s

1970s

Formula One

Bowmaker and Parnell

"Hondola" Honda RA300 and RA301

Formula Two / Formula 3000 / A1GP

Formula 5000

USAC / CART / Champ Car

Formula E

Other motorsport activities

Formula 3

World Rally

Naming scheme

Racecars

Racing results

Complete Formula One World Championship results

Formula E results

See also

External links

References

1980s and early 1990s

Late 1990s and 2000s

2010s

BMW Formula Two cars

Embassy Hill

Haas Lola

Larrousse & Calmels

Scuderia Italia

Unraced test cars

MasterCard-sponsored works programme

Planned 2010 project and 2019 comeback attempt

List of F3000 chassis

T950

T86/50

T87/50

T88/50

T89/50

T90/50

T91/50

T92/50

T93/50

T94/50

T95/50

T96/50

T950

T86/50

T87/50

T88/50

T89/50

T90/50

T91/50

T92/50

T93/50

T94/50

T95/50

T96/50