Lola T600
The Lola T600 was a sports car prototype that was developed by Lola Cars in 1981 and was used in sports car races until 1993.
Development history and technology
Because the dominance of the Porsche 935 in the sports car world championship in 1980 got out of hand, the FIA introduced the GTP class, a new racing class in international sports car races, for the 1981 season . This racing class was already based on Group C , which came into force in 1982 and which re-regulated sports car races from that point on.
The development of the T600 goes back on the one hand to this new regulation and on the other hand to the British racing driver Brian Redman . Redman and the owners of the American racing team Cooke-Woods Racing were looking for a racing vehicle for the newly created IMSA-GTP series , which was contested with vehicles of the GTP class from 1981. Redman reached out to Eric Broadley , the owner of Lola Cars. The original idea of equipping a Lola T70 chassis with a new body was discarded and a completely new racing car was developed instead. The French racing car designer Max Sardou constructed a ground-effect vehicle that was clad with an aluminum body. The two rear wheels were completely covered. When changing tires, a flap first had to be removed to get to the tires. A V8 6-liter unit from Chevrolet was intended as the engine for the IMSA-GTP variant . Lola decided to enter the sports car world championship with a chassis. A 3.3 liter DFL engine from Cosworth was used there. Subsequently also were Porsche - and BMW - turbo engines built into T600 chassis. The 5-speed gearbox came from Hewland .
Racing history
In the 13 years of its racing history, the T600 were entered 198 times at 131 racing events. With this racing car 12 victories were achieved; There are 37 podiums as well as three class wins. By far the largest number of reports was submitted by the German Karl-Heinz Becker , who competed 53 times with a T600 in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Sports car world championship
1981
In 1981 Lola was involved in the sports car world championship with a works team . The British Guy Edwards and the Spaniard Emilio de Villota were signed as drivers . Edwards drove Formula 1 races in the 1970s . In 1974 he came into contact with Lola as a driver at Embassy Hill . The two-time Formula 1 world champion Graham Hill had built up his own racing team and in 1974 used racing cars built by Lola, the T370 . After the end of his Formula 1 activities, which were almost completely unsuccessful, Edwards took part in sports car races. In 1980 he finished ninth overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans .
Emilio de Villota was also a former Formula 1 driver. In 1977 he competed in two races with a privately registered McLaren M23 .
Lola only entered the world championship in the fourth race of the season, the 1000 km race in Monza with the HU3 chassis. The weakness of the car was already evident during training; he was too slow. The gap to the group 5 cars was enormous. Guy Edwards was fifth fastest in the overall standings with a time of 1.50.510, but was four seconds short of the group 5 Ferrari 308 GTB Turbo of Carlo Facetti and Martino Finotto . In the race, the car only got 64 laps; the drive shaft was defective. The team's next outing was at the 6-hour race at Silverstone . This time the car was set up much better than in the Mugello. The aerodynamic body also came into its own on the fast Silverstone Circuit . Edwards qualified chassis HU3 in second place, 1.3 seconds behind the Joest - Porsche-908 , driven by Jochen Mass . However, it must be remembered that the car concept of the 908 was already twelve years old at this point in time. There was another retirement in the race. The pit crew had miscalculated the amount of petrol and the car was left without fuel after the second stint.
The first finish was at the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring , where the racing event took place on the Nordschleife like in the years before . The competition for fast prototypes for the Lola team has been the greatest here so far. In addition to private teams who had reported the Porsche 935 and Reinhold Joest's team, the Lancia works team made their way to the Eifel with two works cars. A third Lancia Beta Montecarlo was reported by the Swiss Peter Sauber , who also brought two BMW M1 to the racetrack. In training, the T600 was far too slow again. Only the 16th training time could be reached in the qualification. The fastest in training, Ford Capri Turbo - which could not take part in the race after an engine failure in the warm-up - driven by Manfred Winkelhock and Klaus Niedzwiedz were 38 seconds short. Which, despite the length of the track, was way too far behind. In the race it was enough for eighth place overall and victory in the GTP vehicle class. However, the gap to the Sauber -BMW M1 of Hans-Joachim Stuck and Nelson Piquet was large.
At the climax of the international sports car season, the Le Mans 24-hour race , two T600s were entered. In addition to the works car - the two regular drivers Edwards and de Villota were joined by the Spaniard Juan Fernández as the third driver in the team - Cooke-Woods Racing brought the prototype used in the IMSA GTP series to the French endurance race . While the works car achieved the twelfth fastest time in practice, the US car failed in practice. The US team - which was superior in the IMSA GTP series - could not cope with the fast Circuit des 24 Heures and, despite the two top drivers Bobby Rahal and Brian Rebmann, did not manage to set the car properly. During the race, the works team was plagued by many technical problems that led to a number of unscheduled pit stops. In the final classification, the team placed at the 15th place overall, with a gap of 67 laps on the winning drive - Porsche 936/81 by Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell .
14 days after the race at Le Mans, Edwards and de Villota clinched their first race win with the T600 at the 6-hour race in Pergusa . After another retirement at the 6-hour race at Watkins Glen , Brian Redman and Eppie Wietzes achieved another podium finish with their Cooke Woods T600 at the 6-hour race at Mosport with second place overall.
After the experience of an almost complete racing season, which flowed into the further development of the car, successes finally came before the end of the year. At the championship run in Elkhart Lake, Road America's 500-mile race , Brian Redman / Sam Posey and Chris Cord - who had purchased the HU5 chassis - and Jim Adams finished second and third. The season ended with Guy Edwards and Emilio de Villota's victory in the last race of the year - the Brands Hatch 1000km .
In the sports car world championship in 1982, the works team replaced the T600 with the successor model, the T610 .
IMSA-GTP series
1981
In contrast to the initial difficulties in the sports car world championship, the T600 was a winning vehicle in the IMSA GTP series from the start. Cooke-Woods Racing had acquired chassis HU1, with which Brian Redman drove to overall victory in the first race. In the 100 mile race at Laguna Seca , Redman won just ahead of the two Porsche 935 drivers John Paul junior and John Fitzpatrick . In the Lime Rock 200-mile race , he won by four laps over Ted Field and Bobby Rahal's Porsche 935 . Before the race at Sears Point , another T600 - chassis number HU4 - was delivered to the American John Paul Jr., who finished third in the race just behind Redman.
Redman secured the championship at the end of the year, followed by triumphs in Laguna Seca and Sears Point, successes in Mid-Ohio , Portland and Road America .
1982
Brian Redman left Cooke-Woods Racing at the end of the previous season. With him, the co-owner Roy Woods turned his back on the team. This deprived the championship team of the previous year of financial and driving quality. This and strong competition were the main reasons that Lola lost its top position in the racing series after just one year. The first win of the season came in April when Ted Field and Bill Whittington won the Riverside 6-hour race in the Interscope-Racing -T600 (chassis HU6) . This was followed by victories at Laguna Seca - John Paul junior ahead of Danny Ongais , who drove the second Interscope T600 (chassis HU7) - at the 200-mile race in Daytona , the 500-mile race in Pocono and the 3-hour race Daytona Race . In the overall standings, John Paul junior won, but he achieved most victories in a Porsche 935.
1983 and 1984
In 1983 and 1984 the T600 was no longer a victorious vehicle in this racing series. At Interscope, the HU6 chassis was equipped with a V6 Chevrolet turbo engine. However, the concept failed because the unit was susceptible to defects.
German racing championship and interseries
In 1983 a T600 (chassis HU12) came to Germany. The car was first used by Karl-Heinz Becker in the German racing championship and from 1986 in the Interseries . Becker was largely unsuccessful with the car, despite numerous starts.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 1000 km race from Monza 1981 ( Memento from June 24, 2003 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ 1000 km race at Silverstone 1981 ( Memento from June 24, 2003 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ 1000 km race at the Nürburgring 1981 ( Memento from June 24, 2003 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ 24 Hours of Le Mans 1981 ( Memento from June 24, 2003 in the web archive archive.today )
- ^ 1981 Lime Rock 200 Mile Race
- ↑ IMSA-GTP series 1981
- ↑ IMSA-GTP series 1982