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CATEGORIES (articles) > The Cars are the Inspiration > Lola > Lola T70 History

Lola T70 History


The Lola T70 was built for sports car racing, popular in the mid to late 1960's.


Developed by Lola Racing Cars in 1965 in Great Britain, the T70 was made for endurance racing. In 1966, the open-cockpit Mk II version with a Chevrolet V8 engine was an entry in the CanAm series, winning five of six races during the year. In 1967, the T70 raced again but only won one race, outpowered by the newer McLaren made cars.

Despite its short-lived success in the CanAm series, the T70 was quite popular, with more than 100 examples of the vehicle being built in 3 versions.

When the FIA changed the rules for sports car racing that came in effect for 1968, limiting the engine size of prototypes to 3 liter, an exemption was made: sportscars with 5000cc engines were allowed if least 50 were made. This rule allowed to continue with the popular yet slightly outdated Ford GT40 and Lola T70s. Yet, instead of being only cannon-fodder to a few factory-built prototypes, the Fords won again twice at Le Mans, while Lola took the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona. When the minimum number was lowered to 25 for 1969, the new Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 were produced, outdating the Lolas and Fords.

During the filming of Steve McQueen's "Le Mans (film)", Lola chassis were sacrificed, disguised with bodywork of the Porsche and Ferrari that starred in the film.

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 CanAm by its lighter, stronger predecessor, the Lola T160.




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CATEGORIES (articles) > The Cars are the Inspiration > Lola > Lola T70 History

 
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