Lola's Heart

The heart of our Lola will be the engine which Peter Mc Carthy from Midnight Auto in NJ will be building. As all Formula Fords it has a 4 cylinder 1600 cc Ford Kent engine. We cannot modify anything as we are building it to a stock racing class. When fully built and restored the engine will produce between 100-110 hp. For a car that weighs less than 1000 lbs it provide sub 5 seconds 0-60mph accelaration and over 1.2 G of cornering  :-))))

Oil System

Trying to piece together the oil system has proven to be quite the challenge, due to the fact that I seem to be missing more than half the pieces. However, the oil tank itself seems to be easy enough to fabricate out of a lightweight aluminum, which is our next step forward. Unfortunately, it looks like the rest of the parts will have to be outsourced.

Chassis painted

Today was a marathon session. What took us nearly 2 months to figure out and build - we removed in less than 3 hours ! It almost seems we are working backwards. Steering, chassis components and suspension were disassembled and filed away for future use. We gave the chassis a final sand and cleaned it with brake cleaner before using 4 cans of black Rustoleum paint. Now the frame looks 1000 times better and is a great base to start our restoration.

Steering, Instrument Panel and Suspension Completed

Both fron and rear suspensions have been completed as well as gear selector and steering. New aircraft hardware has arrived which will replace many of the missing nuts and bolts. Next step will be pedal assembly , brakes and clutch. Once this is done everthing will be dissasembled again and catalogued in order to strip and paint the frame. At that point we will do any chassis modifications such as stiffening the lower tub by riveting in a stronger floor and moving the fuel cel from the side pods to a safer location which is behind the driver.

Rear Suspension

1978 original Lola factory hand drawn schematics

This week I concentrated on the rear suspension. Luckily we were able to obtain original factory schematics for the car and following them was easy. The biggest challenge is the hardware which is mostly missing. I found a supplier of aircraft nuts (Aircraft Spruce) and bolts from whom I am purchasing the missing parts. 

Chassis

Today we did some more sanding of the chassis which still shows allot of rust in areas that were hard to reach the first time around. Since we ran out of nuts and bolts we did an inventory and will order some aircraft quality ANS fittings so we can proceed. We noticed that there were abandoned insect colonies in the water and oil gauges which we need to either renew or have reconditioned.

Mystique of an old race car

My dad took some photos with his big camera of the Lola. I think the pictures capture the scars that the car received in battles throughout the last 3 decades. He feels that there is a something romantic about reviving an old race car...I think I know what he means.

The Plan

Before restoring the car we want to assemble it in order to asses what needs to be modified, repaired or renewed. This way, we feel is the only way we can determine what we are dealing with as everything is in boxes. Since my dad, my brother and myself are all tall we plan to move the seat back and place fuel tank behind driver. This apparently has been done by other Lolas.

This picture shows the completed front and part of the rear suspension. Most hardware will be replaced with ANS aircraft high grade fasteners.

After we have "dry fitted" the car we will disassemble and catalog every part so that re-assembly will only take a fraction of the time it took to put it together. We will then strengthen chassis by adding steel tubing and sand it down, prime and lacquer it. Friends tell us lacquer is better than powder coating as it shows stress cracks by flaking off. A friend of my dad will build the engine to FC specs and help him put it in the car around Christmas. The body work will need allot of work and the nose is missing - but we can have that refinished in my dads boat building shop. We hope to have the Lola running by Spring.

Front Suspension

After treating entire chassis with anti rust treatment to stabilize the oxidation on the frame rails we thoroughly washed the car. Of course we sat in it and tried it on for size. Surprisingly roomy for such a small racer. Then we started assembling the front left suspension. It took us about 5 hours to figure out what goes where and only about 45 minutes to build.  Well, at the end it looked like we did a pretty decent job. Just as we started to get proud of ourselves we realized that we used the uprights from the right side. Well, here is a photo with the wrong ones still in place...we will change it out tomorrow.

Moving in

Last night I helped my dad unload the Lola from the U-haul van. Amazingly we transported an entire car (its pieces) in 15 minutes into the basement. The chassis was a tight fit but we managed to set it up on the two saw horses. We stored the tires and organized the parts in the boxes. Most is labeled and in serviceable condition. 

The entire Lola in the back of a pick-up

Extraction from the woods

My dad purchased the car from one person who lived in Chicago but actually had to pick up the various parts of the Lola in 3 different locations in New Jersey. It was like race car forensics puzzle...

Dolfs father's backyard: this is where the chassis was hiding

Peter's "shop" where the rest of the parts were stored

The frame of the car as we uncovered it from the container

Build location: Basement of our 300 year old house

Since old houses do not have garages - we have decided to build the Lola in our basement. Equipped with a good stereo, everything is possible.

Original Photos

This is what a Lola T440 looks like. It is a Formula Ford - purpose built race car. Our particular car was built in 1978 and is chassis number HU 97.

Our Lola T440 (chassis HU 97) at rest and speed

It is a well known opinion that of all the Formula cars of that era Lolas were always the most beautiful and had the most slippery shape. This of course helps as the Lola can travel up to 130 mph.