Lola T70

One of the most beautiful racing carsfro the late 60's and the start of the 70's is without
doubt the Lola T70 which was produced in several versions and driven to victory in
many races.
Eric Broadley imployed at Ford, thought that the Ford GT40 was too conservative as a racing
car and therefore Eric Broadley left Ford to build the Lola T70 in his own company: Lola.
The Lola immediately had great succes, when John Surtees won the CanAm Championship in
1966 and in the Group 7 races people like Denny Hulme, David Hobbs and Brian Redman drove
the Lola T70 to victory.
I will concentrate about the Lola T70 MK IIB SL76/146, which was the Lola that competed for
the longest time - from 26th of Mai 1969 to the 12th-13th of June 1971.
But lets start with the beginning:

The 2nd of Mai 1969 John Woolfe bought the
Lola T70 MK IIIB SL76/146 and just 24 days
later he raced it in its first race at Oulton Park
with Richard Attwood behind the wheel and the
car finished 20th.
One month later - the 29th of June - Attwood
once again drove the car, this time at Nürn-
burgring and this time it almost made it into
top-3, but had to settle with 4th place.
The 14th of September it became a 5th place
for Attwood at the Anderstorp in Sweden and
hereafter the car was sold - due to John
Woolfe's fatal accident at Le Mans - to VDS
Racing Team in Belgium and they raced in the

1000km race in Paris on the 12th of October, but due to a defect oilpump the car was retired
even before the race had started.
It was now the year 1970 and on the 11th of January Teddy Pilette and Garcia Veiga competed
in the Buenos Aires 1000km race and they got a distinguished 4th place. There would now go
threee month before the SL76/146 would race again at the Monza 1000km race, where Veiga
was replaced with Taf Gosselin and together with Pilette it only became a disappointing 16th
place after a dramatic prelude to the race, where a defect engine had to be replaced.
Pilette and Gosselin continued to drive together and raced in the Spa 1000km in June, where
the car retired from a 4th place due to a broken wheel suspension. Just four days later Pilette
drove alone at the Montlhéry 500km and came in 2nd.
May was a busy month because already at the 31st of May it was time for the Nürburgring
1000km race - again with Pilette and Gosselin - but the car never raced due to technical
problems. In return the 5th of June at the Vila Real race gave some encouragement, when
Richard Attwood drove the car to its first victory.

Finally it was time for Le Mans at the 13th-
14th of June, where Lola T70 MK IIIB SL76/146
- again with partners Pilette and Gosselin be-
hind the wheel - was the only Lola to attend
the race, despite more Lola's was enrolled.
SL76/146 only lasted ten hours of racing and
had to retire with clutch and gearbox problems.
As a side leap I can tell you that when Steve
McQueen did his legendary movie in 1971 with
shootings from Le Mans 1970, many Lola's was
rebuild as Porsche 917s because they were
cheaper. In the scene were Steve McQueen
crashes after evading another car it is obvious
to see, when there is steam from the car, but
everybody knows that the Porsche 917 is
aircooled.

The crashed Lola was sold after the finish of the movie and sold once more in England in 1971
to a owner who kept it for 20-25 years.
But back to the SL76/146 which still had 11 races left to do. The 21st of June Pilette raced at
the Monthléry and won the race. The 28th of June Pilette drove at the Interserie at Nürnburg-
ring 200 with a 6.2 liter engine and qualified in pole position, but had to retire with a defect
engine.
The 5th of July Pilette and Gosselin won at Vila Real and this was going to be the last victory
for the SL76/146. From here it only went downward in preformance for the car.
The 11th of July Pilette raced in the Interserie at Croft and became 6th, while he was 12th at
Karlskoga in Sweden the 8th of August. The 23rd of August and the 20th of September is was
back to the Interserie at Keimola and at Thruxton and the result was a 5th and a 7th place.
In the last two races of the year - Hockenheim 300 miles at the 11th of October with Pilette
and at the Monthléry 1000km at the 18th of October, where both Pilette and Gosselin drove,
the car did not finish in either race.

In 1971 the SL76/146 only raced in two races,
Spa 1000km the 9th of May and Pilette and
Gosselin drove the car to a 6th place. The two
drivers would make a new attempt at Le Mans
the 12th - 13th of July, but they had to retired
after only one hour of racing due to a broke
piston.

Later the Lola T70 MK IIIB SL76/146 was
bought by James Landrum from USA and the
car was restored in 2000.