Description
GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED COLLECTOR'S MOTOR CARS AND AUTOMOBILIA
24 June 2022, 14:00 BST
Chichester, Goodwood
Contact: using the button below
LOT 326
1965 Lola T70 MK1 Spyder
Auction Estimate: £250, 000 - £350, 000
The Racing Car Show, John Mecom Racing, Walt Hansgen
1965 Lola T70 MK1 Spyder
• The first Lola T70 completed
• The first T70 to start a World Sportscar Championship race
• In-period race history
• Known ownership history
• Restored by the ROFGO Collection in 2018/ 2019
• Present ownership since 2018
• Eligible for Peter Auto, Masters and Goodwood
• FIA HTP to 2027
Footnotes
Lola's sublimely beautiful T70 spyder sports-racer is historically significant as winner of the first ever Can-Am Championship. It was designed and manufactured by Lola Cars Ltd, of Bromley, Kent, a relatively young company that had been building competition cars for only seven years prior to the T70's introduction in 1965. From humble beginnings – the prototype Mark 1 sports car emerged from a garage behind the Broadley family's tailoring shop in Bromley in 1958 – Lola Cars quickly established a winning reputation and grew to become a major force in world motorsport. Eric Broadley, his cousin Graham and Rob Rushbrook, at whose garage premises the first customer production versions were made, were the architects of the early success, which continued with a front-engined, single-seater Formula Junior, the Mk2.
Among Broadley's early projects was the Mk6 GT coupé, which had been designed to take advantage of readily available American V8 engines that offered the ideal combination of compact size and adequate performance. Lola's first monocoque design, the Mk6 GT became part of Ford's Le Mans programme in 1963, Broadley having been hired by the American company to assist with the development of what would emerge as the all-conquering GT40. At odds with his American bosses, Broadley left in 1964 and the following year, having penned a handful of Formula 2 monopostos, returned to sports cars with a new design for Group 7 racing: the T70. Effectively a 'formula libre' for sports prototypes - enclosed wheels and provision for an onboard spare were just about the only regulations - Group 7 was becoming popular on both sides of the Atlantic and the potential market for such cars looked promising.
Designed to accept American V8 engines, the T70 Spyder incorporated a full-length monocoque body tub fabricated of aluminium panels on a steel framework, the engine being bolted to the firewall bulkhead as a semi-stressed member. The suspension was conventional, boasting unequal length wishbones and coil spring/ damper units all round, though the positioning of the disc brakes inboard of the wheels was an unusual feature, adopted in the interests of better cooling. Hewland's new LG500 gearbox was specified, this magnesium-cased unit having been designed specifically for use with large-capacity V8 engines. Enclosing this ensemble was one of the most beautiful bodies ever to grace a racing sports car, the glassfibre panels of which were produced by Specialised Mouldings.
John Surtees was one of the first customers for the T70, running what in effect was a 'semi-works' team in 1965. Traco-prepared Chevrolet V8s were used, a 5. 0-litre unit at first and then from mid-season a 5. 9. A Mk2 version of the T70 became available before the end of the '65 season, Broadley taking advantage of the forthcoming deletion of the 'spare wheel' requirement to redesign the nose, replacing the original twin radiators with a large single unit while incorporating a host of detail improvements to both chassis and suspension. The result was a significantly quicker car, which in prototype form was driven to a convincing victory by Surtees in the Guards International Trophy at Brands Hatch on the August bank holiday weekend. Surtees then wrote off the prototype Mk2 at Mosport Park in Canada following a suspension failure, sustaining injuries that put him out for the rest of the season.
He bounced back in 1966, winning three of the inaugural Can-Am Championship's six races for Lola and defeating rivals McLaren and Chaparral in the process. Privately entered T70s won two of the other races making it a magnificent five out of six for Lola. Surtees' success capped what had been a tremendous year for the British manufacturer in North America, Graham Hill already having won the celebrated Indianapolis 500 in a T90.
Although the works McLarens would dominate Can-Am for the next five years, the Lola T70 remained a popular choice for privateers, among whom it was rated as the sweetest handling of the customer cars. Given its Can-Am origins, it is not surprising that the long-serving T70 family of sports cars was better suited to sprint events, yet against the odds a Mk3B coupé entered by Roger Penske lasted the distance to win the coveted Daytona 24 Hours endurance classic in 1969.
Chassis number 'SL70/ 3' is the first T70 built and made its public debut in January 1965 at the BRSCC's Racing Car Show held at Olympia, London. Painted dark blue with a broad white centre stripe, the breathtakingly beautiful Lola was one of the stars of the show. The first T70 to be exported to the USA, 'SL70/ 3' was sold to Texan oilman and racing team owner John Mecom on 11th March 1965 and flown to Houston two days later. On arrival in the USA, 'SL70/ 3' was re-sprayed in the metallic blue and white racing livery of the Mecom Racing Team (which it has today) and entered in that year's Sebring 12 Hours endurance race, making it the first T70 to start a World Sportscar Championship event. Testing was limited to one initial shakedown at Sebring where the Lola ran well. John Cannon managed to qualify the box-fresh and untried car in 6th place, and having made a fast start led at the end of the first lap. Sadly, co-driver Jack Saunders had to retire 'SL70/ 3' following a crash that broke the oil cooler.
John Cannon later recalled: "I drove the Ford-powered Lola T70 that John Mecom entered at Sebring in 1965. That was a very, very nice car to drive, and the car was just bloody gorgeous to look at. I was driving with a fellow named Jack Saunders. The night before I had dinner with Jo Bonnier and Mark Donohue. During our dinner, they both told me that I had a damn good chance in the race, but that I had to remember that the race was 12 hours long and not a sprint race. Even though the car was brand new, I knew that it was a damn good car, but we were hurting in the engine department because the Ford engine was mediocre at best."
At Pensacola for the first round of the 1965 USRRC in early April, Walt Hansgen placed the car on pole but retired after 12 laps. In early May, at Riverside, Hansgen qualified 3rd but was forced to switch to Mecom's new Scarab after a cracked block sidelined the T70. At Laguna Seca, Hansgen retired yet again, this time after 11 laps, and missed the Bridgehampton round as he was attempting to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. At the beginning of June during qualifying for the Players 200 at Mosport, Hansgen crashed 'SL70/ 3' and had to drive the team's sister T70, 'SL70/ 12'. This was the car's last competitive outing in period. Before then, 'SL70/ 3' had featured in Road & Track magazine's May 1965 edition and been track-tested for Sports Car Graphic magazine's August '65 edition by John Blunsden (copy article available).
Following the Mosport crash, the original Ford engine and Hewland gearbox were removed from 'SL70/ 3' and fitted to another of Mecom's Lola T70s, 'SL70/ 13'. USRRC and Can-Am driver Charlie Hayes bought the damaged car from Mecom, restored it and sold it as a 'roller' (without engine and gearbox) to Mac McClendon on 28th April 1973. McClendon added 'SL70/ 3' to his collection of Can-Am cars and in 2006 sold it race-ready to Marc Devis in Belgium. In 2011 the car was acquired by the ROFGO Collection in the UK, and following an entry in the Whitsun Trophy at the 2012 Goodwood Revival remained with ROFGO until it was sold to the immediately preceding owner. The latter kept the car for only a year before selling it in 2018 to the current vendor. The engine currently fitted is a 5. 7-litre small-block Chevrolet V8 built by Marcovicci-Wentz Engineering (MWE). A full listing of its specification is available together with a dynamometer printout (573. 5bhp @ 6, 000rpm and 544. 4lb/ ft torque @ 5, 100 revs).
Since 2018 the T70 has been maintained by Aston Motorsport Limited (who run the current owner's Aston Martin DB4GT). All AML's bills are on file, the most recent being for £7, 475 in February 2021. Registered with Lola Heritage, the car comes with an extensive history file containing bills of sale; general historical information; press cuttings and photographs; MSA correspondence; all invoices since 2018; and FIA HTP expiring in 2027.
'SL70/ 3' is eligible for Peter Auto, Masters and, of course, the Goodwood Revival Whitsun Trophy where it is potentially a winning car; indeed, with the vendor driving, the T70 finished 10th in the Surtees Trophy race at this year's Goodwood Members' Meeting.
Original Lola T70s rarely come to the market, so the sale of 'SL70/ 3' represents a possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own an example of what is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful racing sports cars ever made.
Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale
Goodwood, Chichester, West Sussex
Viewing:
23 Jun 2022 10:00 - 17:30 BST
24 Jun 2022 09:00 - 17:30 BST
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