Lola T210
The Lola T210 was a sports car prototype that was developed by Lola Cars in 1970 .
Development history and technology
The introduction of the European Sports Car Championship in 1970 opened up a new field of activity for Eric Broadley and the technicians at Lola Cars. This new sports car series was advertised for racing cars of Group 6, in which, contrary to the regulations of the Sports Car World Championship, there was no minimum number of vehicles to achieve homologation .
In the professional world, the T210 was considered the little brother of the Lola T163 from the North American Can-Am series . The body was made of aluminum - sheets , making the vehicles were easy to manufacture. At the front, the double wishbone suspension was directly connected to the monocoque . The rear of the car had a steel frame to accommodate the engine, gearbox and the multi-link axle .
The standard engine was the Cosworth FVC . The 1.8-liter engine had half the engine block of the Cosworth DFV and developed 180 kW (245 hp). Lola manufactured a total of 16 chassis for the 550 kg car, most of which were sold to private teams.
Racing history
The T210 was a very successful racing car. In 139 missions between 1970 and 1975, 29 overall and seven class wins were achieved. The T210 made its racing debut in the 300 km race by Paul Ricard in 1970 , the first race of the European sports car championship . Jo Bonnier drove chassis # SL210 / 02 on its first outing and finished the race three laps behind the winner Brian Redman in a Chevron B16 in second place overall. The car had to retire three laps before the end of the race due to a broken accelerator, but it was classified. It was also Jo Bonnier who took the first race win for the T210. With chassis # SL210 / 01 (Bonnier acquired the first two chassis of the T210 for his Ecurie) he won the Silverstone International in 1970 . At the end of the year, Bonnier became the first European sports car champion with his two T210s.
A large number of drivers drove T210 chassis in a wide variety of racing series. Ronnie Peterson drove it in the 1970 Interserie , Mike Hailwood , David Hobbs , Karl von Wendt and Willi Kauhsen in the South African sports car championship. Emerson Fittipaldi took part in sports car races in Brazil . While Claude Swietlik won the French sports car championship in 1971, Alain de Cadenet had a serious accident in chassis # SL201 / 11 at the Targa Florio in 1971 .
The last win with a T210 was achieved by Portuguese Jorge Pego in 1975 in a race in Moçâmedes, Angolan .
literature
- Thomas Nehlert, Group C: The sports car races 1982–1992 , Verlag Petrolpics, Bonn 2011, ISBN 3-940306-14-2 .
