The man behind the hugely successful Lola Cars. A Formula 1 attempt in 1997, which Broadley headed, was a disaster and after selling the company in 1998, he retired to live in Cambridgeshire, where he died recently. He was also a racing driver before retiring to set up Lola properly, but initally Eric was trained as an architect and quantity surveyor. When he took up racing he built his own car to compete in before expanding to build for other racers; Peter Ashdown in particular had a lot of early success with a Lola Mk1. He retired from driving to set up a marque that won the Daytona 24 Hours, Formula 1 races, Can-Am and so on. When Broadley left racing, he founded a limousine company. He died after a long period of ill-health.

Biography last updated 2 Jun 2017