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Lola T760 car-by-car histories

Alo Lawler in the Lola T760 winning its debut race at Mallory Park in March 1979. Copyright Rich Harman 2009. Used with permission.

Alo Lawler in the Lola T760 winning its debut race at Mallory Park in March 1979. Copyright Rich Harman 2009. Used with permission.

The Formula Atlantic Lola T760, like its Formula 3 sister design, the T770, was a completely new design following new ground-effect principles. Only one was built, and it was hampered by serious handling problems.

After the success of the Lotus 79 in 1978, many of Britain's main production racing car constructors attempted to produce ground-effect designs for 1979. While March and Chevron took the conservative approach of fitting ground-effect sidepods to existing monocoques, Lola and Ralt moved to completely new designs with narrow monocoques, rocker arm front suspension and venturi sidepods. Ralt had the advantage of an F2 team to develop its design, but Lola went into F3, Formula Atlantic and FSV with the new design and with limited ability in those teams to get the new cars working effectively. Only one Formula Atlantic Lola T760 was sold, to privateer Alo Lawler, who tested the T760 at Paul Ricard at the end of February, alongside Mike Blanchett, Lola's Sales Director, who was driving the Formula 3 Lola T770. A Formula Super Vee equivalent, the Lola T720, followed.

Fresh from Paul Ricard, Lawler put the T760 on pole position and won the opening Formula Atlantic round at Mallory Park on 11 March. However, wet conditions throughout the weekend made it difficult to judge the new car's effectiveness. In the dry at Thruxton three weeks later, he was second to a non-ground-effect Ralt RT1, and the next race saw Lawler drop further back with the T760 badly affected by understeer. Severe handling problems at Brands Hatch culminated in Lawler running into the back of Andrew Jeffrey's new and equally uncompetitive Chevron B49. More accidents exacerbated Lawler's problems with the car, and he ended the season without any more podium finishes.

If you can add to our understanding of these cars, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.

Chassis
History
Current owner
Lola T760
HU1
Jeremy Bouckley in his Lola T760 at Shelsley Walsh's Crossing Bend in 1991. Copyright Steve Wilkinson 2020. Used with permission.

Jeremy Bouckley in his Lola T760 at Shelsley Walsh's Crossing Bend in 1991. Copyright Steve Wilkinson 2020. Used with permission.

George Coghill in his Lola T760 at HSCC Anglesey in July 2019. Copyright Alan Raine 2019. Used with permission.

George Coghill in his Lola T760 at HSCC Anglesey in July 2019. Copyright Alan Raine 2019. Used with permission.

New to Alo Lawler (Newton le Willows, Lancashire) for the 1979 British Formula Atlantic series, using Alan Smith engines and sponsored by L&B Excavations Racing. Lawler won the opening round at Mallory Park in the rain, but at other races the car proved uncompetitive. Sold to Geoff Byman (Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire) late 1980 and used in Formula Atlantic in 1980 and 1981, and also in The Donington Open series and other Formula Libre. Retained for Formula Atlantic and Formula Libre in 1982 and 1983. Following the cancellation of British Formula Atlantic, the car was taken out to India and was raced by Jim Crawford there in 1986. It was then owned and raced by Harish Samtani in India from 1987 to 1989. It returned to the UK in early 1989 and was used by John Russell and John Malley in sprints and hillclimbs. Jeremy Bouckley then used it in hillclimbs in 1991. Its history is then unknown until 2006, when it was bought by Dermot Healy for a customer. It then passed to Martin Walker (Notts) later in 2006. It was with Peter Hiscocks by 2009, and then with Martyn Donn by 2012, who used it in HSCC and other historic events until 2017. It was then sold to George Coghill (Halkirk) who used it in historic hillclimbs in 2018 and 2019. It was offered for sale by Steve Worrad in May 2020. It then moved to Lothar Oberlaber (Austria) for Histo Cup events. Advertised by Oberlaber in December 2023.

Driven by: Alo Lawler, Geoff Byman, John Malley and John Russell. First race: Mallory Park (R1), 11 Mar 1979. Total of 47 recorded races.

Unknown

The sole Lola T760 was sold to Geoff Byman for 1980, but in four seasons with the car, his best results were a third place in a poorly-supported Atlantic round at Mallory Park in 1982 and a couple of wins at Cadwell Park in the BRSCC Northern Formule Libre Championship. It then went to India for a while before returning to the UK and ending up in historic racing. Martyn Donn won the HSCC Derek Bell Trophy with the T760 in 2016.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Gerald Swan for the Lola Register's pages on the Lola T760. Also thanks to Steve Wilkinson, Marcus Pye, Dan Rear and Alan Brown for their help.

Also Autosport 1 March 1979 p3 had initial details of the car.

If you can add to our understanding of these cars, or have photographs that we can use, please email Allen at allen@oldracingcars.com.

These histories last updated on .