I worked as the chief engineer at Lola (1969–1981) during one of their most productive and interesting periods. The number of fascinating incidents that happened during that period is endless.
Not long after I joined Lola, at their factory in Slough, which must have been around 1970, we had a very serious fire in the workshop that could have wrecked the whole business. In those days we had our magnesium wheels cast at an outside foundry but machined in-house. On this particular occasion a pile of swarf under the lathe was set alight by material already on fire adding to the pile. My guess is that this was caused by machining with a blunt cutting tool.
