T70 barn find ?

[David Pozzi]

[ QUOTE ]
David
Johan's Blue one is a replica. (Heritage) There were 4 Donohue T70 Spyders. I have one of the four Pensky/Donohue Spyders
SL 71-32. It's now a coupe. Johan's Bartz car wasn't the yellow one. It's the first one they built. SL 71-34.
The Yellow one wasn't built on a T 70 Tub but was 160.

[/ QUOTE ]

The coupe's attract more attention but I'd rather race a spyder. We had a coupe roll over at Laguna Seca years ago, Terry Jones was driving and it landed on it's roof! He couldn't get out of the car until they righted it. Good thing it didn't catch fire...

I'd like to build a Coupe for street use some day. I've been saving parts...

Has anyone used a Hewland for street? A friend built a McLaren Coupe and the Hewland in that made a HUGE noise! I could hear the gear whine long before I could see the car coming. But I had anoter friend with an original T-70 Coupe with Hewland LG600 and his was very quiet.

[Johan]

Jim, the blue car is a replica, but did you know that Lola
Cars Ltd. were very happy with the car's wins at Spa and Nurburgring ?They wrote congratulatory letters after each win. The car is absolutely ultra fast, and is what a T70 would have become if still in development for another 15 or so years. The car, even as a replica, has enough race history to qualify to run SVRA events, in group 7.
The reason I mention this is that I hate to take it all apart to turn it into the coupe.
Alas, I feel that the only thing to do is build a new car to take the coupe body. Rats, there goes at least a year of garage time.
David, thanks for all the helpful participation. I love your car, and as I become more familiar with mine, I'm sure I'll have a million questions.
I'm in the process of scanning photos of the car prior to and during the conversion to a coupe. If there is any interest, I will post them.
Pete, it is not a jackpot, but a great find. There is a difference. I am poorer for sure as a result of finding the car, but a cheerful poor person non-the-less !

[Johan]

David, the wheels are magnesium that have been steel wooled and painted and clear coated. Awful, but fixable ! Probably not suitable for racing any longer, but I have some extras that will do nicely. What size wheels and what type of tires do you use ?
Thanks,
Johan

[MK -IV J6]

David
I drove SL 71-32 for many years on the street with her original Hewland. I really had no problems at all but it was a bit noisy. When I converted to a coupe I fitted a GT 40 ZF box that came from Kar Kraft.
You are right about the Coupe re: roll over. The original Lola roll bar was muffler pipe!

http://www.gt40s.com/ubbthreads/show...0/page/4#20857

On the street where I now drive my cars I'm very carefull to avoid roll over etc. It amazes me how fragile some of these cars are, my 412P and P 3/4 for example.
The guys that raced those in the rain at Spa had big ones.
Johan
You could leave the Bartz coupe as it is. It is "Disco Cool" and would make a fine street car as mine now does.
Best

[Johan]

David, this is a better picture of the wheel.
Jim or anyone, I've heard the name before, but who was John Mecom ? I think I found a bill of sale to John Mecom .

[MK -IV J6]

John was US agent for Lola Cars. He was a Texan who was very involved in racing at the time. A lot of great cars passed through his hands.

[Johan]

Thanks Jim...
Hey, do you have any spyder bodywork left ....?
If so, is it really lightweight or medium , or what ?
David, do you run with the original lightweight bodywork, or is yours a more durable thicker body ?
I don't car about how well it holds paint, so long as it does not crack.
David, this is what the "Sunoco" car used to look like.
Also, I need a new left side fuel cell. It looks like a caterpiller, with indentations for the pod ribs.

[MK -IV J6]

Hi
I have an original Specialized Mouldings Nos Coupe body but my Spyder Body is long gone.
(Unpainted body hanging on wall)

[Johan]

How can anyone say a MK IV body is not rolling sex !
Jim, are you going to Goodwood this year ? If not, I've rented a track for that weekend and am inviting friends to come out and play (casual laps).

[MK -IV J6]

Hi
Not yet sure.
Best

I'm off for the Historic Targa Florio on Mon.

[woodz428]

I must say that is quite a nice find. It also looks like the chicken coupe/barn/sorncrib/whatever it was in was pretty clean from the looks of the car. Congratulations. Makes me want to go hitting old farms in the area this weekend.

[Johan]

The car was wrapped in plastic, as if in a baggie ....!

[BenL]

[ QUOTE ]
If my wife sees that crap she will have my a$$. If I can make it through this weekend without her discovering them, I think I'm safe ! My house is full of Lola crap from the basement to the attic. There was an intake manifold in the dishwasher last night and I got busted for that.

[/ QUOTE ]
Try getting your wife involved. I took my wife for a couple of rides in my cars, and now she's nagging me for more rides. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[David Pozzi]

Johan,
Something looks different in the hub area of your ft wheel, I think it is the center hole is smaller size than I have seen. There should be a dust cap on there as well, mine were crome plated. some owners use a "Nylo" seal behind the nut and run without a cap.

The "correct" MKI wheels are 8" wide but the spokes do not taper closer together as they go outward to the rim, they stay parallel. Later wheels in 8" taper as in your photo, and the spokes run longer into the wheel rim like yours do. Yours look like the 8" wheels. There is a 9" spoke wheel like yours, the difference is, the spokes stop at the first point they meet the outer rim and do not continue down the side of the rim drop like the ones in your photo.

The Lola Wheels have been known to break, I saw one break on the front straight of Sears Point, CA, it broke in the rim lip area, the other one broke in mid-spoke, actually it cracked and was taken off the car. Several T-70 owners will not trust the original wheels and run copies, old Halibrands or Jongblood wheels.

On my car I have an original T-70 coupe wheel I can take a photo of if you want to see one. Supposedly the coupe wheels have a lip on the edge of the rim where a tire machine tool would rub. The Can-Am wheels seem to have just a raised lip there, but the coupes have a cuved lip similar to a steel wheel that you almost could attach a clip-on wheel weight to.

I have Halibrand wheels that say "Mecom Racing" on the backside and also the backspace: 2.5" ft 4.5" rear, and the wheel width: 9" ft and 12" rear.

John Mecom was the Lola importer before Carl Haas took it over, Haas was the McLaren (Trojan?) Importer before he switched to Lola.
I think by the time the MkIII came out, Haas was the importer. I'd guess 1967 or 1968.

David

[David Pozzi]

Johan,
Pardon me, but your photos are blurry!
If you are using a point and shoot film camera, make sure you hold it steady for a longer time after you press the button. My first photos came out like some of yours, I did not allow enough time for the camera to autofocus and snap the photo before I lowered it.

Perhaps it's something else, but I'm wishing they were clearer so I can really check your car over!!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Jim,
I didn't know what to call you! Your name does not appear over your Avatar like everyone else.

You guys have some great cars!

[David Pozzi]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Jim...
Hey, do you have any spyder bodywork left ....?
If so, is it really lightweight or medium , or what ?
David, do you run with the original lightweight bodywork, or is yours a more durable thicker body ?
I don't car about how well it holds paint, so long as it does not crack.
David, this is what the "Sunoco" car used to look like.
Also, I need a new left side fuel cell. It looks like a caterpiller, with indentations for the pod ribs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Johan,
I use an original body for a MkII. My MkI body that came with my car was smashed up pretty good and came with a MKIII spyder non-headlight nose.

The body I use is an original, it was used on the John Surtees MkII that ran at Stardust Las Vegas in 1967.
Surtees drove a MKIII that year but didn't like it! He repurchased his "old" MkII 1966 chassis and used wider MKIII 9" front wheels and I believe he used his MkII body on it but with flared front and rear wheelwells to clear the wider wheels. When I sanded down the body, I found it to be red with white Surtees arrow down the center on nose and tail!

I get starburst chips on the fender tops front and rear. I don't have any protection underneath and of course slicks throw lots of rocks. No cracking problems to speak of and I have raced the car since 1978! but only average one event a year because I'm pretty buisy working on our family farm.

I made up a "mock up" fuel tank out of aluminum and had a new cell made to fit that, my car was originally built with just fuel tanks with baffles! I cut open the pass side top, and removed the baffles, my tanks are .090" thick aluminum made up of four sections welded together. I guess Lola didn't have the equipment to form a long fuel tank that thick, so they made it in smaller sections. The original owner Buck Fulp, told me he had a leak in it at a race in Florida.

I made a rivet on top cover to the tank and installed a flush filler cap on the cover plate, I open the door to fill it. It isn't safe to race with the standard fillers, they have long hoses reaching to the filler caps, if the car were to get body damage there, the fuel would spill out very easily or tear the bladder.

The MkI tub is supposed to be 50 lbs heavier than a MkII due to more steel used instead of aluminum, and thicker tanks. Most MkI's have been re-tubbed by now. the advantage is, they hold up pretty well and seem to be stiffer torsionally.

Another weakness is the throttle pedal, the pivot for it is very weak and if the driver downshifts by hitting the pedal with some side pressure, the pedal can break off! Mine did at Laguna Seca, but first before it broke completely off, it bent outward and stuck wide open!!! THEN it broke off.

The pedal wedged against the right side of the tub in the floored position.

I made a bracket to suport the gas pedal pivot on it's outer end so that can't happen again.
David

[Johan]

Thanks David. My car is a MK II, not a MK I. The wheel center has a "cap" covering the bevel cut out for a knock-off. I'll take another picture of the wheel without this. I'm sorry to hear about the original wheel problem. I have three sets of original wheels. Crap ! Two sets look like these. This is the car at a car show in 1980.
Sorry about the crummy pictures. I agree that they are blurry.

[Johan]

Ben, she just does not care for the car stuff. Oh well, at least she lets me have my fun. They all look the same to her.

[Johan]

Here is the chassis from the last time it was restored. You can see the remnants of a roll bar. This picture was taken in november 1980 I believe.