Top Gear Merak breaking

[M Blur]

Err, i really like the Lola's, is there something i don't know?

same here..

[WayneB]

same here..

Franco Sabbaro bought the wrecks from Solar Productions (Steve Mcqueens film co) and made one good car from the 2.

Mick Hill owned the car a couple of years ago.

I remember a couple of Lola T70 were used in the George Lucas sci-fi movie THX1138 (covered in rotoflash beacons to look like police cars!THX1138 Lola T70 chase scene

Edited February 25, 2007 by WayneB

[M Blur]

Lovely..

I'm hoping Gardner Douglas do a fixed head conversion for their T70 and work out a kit to satisfy FIA historic.. now that'd be cool. I guess stumbling block would the the bodywork - wasn't the T70 an ally body...?

[WayneB]

The T70 has an aluminium monocoque (up to top of sill level) and all the rest (front and rear clams, roof, doors etc.) are fibreglass.

The original bodies were made by Specialised Mouldings and were styled by Eric Broadly (of Lola)and Jim Clark(of Specialised Mouldings).

[M Blur]

the monocoque would be GD's biggest problem then as they've gone for a tubular spaceframe... ahh well.

I know of another coy run by in-laws of mine thinking of making an fia-eligible XJ13 replica..

[Mark Blanchard]

Don't worry they were fakes - both the 917K and the Ferrari were actually re-skinned Lolas.

Spot on. I spoke to David Piper (who drove in the film Le Mans) last summer at the Revival and thats what he said too. They were reskinned T70mk3B's as they were cheaper.

He also said he helped make the Porsche 917K (Kurz) a Le Mans winner. The 1969 917 had poor rear down force. He told the Designers at Porsche to copy the tail of the Lola T70mk3b. So that that's what they did and there rest is history.

[Mad Zero]

Despite this being an Esprit forum...

For anyone who doesn't already have a copy I whole-heartedly recommend the book 'A French Kiss With Death' - all about the making of 'Le Mans' - it's a stunning book which is stuffed from cover to cover with insider information and excellent behind-the-scene photos and funny tales of daring do. There's a lot of technical data in there too - buy it!