Article: Lola T70 MkIII / MkIIIB

[Steve Holmes]

Perhaps the greatest missed opportunity for the T70 coupe was the 1968 World Sportscar Championship. In 1967, the Commission Sportive Internationale dropped a bomb-shell, announcing new maximum engine capacities of 3 litres for Group 6 cars, and 5 litres for Group 4 cars. This new ruling immediately outlawed the 7 litre Ford MkII and MkIVs, and the Chaparrals, plus the Lola T70 MkIII. When first launched, Broadley tried to have the T70 MkIII accepted as a Group 4 car, of which 50 cars must have been produced. To do this he needed to combine production numbers for both the endurance coupe and the Group 7 spyder. But the CSI weren’t wearing it, and the MkIII was forced to compete in Group 6. But for 1968, with the FIA announcement, Broadley started being hit with cancelled orders, as suddenly the Chevy powered MkIII had nowhere to race. At this, Broadley demanded that the coupe be accepted as a Group 4 car, to which the CSI now agreed, with a maximum engine size of 5 litres, and minimum weight of 800kg.

The Lolas only competition in Group 4 were the ageing Ferrari 250LMs, and hefty Ford GT40s, both it which it could outrun. The newly restructured Group 6, which was now aimed at 3 litre F1 powered low-volume sports cars, would go through something of a teething season, with Ferrari withdrawing, Porsche coming in with a small 2.2 litre 8 cylinder, and Matra and Alpine Renault in the early development stages of building 3 litre motors ultimately intended for F1. Here was a golden opportunity for Lola to gun for outright World Sportscar Championship honours, and yet, they didn’t contest the 1968 championship as a factory team. There would be several privateer teams based in Europe who planned to contest selected races, the most notable being Ecurie Bonnier, run by Jo Bonnier, who’d bought the ’67 factory MkIII prototype. In the US, actor James Garners American International Racing team switched from running B Production Corvettes to a pair of T70s. But no customer Lola team would enter the entire championship. Of the teams that did appear, most were competitive, often leading the races in the early stages, until struck down with reliability problems, usually related to the Chevy power plants. The best finish for a T70 in the 1968 championship was a sixth place for Bonnier at Brands Hatch.

For the ’69 season, the CSI reduced the minimum build number for Group 4 cars to just 25 units, at which point, Porsche gained backing from Volkswagon to produce 25 5 litre 917s, with the aim of winning the Le Mans race outright. However, as Porsche planned to debut the car in May 1969, the Lola was still the fastest vehicle in Group 4 for the early part of that season. Porsche 908s were still outright contenders and in Group 6, and Ferrari was returning with its 3 litre F1 powered 312, another Group 6 car, along with the growing strength of Alpine-Renault, Matra, and Alfa Romeo. Lola had missed its opportunity in 1968, and now faced stiff competition for ’69.

1969 saw the release of Broadleys latest evolution of the T70, the MkIIIB. The IIIB boasted a number of improvements, including suspension, brakes, and aerodynamics, and was aesthetically a more purposeful looking machine, with squared off bodywork, and sharper features with deep, chizzeled nose. It was also lighter. With no factory team, Broadley sought to offer support to Penske Racing in the US, Sid Taylor in the UK, and Jo Bonnier in Europe. Bonnier was the only one of this trio planning to compete at every World Championship round, but his was a very low-budget effort.

At the opening championship race at Daytona, the T70 claimed its one and only World Sportscar Championship victory, when Mark Donohue/Chuck Parsons won against a field comprising three other T70s, those of Bonnier/Ulf Norinder, and the pair of AIR ’68 model cars, plus John Wyers GT40s, and a brace of Porsche 908s. The new 917 hadn’t yet arrived, and no other major Group 6 cars were entered, other than a single Matra which was withdrawn during practice.

Other than this, and despite a Lola presence of some sort in every race throughout the season, the only other top result was second for Bonnier/Herbie Muller at the Osterreichring in August. In that race, the privateer Lola, run on a shoestring, really took it to the factory 917, and had Muller been as quick as the brilliant Bonnier, could well have won. The Porsche was thirstier, requiring more stops, and refused to restart during one of these, allowing the Lola to get closer. Of the final Porsche pit stop, with the Lola pushing hard to catch up, Motor Sport magazine scribe Dennis Jenkinson wrote; “The tension was great, for the slightest slip could throw the race away, and it was ironical to think of the whole computerised and electronically controlled Porsche team, with the pits knee-deep in engineers and mechanics being brought into such a state of nervous twitch by two private drivers controlled by two mechanics, Bonniers wife, and a friend”.

Lola finished third in manufacturer points for 1969.

The writing was on the wall. As the season progressed, and the new, lighter, faster, more nimble 3 litre Group 6 cars got up to speed, the Lola struggled. Two years earlier it was often the fastest car, if not the most reliable. Now it no longer had outright pace on its side either.

Although the T70 missed a golden opportunity to enjoy international success in World Sportscar racing in 1968, the car was a sales success for Lola Cars. The T70 MkIII was once described as “a superb chassis lacking a competitive engine”. Certainly, the Chevy motor was a great weapon to have in sprint racing events, and in shorter domestic non-WSC races was often dominant, but in the long distance races held throughout the World Sportscar Championship, it struggled, prompting Jenkinson to write “it would seem that 200 miles is still a long way to race a Chevrolet engine, when it is basically a standard unit prepared by small time tuners”. But the T70 possibly also suffered from a lack of a concerted factory team effort. Lola was by and large a race car manufacturer, whose main source of income was to sell cars for customers to race. Thus, they didn’t need to rely on sponsorship or prize money to survive and prosper. But, the flipside to that was the true potential of their race cars was not always realised. Imagine what might have been achieved had Lola teamed with Penske Racing for a full assault on the entire World Sportscar Championship.

The Lola T70 MkIII/B is a popular contender in modern day historic racing. The shorter sprint race format of historic racing, combined with the great level of understanding brought on by decades of development of the small block Chevy motor, makes the T70 a match for cars that, in period, held the upper hand.

* Photo courtesy of James Old: www.magnoliabox.com showing Jo Bonnier at Nurburgring 1000kms, 1969.