Description:

Eric Broadley’s Lola company was one of the leading racing-car manufacturers of the 1960s, and this beautifully prepared T60 was raced by a host of famous names during a golden period for Formula 2. 

The T60 was Lola’s first monocoque design, and was mostly the work of a young Tony Southgate because Broadley was busy with the T70 sports-racer. Formula 2’s relatively high minimum weight of 420kg meant that stiffer mild steel could be used for the tub rather than aluminium, and the T60 also gained rocker-activated inboard front suspension. 

The very first T60 was a short-wheelbase car that carried its fuel directly in a riveted monocoque, but leaks were a persistent problem. The car being offered for sale here – chassis number SL60/2 – therefore gained bladder fuel tanks in a spot-welded tub. It also had a slightly longer wheelbase, and all subsequent T60s were made to this revised specification. 

SL60/2 was built over the winter of 1964-65, and was raced for two years by the Midland Racing Partnership. MRP was, in effect, the Lola works team and could attract the very best driving talent, such as reigning World Champion John Surtees, who won the 1965 Oulton Park Gold Cup in an MRP-entered T60.

As for SL60/2, it made its debut in the hands of Tony Maggs at Snetterton in April 1965.Later that month, he finished second at Vallelunga to the sister T60 of MRP team leader Richard Attwood, but the most famous result for SL60/2 came at Reims in July. 

Laconic Australian Frank Gardner was part of an epic four-way battle for the lead at the ultra-fast French road circuit, and actually led coming out of the final corner for the last time. On the long run to the finish line, however, he was slipstreamed by Jochen Rindt – the acknowledged master of 1-litre Formula 2 – who pipped him to victory. Gardner came second, a hair’s breadth ahead of Scottish legend Jim Clark, with Alan Rees just behind them in fourth. The entire quartet was covered by only 0.6 seconds.

By Brands Hatch in August, SL60/2’s BRM twin-cam engine had been replaced by a Cosworth SCA, and the Lola was driven there by young Kiwi Chris Amon – who would win the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours and go on to become a factory Ferrari driver. SL60/2 was also raced during 1965 by the likes of Jo Bonnier, Paul ‘Hawkeye’ Hawkins and Attwood, who did two races in it at the end of the season.

MRP continued to race SL60/2 in 1966, most often with Gardner at the wheel. Its best result in a year dominated by the Brabham-Hondas was achieved by David Hobbs, who took fourth place in Barcelona. 

The Lola was sold at the end of 1966, minus its engine and gearbox, to Brian Nelson in Ireland. He fitted a Lotus Twin Cam engine and continued to race it until 1969, after which it was sold to D&A Shells in London, and then to UK-based New Zealander Keith Laney. 

Laney took the Lola with him when he subsequently moved back to New Zealand, and sold it to Henry Holt in 1976. After it was bought by Australian film producer Matt Carroll the following year, Carroll reported that Holt had kept the car mounted on the wall of his living room as a ‘decoration’, and that it had been brought to Australia strapped to the deck of Holt’s yacht.

Carroll registered the Lola with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) and raced it through to 1985 in Formula 3 spec, with a Cosworth MAE engine. He then sold it to Don Black of New South Wales, who fitted a 1600cc Lotus Twin Cam engine and campaigned the Lola into the mid-1990s.

Black was keen to return SL60/2 to period Formula 2 spec and managed to track down a Cosworth SCA engine, but he didn’t complete the conversion before selling the Lola in 2001 to Sydney-based Rob Tweedie. 

Tweedie then embarked on a full five-year restoration of the car, rebuilding and installing the SCA engine, and hosting a ‘launch party’ in 2006 at which Frank Gardner was the guest of honour. Having been raced by Tweedie’s son, SL60/2 was sold in 2013 to a UK-based owner who had prepared this very car while working as a mechanic for MRP during the 1960s.

He’s owned the Lola ever since, and has ensured that it’s been superbly maintained and prepared. It’s now being offered for sale with an extensive spares package that includes a second set of wheels, as well as a comprehensive history file that contains photographs, race reports and results from day one of its frontline competition career. 

There are also set-up notes, CAMS logbooks from its years in Australia, and an FIA Historic Technical Passport that’s valid until the end of 2026 – plus current in-date certification for the fuel tanks and safety harness.

Single-seaters from the mid-1960s have a purity that was lost in the later ‘wings and slicks’ era, and this beautiful little Lola T60 is ready to be enjoyed by a new owner who will get at least a taste of what it was like to be Frank Gardner, chasing down Rindt and Clark at Reims 60 years ago.

Website:

https://classicmotorhub.com/lola-t60-formula-2-1965/