1966 Lola T70 SL71/48

If there was a racing car that most of the great and the good of both professional and amateur motor racing have competed in it would have to be one form or another of the Lola T70—not only in the UK, but in all corners of the world. It came from the pen of Eric Broadley after a number of political decisions, or indecisions, were made. In the first instance, Ford was “hell bent” on winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a crown to that point held by international drivers, but the sole prize of European manufacturers and marques. During 1963, in an audacious move to achieve this, the “Blue Oval” hierarchy made representation to none other than Enzo Ferrari with a view to purchasing his self-built empire. However, as history has shown, the notion that a precious Italian jewel could be pried away by an American conglomerate was simply a bridge too far for Il Commendatore. Ferrari, at this time, although rich in motor racing accolades, was relatively cash poor, as building and selling high-end roadcars was their only income—consuming much time and cash. Enzo had valued his company at around $18 million, but the account books told a much different story, and after a much lower offer was made by the boys from Dearborn, the deal was off. So, Ford had to look elsewhere.

Grand Prix racing in the 1930s had been dominated by Germany, in the early to mid-1950s it had been Italy, but in the early 1960s it was the UK ruling the waves of success on many motor racing circuits. At this time, the UK was becoming the focal point for motor racing, more nimble rear-engined machines were replacing the big front-engined cars—thanks mainly to Cooper and Lotus. Over the years, the 750 Motor Club had spawned many great names of our sport, including Colin Chapman, Mike Costin, Brian Hart and Eric Broadley. Initially, Broadley trod the same path as Frank Lloyd Wright in the world of architecture, but the motor racing bug bit and he was hooked when his own design of car began to become successful. So, Broadley’s straight lines of buildings turned to the curved lines of car design. Like Cooper and Lotus, drivers of his Lola cars were regularly gaining podium places.

The Genesis of the Lola T70

This UK success had appeared on Ford’s radar and an approach was made to Cooper, Lotus and Lola, with the latter winning the prize on offer—especially after Ford had caught sight of Broadley’s MkVI GT car, launched at the Racing Car Show in 1963. Initial testing and racing showed the car held a great deal of promise. Taking the car to Le Mans, initially purely as a technical verification objective, it was allowed to race after modifications were made. However, having not gone through the qualification procedures and without much, if any, track time, the car was ill prepared for such an endurance event and retired after completing just over half the race. Nevertheless, this was enough for Ford to grasp the potential of the car and they purchased the prototype along with offering Broadley a contract to develop it into the race-winning “holy grail” of a machine it sought. As time went by, Broadley detected a certain intransigence dealing with an enormous corporate company—his free-thinking approach was being stifled—creating and developing a car by committee was simply not his style. There were too many people wanting their say and their fingers in “the pie”—a trait that has blighted Ford over the years and something it still suffers from today. Recapturing his freedom meant cutting ties with Ford and allowing the company to go its own way. Ultimately, the Lola MkVI GT evolved into the Ford GT40, and Broadley went on to design and develop a new big-engine sports car to the new Group 9 regulations.

Liberated from the shackles of a global corporation, Broadley’s pen was able to flow once again to design another master of the track—the Lola T70. This was his offering to the emerging scene of racing high-powered cars, a seed set in the USA that would blossom into the inaugural Can-Am series while also being discovered by racers in the UK and Europe.

Surtees’ Influence

In the background of this project was a certain John Surtees. As Surtees’ motorcycling career progressed, he aligned himself with manufacturers and engineers who would allow him to have a say in the engineering of the machine he was racing to achieve those amazing two-wheel championships and iconic race wins. It was therefore predictable that, once he made the transition, this thinking would be paramount to his newfound four-wheel career. After his racecar baptism—testing at Goodwood with Reg Parnell at Aston Martin, Tony Vandervell at Vanwall and a couple of races in F2 for Ken Tyrrell—it was Colin Chapman at Lotus who first offered the champion motorcyclist a seat in his Grand Prix team for a handful of races in 1961. After a successful start, however, motor racing politics intervened and Surtees walked away from Chapman. He ultimately took a berth at Yeoman Credit Racing for 1962 and with Bowmaker Racing for 1963, where he was not only able to drive, but assist in the development of the Lola F1 car while also cultivating a great relationship with Eric Broadley. As an engineer, as well as a driver, Surtees thought Broadley might hold the key for him to continue his two-wheel success on four. It transpired into probably one of the best working relationships John Surtees had in four-wheel competition.

At the second time of asking, Surtees joined Ferrari and achieved his remarkable feat, taking the 1964 F1 World Championship to add to the two-wheel World Championships already under his belt. Despite this, and a number of sports car victories for the Prancing Horse too, all was not well, mostly due to an acrimonious breakdown in the relationship with Ferrari, thanks to Mr. Eugenio Dragoni. During this time, Surtees had conversations with Enzo about him racing marques other than Ferrari, in series where Ferrari was not entered. Of course, initially Enzo declined the approach, but became more sympathetic and finally consented after Surtees persuaded him it would benefit Ferrari on many levels, including racing technology gained from the experience and intelligence acquired from rival tire and component manufacturers.

In those days, racing drivers were more peripatetic, similar to jockeys appearing at various events and circuits and named on a race card in more than one discipline—formula cars, sports cars and touring cars. As time has gone on, it seems drivers are restricted by financial agreements, sponsorship and general motorsport politics from spreading their talent more liberally across the board. Just recently, Fernando Alonso has made headlines in the sporting press for being allowed to race at the Indy 500 instead of the Monaco GP. I think both Michael Andretti and Zak Brown should be applauded for brokering the deal, although from McLaren’s point of view it’s apparent the Spaniard, despite giving 110 percent, has had his motivation dented over the past few seasons due to an ill-performing car. Back in the day, Grand Prix drivers were regular entrants in the blue ribbon events of motor racing, F1, Le Mans and the Indy 500—with Graham Hill uniquely taking that Triple Crown. It’s refreshing to understand Alonso wishes to emulate that feat. However, in the 1960s, drivers merely used the experience as honing their craft and earning a living.

So, continuing his relationship with Eric Broadley, the building and developing of a new Lola sports car became John’s new direction, and the T70 emerged to take on national sports car racing in the UK and similar events abroad—including the successful challenge of the inaugural Can-Am championship. Much later in his life, Surtees was quoted as saying, “I derived a great deal of enjoyment racing and developing the Lola T70 sports car in conjunction with Eric Broadley.”

The First Lola T70s

The first T70, chassis SL70/1, was a lightweight monocoque car able to be powered by any 4.5-liter to 6-liter American stock block engine, with the latest Hewland LG500 gearbox and side pontoon fuel tanks that could carry 32 gallons when full. The slippery bodywork was mainly reinforced fibreglass—it was a car that was built for a purpose, and even when stationary looked stunningly quick. As with the MkVI, the public debut of the car was at the Racing Car Show at Olympia, but two years down the line, in 1965.

The T70 didn’t just look stunningly quick, it was, as it broke many lap records during testing. With F1 engines still limited to 1500-cc, the T70 embarrassed times set by cars supposedly at the pinnacle of our sport. Indeed, some teams and drivers were moving away from Grand Prix competition taking on other forms of racing that offered more power, including the Indycar series and the Indy 500. A continued test and development program delivered areas where the car could be improved, and after just over a dozen MkI cars had been produced the MkII chassis was conceived. Customers for the early cars included John Mecom, whose driver was Walt Hansgen, Stirling Moss, who entered Hugh Dibley under the S.M.A.R.T. banner and owner/driver Carroll Shelby. Racing these cars was under SCCA rules in the U.S. and Group 9 for all other countries (the FIA adopting those same rules). The main competition for the T70 came from the McLaren and Lotus. The UK debut for the T70 was on March 20, 1965, at a wet Silverstone, with John Surtees at the wheel. Comfortably leading Jim Clark’s Lotus 30 until the last three laps, the Lola developed a mechanical problem that relegated Surtees from top spot to 2nd by the flag, but despite this the signs were good. Steering and transmission problems thwarted Surtees at Oulton Park and again at Silverstone a few weeks later. Surtees’ first victory in the T70 was in chassis SL70/1 at Mosport, Canada, in the Player’s 200, leaving the rest of the field firmly in his tire tracks and demonstrating the power and force of the new British car—a proud moment for both Surtees and Broadley.

The MkII version of the T70 was a much lighter car, with the tub constructed of just 15 percent steel, a saving of 70 pounds was made. Flexible rubber fuel cells, upgraded on the MkI after fuel leaks had become apparent, were kept on the new car, but increased in capacity. Due to the rule changes, it was no longer necessary to carry a spare tire, therefore the vacant space was utilized to accommodate a large radiator, incorporating an oil cooler too. Like the weight-saving measures in days of the Silver Arrows, Lola found 35 pounds could be saved by not impregnating the body panels with paint and just lightly spraying over the fibreglass section instead. Adjustments to brake cooling and suspension geometry also featured in the upgraded model.

Proof, if any was needed, that Surtees and Broadley were heading in the right direction came at the first time out for the MkII (chassis SL71/16) at the Guards Trophy race at Brands Hatch, on August 30, 1965, when Surtees won both heats and the final by a country mile, some 90 seconds in front of Bruce McLaren, with John Young “Jackie” Stewart in 3rd place in the older Team Surtees Lola T70. Just a couple of weeks later, Surtees showed his dominance at Brands Hatch was no flash-in-the-pan performance by taking victory at St. Jovite, Canada. However, this progression of good fortune came to an abrupt halt a week later when Surtees was involved in a massive accident practicing for the forthcoming race at Mosport, where both he and Stewart were to take part under the banner of Team Surtees. Jackie had asked Surtees if he could race the new MkII in the North American event. Agreeing, Surtees qualified the original MkI for the race, but Stewart had complained of a problem with his car, chassis SL71/16. Taking the wheel of the car to check things out a suspension failure at the downhill right-hander, just after the pits, caused the car to crash into the barrier and somersault, landing on the unfortunate Surtees. Thankfully, the car didn’t catch fire, but John found himself fighting for his life and away from racing for some months.

Despite the huge crash, Surtees was able to resume racing at the top flight having been looked after by Mr. Urquhart, a specialist from St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, who had tended to Stirling Moss after his near life-ending accident at Goodwood in 1962. The Lola T70 story continued without Surtees. There were victories and podium places for Walt Hansgen, Buck Fulp, Bob Bondurant and Paul Hawkins in various races, at a variety of tracks in countries everywhere from North America to South Africa.

Chassis SL71/48

Chassis SL71/48 was displayed at the 1966 Racing Car Show at Olympia painted in plain red. Team Surtees first raced the car, with Graham Hill at the wheel, in the Scott Brown Memorial Trophy race at Snetterton, at the beginning of April 1966. Even though Hill had taken pole position and set fastest lap in the race, he failed to finish due to mechanical failure—problems with the differential. There were four other T70s in the race, with Denny Hulme taking victory in the Sid Taylor-entered SL71/31 chassis. Hulme, together with others from both sides of the pond kept the T70 momentum up with victories and podium places. David Hobbs was the next driver to take the wheel of the chassis representing Team Surtees, firstly at the Silverstone International Trophy meeting in mid-May and then at the Grovewood Trophy at Mallory Park just two weeks later. Again, the motor racing Gods were not smiling on Team Surtees as Hobbs failed to finish both races—clutch failure and a puncture causing retirements. This left Hulme taking the flag at Silverstone and Hulme’s entrant Sid Taylor victorious at the Leicestershire circuit in his regular MkII—it was quite galling for Hobbs in this race as he’d got the better of Taylor until his tire deflated. A third time lucky entry for Hobbs at the Martin International at Silverstone in mid-July rewarded him with the third spot on the podium for his tenacity, but Hulme was once more the victor after Hobbs had again led until forced to pit with oil pressure issues. Restarting, he could do no better than 3rd place.

It was on August 14, 1966, when John Surtees stepped aboard SL71/48 to compete in the Wills Trophy at the Croft Circuit, near Durham, England, the first time he’d competed in a T70 since that awful day in Mosport some 11 months previous. While the weather was appalling, Surtees and the MkII T70 were in full flight—he took the field by storm, bagging pole, the fastest lap, and victory too—lapping the entire field twice over! What a return. Hugh Dibley finished 2nd in his T70, making it a great event for Lola with only nine of the 23 starters completing the race. Surtees’ day was made even more special by winning a dozen bottles of champagne for being the first driver to lap the circuit with an average speed of 90 mph.

That was the last hurrah for SL71/48 in the UK until more recent racing history, although Team Surtees T70s dominated the Guards Trophy race at Brands Hatch in 1966 with John and Graham Hill finishing in the top two positions. Underlining the dominant performances of the Lola T70 MkII during 1966, the car won five of the season’s six Can-Am races and John becoming the inaugural Can-Am Champion with three victories under his belt, but these were all in other chassis.

A decision to try and take the 24 Hours of Le Mans was uppermost in Eric Broadley’s mind after the dominance of the Ford GT40 in the 1966 edition of the race. A new MkIII Lola T70 GT capable of performing in long-distance racing was on the drawing board, which would hopefully match the performance of the GT40. After all, both originated from the pen of the same designer. The new MkIII GT would be an all-British affair, as an Aston Martin V8 engine designed by Polish engineer Tadek Marek would power the car. This new car was both troublesome in the manufacture of the engine—it was late—and performance, but a gamble both Surtees and Broadley thought worth taking. As Surtees remarked after the Le Mans test weekend, when the car ran on maximum power, “We put the fear of hell into Ferrari, setting fastest test time.” Despite this it was agreed the engine couldn’t run on maximum for 24 hours. So, after walking down this dead-end path, the T70 MkIII GTs were converted to take Chevy engines. It is recorded that chassis SL71/48 was one of those used to test the Aston Martin V8 engine, most likely to have run mainly in the UK and at Goodwood, a preferred test track for Team Surtees.

From there the car was shipped to Fred Opert Racing Enterprises, in Paramus, New Jersey, USA, for sale on behalf of John Surtees. First racing of the car was at the end of November 1966 at Riverside. George Hollinger leased the car to contest the American Road Race of Champions where he finished 13th. Now painted yellow, Hollinger raced the car on three more occasions in 1968; the Mexico City 200, the Laguna Seca 200, and the Cotati National SCCA where the car finished a creditable 2nd. Dick Barbour became involved at the latter end of 1968 and he and Hollinger competed in the L.A. Times GP, at Riverside in the Can-Am series finishing 14th. The last period outing was again a Can-Am event with Barbour at the wheel in the Stardust GP, at Las Vegas where the car retired. In late 1968, Doug Abadie purchased SL71/48 for around $10,000 and although he tested the car he never raced it. After spending time in the hands of an unknown Texan, it was eventually purchased by Display Cars, Los Angeles, when companies including Californian Federal Savings & Loan Company used it for promotion and publicity purposes. Mac McLendon purchased the car in early 1979 when it was placed in storage. In 2007, the car was sold to VR subscriber, Marc Devis of Belgium, who restored it and took it back to its rightful place, the racetrack, making its first appearance at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca in 2010. Since then, the car has gone through a couple of more hands and raced a number of times at the Goodwood Revival and, more recently, the Members’ Meetings. It is now owned by Michael Whittaker, who first raced it at the 2016 Revival Meeting, and was seen at the 2017 Goodwood Members’ Meeting being demonstrated by Lord March as an homage to John Surtees following his passing away this March.

Driving the Lola T70 MkII

Our test of the car is at Goodwood, home test track for Team Surtees in period. The car is presented in pristine condition painted red with the customary white Surtees arrow on the nose and the name “John Surtees” emblazoned on each of the rear flanks. Despite the passage of time, it has the lines of a true racer and certainly a great representation of the action packed history of the marque in general. The car is fitted with a 5.3-liter Chevy V8, as it had in period, and the engine was exactly as advertised. “Stock blocks,” while precision-built, act more like a road car engine than the pure finesse of a thoroughbred racer. It is therefore easily started on the starter, although like an athlete taking to the track it’s good to warm up before pushing it to the limit. So, with no further ado, it’s ignition on, fuel pumps on, a couple of pumps of the throttle and with the throttle left open about half an inch press the starter. Incredibly, the car fires up first time with an enormous shrill as it bursts into life. While the engine is up and roaring to go, it is a more delicate matter with the tires and brakes, which need a good lap, or better two, to bed in properly and get up to working temperature. Without this it is perfectly possible to leave the pits with your right foot planted and when taking the first corner you either arrive with no brakes, or no grip from the tires—your race, or practice session, could be over within the very first few seconds—so, take care! Modern racing cars can often be seen swerving left and right to heat up the tires. Some viewers, enthusiasts, even racers, think there is little gained by this, but with the Lola T70 it’s a must to get every degree of heat possible into the tires and get those brake discs as hot as you can to make the car as predictable as possible. We have Goodwood on a sunny day, with a clean and warm track. Visibility is great, both from our position seated in the cockpit and weather wise. We’re almost set to start our lap.

We actually start the lap directly from the exit of the chicane, with a little understeer affecting the balance—quite normal on the car throughout its history—it’s a question of using the accelerator to power the car through, assisting the steering and to control the balance. With the big diff and the strength of the Hewland gearbox the drive can take these squirts of power, the right rear tire kisses the apex of the exit kerb as we drive through toward the start line. As the car turns from understeer to oversteer with the injection of power, you can feel the exact time to hold back and let the car balance itself as you accelerate and move up the gears. The gear change is second-third-fourth-fifth almost as quick as that, with your hand tightly gripped to the lever to get the optimum speed over the start-line and toward the entry of Madgwick. This also reduces over-revving, although the engine revs happily at 7,000 rpm, it’s more efficient revving to 6,200/6,500rpm and moving up a gear. We’re in top just for a few seconds before we enter the first part of Madgwick, dropping to fourth gear as we do.

For those who don’t know, Madgwick is a never-ending corner. Having said that, it’s a corner where if you get your entry wrong there’s time to make it up as you drive through. We carry quite a bit of speed through the right-hander and hit the first of two bumps, carefully hugging the apex and readying to push down on the accelerator as we open the steering wheel to exit the corner. Up to fifth we’re moving toward Fordwater, a shallow right bend where we can take a “comfort lift” off of the right pedal, losing 5-7 mph through the curve before we’re back and hard on it down the left edge of the circuit until we reach the corner board for “No Name.” We hit the brakes and change down to fourth for No Name, take the right apex, but we try not to touch the curb as it will unsettle the car for the entry to St. Mary’s. We remain in fourth gear through the corner, running along the right-hand side of the track touching the white line. Our foot is planted on the throttle and we can feel some oversteer, which we counteract by then feathering the throttle through the left-hand St. Mary’s Corner. We’re balancing the throttle as the car straightens up, then we’re back on the gas as we set it up for Lavant. Entering Lavant, we’re down to third gear on the first part, clipping the nearside of the circuit to get lined up for the second part and the ideal line to exit. Just like the exit of St. Mary’s, our foot is back planted on the accelerator, inducing a slight drift, but again feathering the throttle to recover some control. We hit the apex of the second Lavant corner, now fully in charge of the car, and powering up to fourth as we exit once again clipping the outer extremities of the track. Now heading for the kink and it’s up to fifth as quickly as possible to achieve the maximum speed prior to the entry to Woodcote—speeds over 160 mph are possible in the most ideal conditions. Heading to the left of the track the Woodcote Corner marker post comes into view. It’s fifth, fourth, then third on the gears, scrubbing off a great deal of speed and preparing to hit the right apex of the corner, from where we find we’re once again power-sliding toward the left edge of the circuit. Exiting Woodcote, we’re now back where we started at the Chicane, taking second gear to negotiate it and powering through third, fourth and fifth gears, right foot fully on the gas to cross the finish line.

We’ve achieved our lap at around 1 minute 19.4 seconds; our car holds the lap record at 1:18.217 (Nick Padmore, 2015, Bruce McLaren Trophy—Members’ Meeting). The interesting thing about Goodwood Circuit is the lap times increase as the season moves on. It’s possibly due to the amount of traffic using it throughout the year. At the start of a season the optimum times are set when the track is green. As for the car, it’s behaved in a very predictable manner once warmed. It’s a driver’s car, and it’s easy to understand its appeal to professional and amateur alike—both in period and in historic racing today.

Conclusion

To me, the Lola T70 is a true mark of John Surtees, epitomizing his abilities both as an engineer and as a driver. He obviously had a good working relationship with Eric Broadley and they both “bounced” ideas off of each other, or at least respected each other’s views. John Surtees’ hands-on approach, wanting to take charge and control was something that many others—drivers and mechanics alike…even team managers—had found as a frustrating quality. He was a man who took his motor racing very seriously; he had no time for the usual playboy razzmatazz and high jinks that other drivers relished, motor racing was too dangerous for frivolous characters. With the Lola T70, he experienced both extremes of motor racing. The car nearly claimed his life, but he collected the inaugural Can-Am championship at the wheel of it. In particular, Surtees’ victories at Brands Hatch in the Guards Trophy and in those dreadful conditions at Croft were the epitome of man and his machine in perfect harmony.

SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.7-liter Chevrolet pushrod V8

Gearbox: 5-speed + reverse Hewland LG600 manual – rear wheel drive

Brakes: Solid discs and Girling calipers all around

Steering: Rack and pinion

Body: Reinforced Fibreglass over 85 percent aluminium/15 percent steel monocoque chassis

Suspension: Front – double wishbones, coil springs over Koni shock absorbers, anti-roll bar. Rear – lower wishbones, top links, twin-trailing arms, coil springs over Koni shock absorbers, anti-roll bar

Weight: 1,499 pounds

Length: 156 inches

Width: 71 inches

Height: 31 inches

Wheelbase: 95 inches

Track: Front – 58 inches, Rear – 58 inches

Wheels: Front – 8 x 15, Rear – 10 x 15

Resources/Acknowledgements

Bibliography

John Surtees—World Champion by John Surtees

John Surtees—My Incredible Life on Two and Four Wheels by John Surtees

Lola T70 by John Starkey

Can-Am by Pete Lyons

Aston Martin—A racing History by Anthony Pritchard

Motor Racing 1966-67 by Knightsbridge Publications

Motor Racing 1967-68 by Knightsbridge Publications

Periodicals

Autosport, Motor Sport and Motor Racing

Thanks

Sincere thanks to Michael Whitaker for the use of his car and editorial assistance, Philip Cheek and the team at Complete Motorsport Solutions. Marc Devis for his kind assistance and factual input and lastly to Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit.