Lola Cars Limited is a British automobile manufacturer founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England. The company is now owned by Till Bechtolsheimer, who purchased it in 2022. Lola Cars endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola started by building small front-engine sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. In 2012, Lola Cars stopped operations. Lola returned to motorsport in 2024 by joining the Formula E World Championship as an entrant and a powertrain supplier in a technical partnership with Yamaha.

early days – the 1960s

Lola was one of the top chassis suppliers in the 1960s. After its small front-engined sports cars came various single-seaters including Formula Junior, Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1 cars.

Broadley designed the Ford V8 powered Lola Mk.6 coupe. Ford took a keen interest in this and paid Broadley to put the company on hold for two years and merge his ideas with Roy Lunn's work, giving rise to the Ford GT40. Initial work was done at the Lola works at Bromley before moving to a factory on the Slough Trading Estate.

Broadley managed to release himself from this contract after a year and started developing his own cars again, retaining the Slough factory, which was in Lola's name (leaving John Wyer to find new premises for Ford Advanced Vehicles, which were also on the Slough Estate).

Broadley started off in sports cars with the Lola T70 and its successors (T16x, T22x) which were used successfully all over the world from the World Championship for Makes to the CanAm series, until 1973. In 2005, Lola announced that a new batch of T70 coupés, to the original specifications, would be released. These were to be homologated for historic racing and there was talk of a one-make series for the cars. The Slough built cars incorporated the letters 'SL' in their chassis numbers, just as the cars built at Bromley had incorporated 'BR'.

mk6gt

The Lola Mk6 GT was a racing car with a production run of only three units, built between 1962 and 1963 by British car manufacturer Lola Cars. With its 289 cu in (4.74 L) Ford V8 engine, the Mk6 GT was the first mid-mounted, high displacement V8-powered Grand Touring car,^[2] a chassis arrangement that had been used, up until that time, only on formula cars and smaller, more affordable GTs.

The Mk6 GT featured some of the best technology of the time: first of all an aluminium monocoque (although the prototype car had a steel monocoque in order to save development time), while all opponents, apart from Jaguar, still relied on a space frame chassis.

The Ford-Colotti engine-gearbox assembly was a stressed member and the rear suspension was mounted directly on it, a technique that did not appear in full on Formula 1 cars until the Lotus 49 in 1967. As a result the car was so compact that the wheelbase was even shorter than Lola's other formula cars, despite using a large 400 hp  pushrod V8 engine.

Understanding the potential performance of the Mk6, the Ford Motor Company bought it so as to further test its capabilities, laying the foundation for its GT40 project and involving Broadley himself, although he later left the program.

t70

The Lola T70 is a sports prototype developed by British manufacturer Lola Cars in 1965, the successor to its Mk6. Lola built the aluminium monocoque chassis, which were typically powered by large American V8s.

The T70 was quite popular in the mid to late 1960s, with more than 100 examples being built in three versions: an open-roofed Mk II spyder, followed by a Mk III coupé, and finally a slightly updated Mk IIIB. The T70 was replaced in the Can-Am series by the lighter Lola T160.

During the filming of Steve McQueen's Le Mans, Lola chassis were disguised as the Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512s that crashed in the film. It is claimed chassis T76/141 originally campaigned by Ulf Norinder and Jo Bonnier was used for the wrecked Gulf Porsche.

1970s

Various Group 5 and Group 6 sports cars including the T210 and T212, and T28x/29x/38x/39x series were also built, competing with Chevron, March and others. Alain de Cadenet's Le Mans 'specials' tended to be based on Lola technology.

Lola (with rebodied Formula 5000 cars) dominated the CanAm sports car series when it was revived in the late 1970s, but many motorsport fans  do not consider the single-seater Formula 5000-based cars from this era to be true sports cars, despite their full bodywork and enclosed wheel-wells.

t210

The Lola T210, and its evolution, the Lola T212, are Group 6 sports prototype race cars, designed, developed and built by British manufacturer Lola, for the newly created European 2-Litre sports car racing championship, in 1970.

The body and bodywork were made of aluminum, with a double wishbone suspension at the front directly connected to the monocoque. The car's rear had a steel frame to house the engine, gearbox, and suspension.

Pushing the car was the 1.8-liter Cosworth FVC which had half the engine block derived from that of the Cosworth DFV and developed 245 hp. Lola produced a total of 16 chassis, most of which were sold to private stables.

The T210 in 139 races between 1970 and 1975, achieved 29 overall and seven class victories.

1980s and early 1990s

Lola introduced the T600/T610 range for IMSA GTP racing in the early 1980s – these were fitted with a range of engines including Cosworth, Mazda and Chevrolet, as well as the novel Polimotor engine built using composite materials. Derivatives of this car were successful for some time in IMSA and Group C racing. Later Lola Group C and GTP cars tended to be built specifically for manufacturer programmes, specifically the later Nissan Group C entries and the Chevrolet Corvette GTP program. Lola also built a car for the 3.5 L Group C formula, the T92/10, but the championship collapsed before this could be fully developed.

t600

The Lola T600 was a racing car introduced in 1981 by Lola Cars as a customer chassis. It was the first GT prototype race car to incorporate ground-effect tunnels for downforce. The revolutionary aerodynamic design of the T600 was widely imitated throughout the 1980s by International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and Group C prototype cars. The Lola T600 ran initially in the U.S.-based IMSA GT series and later in European Group C races.

A total of 12 chassis were built.

In 1983 Ted Field fitted a 700 hp Chevrolet V6 3.4L turbo engine in one of the Interscope T600s, which proved to be a fast but unreliable combination. Other Lolas fielded by John Kalagian and Conte Racing employed the ubiquitous Chevy V8, while Bayside Racing installed a Porsche 935 turbo engine in their T600. Newer GTP designs from March and Jaguar, however, eclipsed the aging Lola. T600s scored a handful of podium finishes, but its days as a front-running chassis were numbered.

late 1990s and 2000s

More recently, Lola produced a range of sports cars for Le Mans-style racing starting with the B98/10, which was successful in the European market but less so in the USA. The B2K/10, with its additional central headlight reminiscent of a cyclops or a locomotive was more notable for its looks than its performance. While Lola has had limited success in the top class of the sport versus factory cars like the BMW V12 LMR and Audi R8, Lola has enjoyed periods of dominance in the second class (formerly LMP675, now LMP2), including championship class victories in the American Le Mans Series, although this has been threatened in the ALMS LMP2 by works-supported entries from Acura and Porsche.

Lola also introduced a pair of closed-cockpit Le Mans prototypes in 2008, the first of which is the B08/60 running in the P1 category. The first B08/60 was raced by the Charouz team (with assistance from Prodrive) and featured an Aston Martin V12 engine to GT1 specification.

b2k10

The Lola B2K/10 was a Le Mans Prototype developed in 2000 by Lola Cars International for use in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, American Le Mans Series, Grand American Road Racing Championship, and Sports Racing World Cup. It was a replacement for the previous Lola B98/10 and shared some elements with its smaller variant, the Lola B2K/40.

More an evolution of the B98/10 than an all new car, the B2K/10 shared many design elements, most notably at the front end of the car. The unusual fenders and headlights remained, while the nose had been raised in order to accommodate a higher footbox.

Lola remained with the same engine as the B98/10s, a Roush Racing-designed Ford 6.0 Litre V8. However, as before, a wide variety of other engines were chosen by teams for use, including the Judd GV4 V10 and a Porsche twin-turbocharged Flat-6.

Only six B2K/10s were built.

2010s

It was announced on 21 July 2010, that Lola would be building the B11/40 to comply with the new 2011 LMP2 regulations. The car was to be a carbon fibre open-top monocoque race car featuring an all-carbon bodykit, quick-release removable rear bodywork including a stabilization fin on the engine cover which is a safety requirement of the new regulations. However, on 16 May 2012, it was reported that Lola Cars was entering financial administration.

Multimatic, a subsequent owner of Lola assets, supplied two Lola B12/80 LMP2 chassis' to Mazda for IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The cars were powered by turbocharged inline-four Mazda diesel powerplants in 2014 and 2015, and a gasoline-powered turbo inline-four in 2016. All of the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship's Prototype-class chassis were retired at the end of the 2016 season in favour of a new specification, marking the end of Mazda's use of the Lola chassis.

b11/40

The Lola B11/40 is an open-top Le Mans Prototype (LMP) built by Lola Cars International. It is the first car to be designed to the new Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) LMP2 "low cost formula" where cars will be powered exclusively by production series engines with a cap of €75,000 on the engine and €325,000 – €400,000 for a complete car

Engine options that will be available include BMW, Ford, HPD, Jaguar, Nissan and Toyota.

Announced on 21 July 2010, the B11/40 is a Carbon fibre open-top monocoque race car features an all-carbon bodykit, quick-release removable rear bodywork which includes a stabilisation fin on the engine cover which is a safety requirement of the new regulations.

Lola resisted making a 'works' (i.e. a factory) Formula One entry for many years, being content to construct cars on behalf of other entrants. Lola's first works entry in 1997 led directly to the financial ruin of the company.

Lola made its first foray into Formula One in 1962, supplying Lola Mk4 cars to Reg Parnell's Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team, with John Surtees and Roy Salvadori as drivers.

A measure of success was immediate, with Surtees's car claiming pole position in its first World Championship race, but although points were often scored, wins in Championship Grands Prix eluded the team.

After Bowmaker's withdrawal, Parnell continued to run the cars privately. Privateer Bob Anderson gave the Mk4 its last victory, in the non-Championship 1963 Rome Grand Prix. Consistency, however, was not to be found, and after only two seasons, Lola abandoned Formula One cars for the time being.

mk4

1962

The Lola Mk4 and the derivative Mk4A were Formula One racing cars constructed by the Lola company in 1962. They were designed by Lola founder, owner and Chief Designer Eric Broadley at the request of Reg Parnell, proprietor of the Bowmaker Racing Team. The Mk4 was the first design that Lola produced for the top tier of motorsport.

Design of the car broadly followed Broadley's experience in the Formula Junior category, with a steel spaceframe chassis braced by bulkheads in front and behind the driver. The engine was carried within the chassis, and cooling was by a radiator mounted at the front of the bodywork; two tubes of the spaceframe acting as coolant pipes to and from the engine. Following supply delays with Coventry Climax's new V8 engine, the cars were initially built up around the older, inline 4-cylinder FPF engine.

hondola" honda RA300 and RA301

In 1967, Lola assisted Honda Racing and John Surtees with the design of their F1 car. The overweight chassis design by the engine-specialists from Honda was abandoned, and a 1966 Lola Indianapolis monocoque (Lola T90) used as the basis for a Honda-engined car. The resultant Honda RA300 was called the "Lola T130" by Lola Cars, unofficially called the "Hondola" by the press, and was sufficiently light and powerful to win the 1967 Italian Grand Prix.

Towards the end of his long career, Graham Hill found it difficult to attract works drives; with a view to both finding a drive and a future as a team owner he established his own team backed by the Embassy cigarette brand. After an unsuccessful 1973 with a customer Shadow, the team commissioned its own cars from Lola. The T370 was largely based on the Formula 5000 cars of the time, and looked similar to Lola's F5000 cars, although it sported a larger airbox. The car was developed by Andy Smallman into the Hill GH1 in 1975, but the team's first in-house design, the Hill GH2, remained unraced when Hill, Tony Brise, Smallman and several other team personnel were killed in an air crash in November 1975.

t370

1974-1975

The Lola T370 was a Formula One car designed by Andy Smallman and used by Embassy Hill in the 1974 season and the early part of the 1975 season. After an unsuccessful 1973 with a customer Shadow DN1, the Embassy Hill team commissioned its own cars from Lola. The T370 was largely based on Formula 5000 designs, and looked similar to Lola's F5000 cars, although it sported an extremely large airbox. Embassy Hill had two cars for Graham Hill and Guy Edwards. The car was tested well before the end of 1973 in readiness for the January start to the 1974 season.

In the World Drivers' Championship of 1974, Hill was classified eighth with one point and Lola finished 12th in the Constructors' Championship, also with one point. Hill was the only one of the team's four drivers to score a point with the T370.

Embassy Hill ran the T370 until the Lola T371 (later renamed the Hill GH1) was ready, so both Hill and Stommelen drove the T370 for the first two races of the season.

The Haas Lola F1 programme was extremely promising, funded by a large American industrial conglomerate Beatrice Foods and run by the highly experienced Teddy Mayer, with the promise of works Ford power, but it flattered to deceive. The handsome car, designed mostly by Neil Oatley, was barely a Lola; the name was used largely because Haas was Lola's US concessionaire although Broadley had some (minimal) involvement with the car being named as Chief Engineer. Alan Jones was tempted out of retirement to drive it in F1 races towards the end of the 1985 season, with Patrick Tambay joining in a second car for 1986. A Cosworth designed and built works Ford turbocharged engine was promised, but this did not materialise until 1986 and old Hart four-cylinder units were used. Car, engine, drivers and sponsors were all troublesome and the team folded after the 1986 season with most of its assets (including the factory) being sold to Bernie Ecclestone.

thl1

1985-1986

The Lola THL1 was a Formula One racing car designed by Neil Oatley for Team Haas (USA) Ltd. during four of the last five races of the 1985 Formula One season. The Haas Lola team only had one car for 1985 and it was driven by 1980 World Champion, Australia's Alan Jones who after having retired at the end of 1981, plus his aborted comeback in early 1983, was making a full-time comeback to Formula One at the age of 39.

The THL1 used the 750 bhp, turbocharged Hart 415T Straight 4 engine. The car was supposed to have the brand new, 900 bhp  Ford TEC V6 turbo designed by Keith Duckworth and John Baldwin. However, Cosworth lost some 4 months design and development time unsuccessfully trying to turbocharge an old 4-cylinder engine, thus delivery of the new V6 turbo was delayed until 1986 forcing the team into using Brian Hart's underpowered engines in the interim. This also caused a re-design of the cars rear end to accommodate the Straight 4 engine rather than the 120° V6.

The Larrousse & Calmels programme was initially much lower-key than the previous effort. Starting from a simple Cosworth-powered car based on Lola's F3000 technologies, the French team built up a steady reputation in normally aspirated F1 from 1987 on.

They attracted Lamborghini V12 power for 1989 and once the Chris Murphy-designed car was on stream, scored some good results with Éric Bernard and Aguri Suzuki. The team experienced some problems after Didier Calmels's arrest for the murder of his wife, but continued at a slightly lower key with Cosworth power again. Unfortunately, due to irregularities with the team's F1 entry in 1990, (the cars were entered as Larrousses but were really Lolas) they lost all their Constructors' Championship points – which promoted the politically well-connected Ligier outfit into a position in the Constructors' Championship that gave them significant FIA benefits.

t87/30

1987

The F1 T87/30 was commissioned by the Larrousse Calmels team and was Lola's first Formula 1 design since 1975's T371 and only the seventh in their thirty-one-year history*.
By 1987 the Grand Prix scene was being dominated by the turbo-charged cars but there were still a few teams that were unable to source and/or finance these 1000 BHP+ engines and were still relying on the good old Ford V8, now in 3.5 litre DFZ form and producing some 575 BHP. Given that the normally aspirated cars were often 6 or 7 seconds a lap slower than the turbos, especially in qualifying when the turbos could be turned up, the FIA, to encourage the normally aspirated teams Lola, Tyrrell, AGS, March and Coloni, introduced the Jim Clark Trophy for the Ford-powered teams that would score points on the usual 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis.

Unfortunately, nine retirements in fifteen races meant he finished the season in third place in the Jim Clark Trophy, three sixth places overall saw the Larousse Calmels team finish ninth (out of sixteen teams) in the World Constructors Championship.

The Scuderia Italia programme was something of a disaster from the start. The team had done reasonably well with Dallara chassis before, but turned to Lola for 1993. Powered by customer Ferrari engines, both engine and car seemed to be well off the pace, Michele Alboreto and Luca Badoer struggled to even qualify for races (upon his first drive of the T93/30 in a pre-season test at the Estoril circuit in Portugal, Alboreto, a 5 time Grand Prix winner, told the teams senior Engineer Alessandro Mariani "We're dead"). Badoer finished 7th in the 1993 San Marino Grand Prix, a race of high attrition, to score the best Lola result of the season. The team withdrew from F1 before the final two races of the season. It partly merged with Minardi for 1994.

t93/30

1993

The Lola T93/30 was the Formula One car built by Lola Cars and raced by the BMS Scuderia Italia team for the 1993 Formula One season. Scuderia Italia, which did not construct its own cars, had previously run Dallara chassis since its first season in 1988, but team owner Beppe Lucchini elected to switch to Lola after an uncompetitive 1992 season.

However, the T93/30 proved to be the least competitive car on the 1993 grid. Its lack of success was to such an extent that Scuderia Italia opted not to compete in the final two Grands Prix of the season, and subsequently merged with the Minardi team for 1994.  

As such, the T93/30 was the final F1 car to be raced solely by Scuderia Italia, and is also the last Lola chassis to have started a Grand Prix as the T95/30 which succeeded it in 1995 was merely a test mule ahead of Lola's intended future entry with its own team. Whilst Lola did initially enter a self-owned team the 1997 season with the T95/30's successor-the T97/30 that car also never contested a Grand Prix as that car failed to qualify in its only entry at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix before Lola withdrew due to financial problems.

By this stage, Lola and Scuderia Italia had already announced that they would split for 1994, whilst Ferrari had also confirmed that it would no longer supply engines to the team.

Lola had originally intended to enter Formula One in their own right in 1998, but pressure from main sponsor MasterCard caused Lola to debut its new car one year early, in 1997. The sponsorship model was curious, linked both to MasterCard membership of a 'club', and to results – something a first-year F1 team often finds hard to achieve. A custom-built V10 engine from Al Melling was going to be fitted to the cars, which initially started racing fitted with underpowered Ford Cosworth ECA V8s.

The cars had a lot of problems, the worst being aerodynamics – they had never even been tested in a wind-tunnel when they arrived in Australia, which by that point in time was unthinkable. The car was fundamentally flawed, and the lack of wind-tunnel time had made it even less competitive. Despite the car's problems, the team was confident that it could finish ahead of some of the other teams.

t97/30

1997

The Lola T97/30 was the car with which the MasterCard Lola Formula One team attempted to compete in the 1997 Formula One season. It was driven by Vincenzo Sospiri, the 1995 Formula 3000 champion who had previously served as a test driver for Benetton, and Ricardo Rosset, who moved from Footwork.

However, the team's tenure in F1 was brief. The T97/30 was the first Lola chassis to compete in the sport since the uncompetitive T93/30 that had been used by BMS Scuderia Italia in 1993.

 The T97/30 proved to be a slow and underdeveloped car in comparison to those being used by other teams, failing to qualify with either Sospiri or Rosset at its only attempt(s) which was the opening round of the 1997 season in Australia before the team and cars were withdrawn from the next race in Brazil. Neither the T97/30 nor the team would be seen again competing at a Grand Prix thereafter as Lola withdrew from the 1997 championship due to financial and technical difficulties having only competed (and performed very poorly) in one race weekend. As of January 2024, the T97/30 is last Lola chassis to compete at a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix weekend.

On 22 April 2009, Lola announced on its website that "Lola Group has commenced a major project comprising a full technical, operational and financial evaluation aimed at developing a car to compete in the FIA Formula One World Championship".

 Lola was one of several teams to lodge an entry with the FIA for the 2010 Formula One World Championship. On 17 June, however, the company abandoned its plans to return to F1 after failing to secure a place on the initial 2010 entry list.

The owner of the Force India team, Vijay Mallya, had intended to rename his team since mid-2017, however, this plan did not go ahead until the arrival of Lawrence Stroll, a Canadian billionaire, who bought Force India in 2018 and renamed as Racing Point. However, Stroll's intention was to get the rights to the name Lola (among others) to compete in the 2019 season. Stroll failed in this attempt, and Racing Point remained with that name, until rebranding to Aston Martin in 2021.