New Manufacturer - Forum Now Open!

Ron Earp

Admin
Soon a new manufactuer of Lola T70 replicas will join us here at GT40s.com. More info to follow later this week!
 

Ron Earp

Admin
Re: New Manufacturer

This Forum is sponsored by our own Fran Hall from Race Car Replicas. Fran will be (is) bringing a Lola T70 to market that sounds fantastic and I hope to take a look at one first hand. His website is www.race-car-replicas.com but it does not appear to be up at the moment. My apologies if I got this website wrong, please let me know if it should be different. Look forward to seeing a T70 community grow and florish here with the GT40s, Best,
Ron
 

Fran Hall RCR

GT40s Sponsor
Re: New Manufacturer

www.race-car-replicas.com
Sorry folks...I have been busy building chassis and suspension components for car number two.

The site is up and available for veiwing but as yet is very sparce and just a temporary one.
I will update with lots of info and pictures in the next week or so....

Thanks Ron.
 
Re: New Manufacturer

hi Fran

looks like you will have to give up the day job?
Well done,

Chris.
 
Re: New Manufacturer

Nice one Fran.

Perhaps one day there will also be a forum for a Lola MK6 GT replica. I'm sure Ron's rates are reasonable /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Rob
 

Ron Earp

Admin
Re: New Manufacturer

Maybe we could use the same one, Lola replicas all inclusive? I want to start an XJ13 one too.
 
Re: New Manufacturer

Double Yay! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 

Pete K.

GT40s Supporter
Re: New Manufacturer

Very, very nice! Hurry up and finish the site so I can drool over more pictures. (Oh, and what sorts of parts should I start saving up so I can build one?) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I suppose the roll over bar from the front to back is necessary to meet racing needs?
 

Pete K.

GT40s Supporter
Re: New Manufacturer

Never mind, I went back and read all of the messages I missed in the other threads.

I'll keep an eye out for more pictures. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Re: New Manufacturer

Hi Everyone,

Good new addition, Ron. There is after all a 'family connection'.

Congratulations, Fran, looks great. Do I recognise those wheels?

The heritage division of Lola Cars has opened a website www.lolaheritage.com. It's relatively new and all Lola owners and enthusiasts are asked to make contributions and to support Glyn Jones who was asked by Lola chairman, Martin Birrane, to fly the Lola heritage flag.

In 1996 Norman Lewis completed a GTD Lola T70 MK111B in my factory. Eric Broadley gave Ray Christopher and Graham Kelsey permission to copy the car and as he had his boat moored in Poole he would often drop in at GTD to check on progress.

As usual in our industry there is an interwoven plot!

In the mid-1960s to early 1970s when the Lola T70s came out to race in the Springbok Series, a round of endurance races in South Africa of which the Kyalami Nine Hour was the big one, a school boy by name of Peter McGivern fell in love with the shape of the brutal car not to mention the angry grunt of the Chevvy engines.

In February 1987 I interviewed David Piper for my Kyalami book at his house in Windlesham, Surrey. You want to see the mouth watering collection of the world's most unique racing sports car in his garage at the back of the house. Drool! There is a section in the book called 'Kyalami Characters' and for this there are interviews with 15 main players, David being a star as he won the Nine Hours six times between 1962 and 1969. Can't write a book about Wimbledon and not include John McEnroe!

After the interview David told me about his classic racing sports car series and how he would love to return to South Africa. I said I would make it happen but I don't think he believed me! Like Oh Yeah!!!!

I spent the next nine months liaising with Liz Piper (all racing drivers have long-suffering wives!!!) about air tickets, hotels, car hire ,etc, but sponsorship was an uphill battle. I then handed the file to a committee member of our local Western Province Motor Club, the sort of Guy who could sell ice to Eskimos without a discount. He flew to Johannesburg and managed to persuade the boss of Yellow Pages to part with a substantial amount of money and the deal was on.

David Piper and friends arrived in Cape Town in February 1988 to a huge welcome by racing enthusiasts about to be transported back in time. Lola T70 entries as follows;

Michael Wheatley (MK111B); John Hunt (MK111B); Stuart Graham (MK111B); Colin Parry-Williams (Spyder); Terry Smith (MK111).

The Ford F3L had come undone in the container and after banging backwards and forwards for 11 days it didn't look good. I whipped it off to my factory and had it repaired and sprayed in time for the race. In a recent race at Spa in the wet, the F3L lost it and spun like a top. It was discovered many years later that the lay up at the back of the long tail was too heavy which caused the gyroscopic effect! Sorry about that! Luckily the car is still around and went well in February this year.

Now back to Peter McGivern, who is a director of a large plastics blow moulding company. When he saw his beloved Lolas again in 1988 he took action and placed an order for a kit with GTD. When I arrived at GTD in December 1991 with the build details and costing schedule of the KVA type GT40 that Norman Lewis and I built (laying the foundations for CAV), I was told that a fellow countryman, a Peter McGivern, had ordered a T70 kit. The world being as small as it is I knew the McGiverns and their plastics business.

When I returned home I phoned Peter who told me that he wanted to build the car on a part time basis. Knowing how many hours he spends at his factory I could see years and not months. I said that if he needed help he must call as we had been around that block before. True enough , three years later I had an SOS call and the 25% complete car was brought to my factory and Lewis became a busy man again!

Norman cladded the chassis with pre-cut and shaped aluminium panels to give it a monocoque appearance and about 1,500 rivets were used. An old Chevvy engine was rebuilt to produce about 400 bhp. It's fitted with four downdraught Webers, Brodix street performance heads and roller cams and rockers. Also a four-bolt mains block. Gearbox is Renault 30 which looks good, almost race car like.

When the red beast was fired up for the first time the engine ran unevenly and no matter what was tried the problem couldn't be solved. In desperation Peter contacted Inglese Induction Systems in Connecticut and those clever guys immediately figured out that the camshaft was meant to partner a Holley carb and not four Webers. A new cam and set-up specs were despatched and from then on the Chevvy mill was as smooth as silk.

End result. A stunning replica of a Lola MK111B. Peter has only done about 1, 500 miles in the past eight years and says that rearward vision is virtually zero making it difficult for road use. Jim (MK1V - J6) doesn't agree.

I wrote an article on the build of the T70 for the British publication, 'Kit Cars International'(February 1999 edition). The three pages follow below. The South African flag is wrong. It's the old pre-1994 one.

Best wishes,
Andre 40
 

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Re: New Manufacturer

Hi Everyone,

When I phoned my old buddy, Bud Rossler, from our days with Stirling Moss in London, to tell him of the David Piper and friends visit to South Africa in 1988 he asked me to ask the Lola drivers an important question.

Bud, who was is acknowledged T70 expert, asked me to ask the Lola T70 owners if they knew of the modification to the mounting points of the rear trailing arms or track rods, call them what you like. Bud said that there was a weakness on the T70 where the trailing arms were attached to their mounting points behind the rear bulkheads. He said that the mounting plates and brackets were beefed up in later T70s. Bud had a theory that Paul Hawkins's fatal accident at Oulton Park was caused by this problem, whereby an arm would detach itself under load and the rear wheel would develop a mind of its own and steer the car from behind, like off the circuit.

I did as Bud asked and asked all the T70 drivers about this. Given that it was some 20 years later and that racing cars were constantly being modified and improved in the 1960s no one could answer me.

I almost wish I hadn't asked for in the race at East London, after the opening race in Cape Town, Mike Wheatley, driving MK111B, chassis number SL76/138, had an horrendous accident. In the following pic of the Lola flying through the air the left rear wheel can be seen at an alarming angle of about 45%. Is this what Bud spoke about and feared?

Mike was badly injured in the accident and spent a long time in the Frere Hospital at East London, where the fist South African Grand Prix was held in 1934 and where 1979 World Champ, Jody Scheckter, was born and grew up. Mike's lower right leg was badly mangled and after a long battle to save the leg it was decided to amputate, almost in exactly the same place as his friend and racing colleague, David Piper, who suffered a similar fate whilst filming for Steve McQueen's Le Mans film in 1970.

Having told you this story, if there are owners of original T70s or T70s about to be restored, please take note of this situation. There are two Lola T70 experts around - Clive Robinson and Laurie Bray. I'm sure that they would be able to pass comment. Let me know and I'll let you have their contact details. In the meantime I'll also ask Bud.

Anyway, racing drivers are a tough breed and it wasn't long before Mike was up and running as if nothing had happened. I'm sure he had a good mentor in David Piper!

Take it easy,
Andre 40
 

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Re: New Manufacturer

Seven pics of the David Piper classic race series, held at the Killarney, Cape Town, in February, follow:

The first pic is of Lola expert and restorer, Chris Fox, is the ex-John Surtees T70 Spyder.
 

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Re: New Manufacturer

Frank Sytner's MK111 in Bongrip colours.

More brutal than a GT40?
 

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Re: New Manufacturer

Nigel Hulmes's MK111B.

It is a beaut isn't it?
 

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Re: New Manufacturer

Hulme again. Not the best of pics.
 

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