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