Ed McDonough on driving a Lola T90 at the Silver Flag Hillclimb
Ed in the Lola T90
It would thus be easy to get totally lost in the mysteries. However, the most telling legal documents are those which confirm that Martin Birrane, owner of Lola, bought the Stewart car from John Mecom, as Mecom went to the trouble of finding his old cars and buying them back.
As the 50th anniversary of Lola Cars approached back in 2007, the cars were readied for a number of events in preparation for celebrations in 2008. Early in 2008 I had my first moving encounter with the Stewart car, as it appeared at the Goodwood Festival of Speed press day. I had a chance to sit in the pristine T92 and talked through the details and history with Barrie Williams who was demonstrating it... and trying to work out what to do with a 2-speed box which had been in the car when it was restored. The Lolas were well received at the Festival, but there were others who wanted to see them.
Claudio Casale, the prime mover behind the great cars that journey to the Silver Flag Hillclimb in Italy, asked if I could make enquiries about whether Lola would attend a 50th anniversary celebration at Silver Flag. Lola Heritage’s Glyn Jones, with Martin Birrane’s blessing, and I thus headed off to Italy in July, with my wife Nancy making her debut as Indy car crew person! The adventures had started.
Now, some readers are familiar with the Silver Flag, a 9-kilometer hillclimb from Castell’Arquato to Lugagnano to Vernasca. Some historic events are races interspersed with meals. This one is meals interspersed with races! Not far from Piacenza, the Silver Flag brings out the best of Italian historics, and increasingly cars from around Europe. The Italians have very rarely seen an Indy car. They have never seen one that would go winding up one of their mountains. We were never without company and help, including the delivery of methanol as that is what this Ford 4-cam runs on...plenty of it. It appeared!
Claudio had organised a Lola ‘enclave’ and a dozen Lolas had their own space in the paddock. On Saturday, as I sat in the car, I asked Glyn about the gearbox, as there had been discussions about putting the 4-speed box in. He suggested that I would find out when we started it! As it happened, this was not an altogether easy process. The car hadn’t run in some weeks and all the fuel had come out as happens regularly with methanol cars to preserve them. It didn’t want to start at first so we had an offer from the local polizia/carabinieri to assist. Glyn got in and they slowly towed him down the paddock. Too slow I thought. Then I realised what they were up to. They got him out onto the main road, stopped everyone else, and towed him until that fabulous engine burst into life. Up the road he went to warm it up as the pre-start crowd gathered. The police brought him back and they stayed with us all weekend, hoping to do it again.
It was time for me to climb aboard for an official run, a truly daunting experience. I settled my backside onto the Stewart tartan... the seat cover was there courtesy of Jeanette Jones. Jackie said he wouldn’t drive at Goodwood without it, and Mr. Jones got Ms Jones to make a template and construct the final effort. The cockpit is wide and roomy, the gauges are pretty minimal... the rev counter reads to 10,000 and there are oil and water gauges, and that’s all. But the serious part is knowing that this car is methanol-fuelled and that when methanol is alight you cannot see it. As methanol has to be sprayed into the intakes via the old plastic squeezy bottle, everyone gets a little nervous, especially the driver. Glyn hoisted the heavy Gerhart mechanical starter into place, shouted instructions, and within seconds the Ford screamed and I was out to the start-line. I had learned by now that the 4-speed box was in place which made the process a lot easier.
In spite of this car’s pedigree and specialist nature, it was amazingly manageable... no stalls, a reasonable clutch, lots of feel... but noise... lots of it. Former great Italian F1 woman driver Maria-Teresa de Filippis was the official starter. She made a show of bringing the Italian national flag down on my head! The revs rose and slightly too enthusiastically the T92 smoked off the line, clearing the plugs and getting the tail at a bit of an angle, quickly straightening up and then taking off again.
The first 4 kilometers of this ‘hill’ are virtually flat, with a series of five chicanes set up with plastic cones by the marshals to keep speeds in hand. As the Indy car came out of a fast bend before the first chicane, the marshal saw which car it was, and kicked the cones aside urging me to “go... avanti”. Thus, on public roads, I pressed on, ignored the now moved chicanes and touched perhaps 175! Into Lugagnano, it was on the very steady brakes, down to second gear, trying not to watch hundreds of people jumping up and down just a few feet away. The road wanders straight downhill until the real all 2nd and 3rd gear corners start. I used 1stt once and the rear came away and I just caught it, resolving to use 2nd and 3rd only. In no time, the T92 was at the top, drawing another huge crowd. The car now runs on an unusual Roadstone radial road tire, as it is near impossible to find competition tires in this size. However, they worked very well indeed and, as Goodwood had proved, they worked in the wet as well.
The weekend provided a chance for me to learn the Gerhart starter... what a job. As I went for my second run, I looked over and saw that Nancy, who had been using the squeezy, was madly shaking her hand... she had set herself alight... now that’s a real woman! The second run brought us the reward of ‘quickest car’, Glyn got to drive a T294 sports racer and won his class. It had been a true Lola celebration.
