‘ It comes back to trying to be absolutely honest to the original car’
‘ So what we came up with was shift-by-wire. The only other companies that have done shift-by-wire are Koenigsegg and Ferrari. It gives you the interaction of an H-pattern. With all the resistance and spring rate and feel that you would expect. But there’ s no mechanical linkage to the gearbox.
‘ It removes a lot of the elements around it that could be problematic in a road car, but it still lets you have that racecar gearbox. And you’ ve still got a proper mechanical hydraulic clutch. You won’ t know that it’ s shift-by-wire unless you make a mistake and it allowed us to retain that Hewland gearbox, small block Chevrolet, Lola chassis.’ Developing a road version from the T70 racecar, and creating bespoke elements to make it work on the street, all seems like a lot of effort for a proportion of just 16 cars. But the T70 project is really just the shop front for the technologies that Lola is working on.‘ Lola has developed its own composite system for nonstructural applications. It’ s made from basalt and flax, and then we use a sugarcane-derived resin system. So zero petroleum. Our magnesium in the car is recovered from seawater. We smelt that with solar power and that smelting process uses a shielding gas, which is far less polluting. And from there we can cast uprights and wheels and cross members. Lola is a company that’ s very focused on sustainable technologies.’
Surely, almost pointless on a very low volume sports car with a massive V8 in it?‘ Throughout every step, we found technology options that allow us to clean that car up. We race in Formula E. So people think there’ s a juxtaposition between this programme and the Formula E programme. Not as far as Lola is concerned, it’ s all still sustainable technology. These are technologies that Lola would then use elsewhere in the business, on the next vehicle.’
‘ For us, it’ s very important that we start using these technologies that we’ re developing. Because when it comes to a large-volume OEM wanting to look at how
One thing you won’ t need for the road-going T70S is a team of race mechanics
they can improve their product, we already have a use case. If you can create a composite system and it survives on a car like that [ the T70S ], where there is heat everywhere, where exhausts are 20mm from bits of interior bodywork, you can be pretty confident that you can use that.’
Using such technology and an ethos of sustainability, in the wrong hands, could have dramatically sacrificed the T70’ s character. But Lola has been sympathetic and loyal.’ We haven’ t EV converted a T70, right? We’ ve actually gone a lot deeper into the technology and looked at composite systems, at metallurgy, at other elements, sustainable fuels that you can use. It is all very much
focused on delivering the purest experience of a T70 possible. It comes back to that: trying to be absolutely honest to the original car.’ And those three key elements that the GT has retained: Lola chassis, Chevrolet small block and Hewland gearbox.
‘ It comes back to trying to be absolutely honest to the original car’
50 The Engine Rebuilder Issue 06