3 Attachment(s)
Lola GT Prototype at the Olympia Racing Car show London 1963
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Attachment 507110
1963, Eric Broadley of Lola showed the GT Prototype at the Racing Car Show in London Olympia England. The start of an interesting Motorsport story...initially West Byfleet Surrey and Slough Berkshire near Windsor Castle
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a.../24/ford-gt-40
By 1963, Lola were based in a factory at 826 Yeovil Road, Slough. The first cars built here were Mk 5As / Mk 53 for Midland Racing Partners. Later Lola would acquire additional premises at 839 Yeovil Road. For the 1963 season Lola produced the Mk6, a mid-engined coupe, and entered it in the Le Mans 24 Hour. The car was driven to the event from Lola’s factory in Slough. It was powered by a Ford 4·2 litre V8 and, although it did not finish the race, it did make the second fastest lap. Ford were so impressed with the design that they contracted Broadley for two years to develop the car into what became the Ford GT40. Broadley left the GT40 project which was essentially a Broadley design with a Ford engine, a year early in 1964.
From wiki ....
"1963 Racing Car Show debuted the sensational Mark 6 (Lola GT), a trendsetter into the '70s. It featured a Ford 4.2-litre (255ci) V8 and Colotti four-speed box under a sleek fiberglass body, showing good handling and "a remarkable turn of speed"[7] for only 250 hp (186 kW), enough to put it in the running for the 1963 Vingt-Quatre Heurs du Mans until the gearbox balked and David Hobbs crashed. This performance attracted the attention of Ford, who were looking for a way to win Le Mans, and offered Broadley a two-year deal to redesign the GT, setting up Ford Advanced Vehicles, in a factory on the Slough Trading Estate; it produced the GT-40, which differed in many respects from the Mark 6, not least in using a steel chassis rather than the aluminium of the Mark 6. This was one of many points at which Broadley found himself at odds with his American employers.
Photo of the FAV factory later JW Automotive in Slough
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Broadley's huge contribution to Motorsort is sometimes overlooked when compared to others
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...-eric-broadley
One measure is the talent fostered. Around 1970 Lola moved to Huntington near the University of Cambridge. Around that time they employed a young (Sir) Patrick Head later to be co-founder and technical director of Williams Grand Prix Engineering one of the most successful ever F1 teams. Also John Barnard of McLaren and Ferrari F1 was there from 68.
Steve
