Monday 14th February 2022

LOLA: THE T70 AND CAN-AM CARS  Book review by Peter Baker 

Just mention of the words Lola T70 and my eyes glaze over. It is, in my view, simply the finest competition sports car ever to grace a race track. A couple of years ago, well-known Lola pilot Simon Hadfield offered me a ride in his T70 around Silverstone, but sadly engine problems intervened and it never happened. I cried like a baby, and sulked for days.

So it goes without saying, even before opening, I was also going to love this book; a chunky, 576-page labour of love, published by EVRO Publishing, and compiled over the last 40 years by fellow Lola devotee Gordon Jones.

Twenty-one chapters, three appendices, an appreciative bibliography, plus an in-depth, nine-page index. Fifteen hundred images, 700 in colour. And a foreword co-written by Richard Atwood and George Follmer. No wasted words. It starts at the beginning (1958), and finishes at the end (2012), and includes everything in between. What’s not to like?

Yours truly was among the 70,000 paying spectators at Brands Hatch, England on 30 August 1965 for the two-part Guards Trophy Race. John Surtees was master of the occasion in the open, red painted car with green stripes and took the flag with a lead of 79.89 seconds. Not bad against the likes of Bruce McLaren, Denny Holme and, the greatest driver of all, Jim Clark. I went home happy.

LOLA: THE T70 AND CAN-AM CARS
Written by Gordon James
ISBN 978-1-910505-53-3
Published by EVRO Publishing
Price £95.00