Lola GT Mk6: The Revolutionary Car Behind the Ford GT40's Success
The Forerunner - The history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans race spoke in 1966 when for the first time the cars made by the American manufacturer Ford Motor Company won the championship podium as well as undermined the might of the Italian Prancing Horses through three Ford GT40 racers.
The Lola GT Mk6 was the design inspiration for the infamous Ford GT40. (Picture from: UltimateCarPage)
But did you know that the might of the Ford's racing cars was obtained after the American manufacturer along with racing legend Carroll Shelby did the development and testing of many test bed cars. In which one of the early prototypes was based on the British-made Lola GT Mk6.
The Lola GT-P (prototype) shown for the first time at the 1963 Olympia Racing Car Show in London. (Picture from: Road&Track)
Those race car is designed by the famous British sports and racing car designer named John Frayling and built by the compatriot auto manufacturer Lola Cars Limited, then was introduced for the first time at the 1963 Racing Car Show in
London. As mentioned before, it was a racing car corresponding to the GT Prototype serie and powered by a 4,7 liter Ford V8 engine placed behind
the driver.
The Lola GT Mk6 is designed by John Frayling and built by the British auto manufacturer Lola Cars Limited. (Picture from: Petrolicious)
The Lola GT Mk6 is built based on fabricated sheet metal pontoons at each side, joined by a stressed floor. Welded to the front of this structure is a space frame outrigger carrying the front suspensions. At the back the pontoons converge to carry the rear suspensions and the Ford V8 engine with Colotti 5 speed gearbox and transaxle.
The Lola GT Mk6 body was made of glass fibre reinforced composite with the sills carry flexible fuel tanks. (Picture from: Petrolicious)
Its body was made of glass fibre reinforced composite with the sills carry flexible fuel tanks. As a result, it weighed a mere 1,800 lbs, an impressive feat of lightweight engineering. Initially, the carburatter got an air through a collector box from a roof intake. But this kind of air supply system was eventually declined by 24 Hours of Le Mans' racing scrutineers due to lack of rearward visibility and was replaced by side air intakes.
The Lola GT Mk6 is built based on fabricated sheet metal pontoons at each side, joined by a stressed floor. (Picture from: Petrolicious)
The Lola GT Mk6 was extremely compact, measuring 3.85 meters in length and 1.00 meter in height. Only three Lola GTs were ever built at Lola's factory in Bromley, Kent, England, and they were sold for £3,400 in 1963 without an engine and transmission.
The Lola GT Mk6 is powered by Ford V8 engine coupled with Colotti 5 speed gearbox and transaxle. (Picture from: Road&Track)
The Lola GT Mk6 was entered in several endurance races in Europe like the
Nurburgring 1.000 km and 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1963 where the car was not finished the race after got an accident when driver David Hobbs had trouble with gear change.
The Lola GT Mk6
was designed to race in the FIA's new Experimental Grand Touring Class,
featuring a mid-engine V8 cradled in a steel monocoque chassis and
surrounded by stunning fiberglass bodywork. (Picture from: RoadAndTrack)
Then the American automaker Ford Motor Company purchased the Lola GT Mk6 as test bed for the development of their racing cars, the Ford GT and the Lola's founder and owner, Eric Broadley was hired as a consultant for two years.
He later returned to operate
Lola Cars Limited that has since become one of the largest supplier of racing cars until October 5, 2012. After that, the majority of Lola's assets were acquired by a joint venture of Multimatic Engineering and Carl A. Haas Automotive. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | PETROLICIOUS | WIRED | AUTOCONCEPT | ROAD&TRACK | WIKIPEDIA | AUTOMOBILISTA | TOPSPEED | ULTIMATECARPAGE | MOTORTREND ]
