Lola Heritage - Lola Mk2

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Once Lola Cars had become established as a production car manufacturer in 1959 it was inevitable that Eric Broadley would look around for a class other than sportscars in which to diversify. The FIA had announced a new single seater class commencing in 1959 to be known as Formula Junior, its intention to replace the 500cc Formula 3 cars, although it would not be until 1960 that British manufacturers turned their attention to it. It was an ideal form of racing for a fledgling manufacturer, engines and gearboxes could be bought in and all potential new British designs would be starting from a level playing field with no previous experience.

F Junior was the brainchild of the Italian racer Count Giovanni "Johnny" Lurani who initially envisioned Junior as a way of developing future Italian Grand Prix drivers but following on from its success in Italy the FIA recognised Junior's potential as a replacement for the now outdated F3 cars. The regulations called for single seater cars powered by either 1100cc or 1000cc engines, for 1100cc cars there was a 400kg (882 lbs) minimum weight limit, with a 1000cc engine this was reduced to 360kg (793 lbs). The engine had to be derived from a production car (At least 1000 units in 12 consecutive months) and overhead cams were forbidden, the fuel supply had to be the same as the production car version of the engine. Brakes, i.e. drums or discs, had to be the same type as that of the car from which the engine had been taken. The gearbox had to be from a FIA recognised touring car although the ratios could be changed. There were a number of other restrictions on size, engine and transmission changes etc. but there was certainly plenty of room for innovative design.

Eric Broadley on the left and a group of interested onlookers view the new Mk2.
(The Lola Archive)

The original Lola specification sheet and cutaway drawing of the Mk2.
(The Lola Archive)

Sticking to principles that he knew worked Eric Broadley designed the Mk2 using many features from the successful Mk1. A complex 20 gauge multi-tube chassis frame located the engine to the right of the car's centre line whilst the driver's cockpit was offset to the left. To add to the rigidity of the design the undertray and propshaft tunnel were riveted to the chassis so acting as a stressed members. This configuration meant that the drive from the Ford 105E 997cc overhead-valve engine, which was canted 15° from the vertical as well as 2° longitudinally, could go from the the BMC 4-speed gearbox via the propshaft which was to the right of the driver's seat to the offset differential assembly. This allowed for a near-straight run for the transmission line which helped limit power losses.

Transmission was via a Borg and Beck 7.25" clutch to the BMC gearbox which was fitted with close ratio gears made for Lola by a name that would soon be synonymous with gearboxes, Mike Hewland, the ratios were 1, 1.23, 1.67 and 2.5:1. The differential was a BMC nose piece fitted to a Lola aluminium casing, internals were BMC with a choice of three crown wheel and pinion ratios 4.2, 4.55 and 4.9:1.

The front suspension consisted of wide based unequal length double wishbones with outboard coils and dampers, the rack and pinion steering attached to the uprights forward of the front-wheel line. At the rear once again Broadley used the driveshaft and a trailing link to work as a top wishbone while the lower wide-based wishbone was mounted at an angle to the axis of the car. To compensate for the unequal length driveshafts caused by the offset differential a hollow hub casting was made for the offside rear wheel with the right-hand driveshaft passing through it which kept the angular displacement of the two universal joints at an acceptable level. Drum brakes were fitted front and rear, the rears being mounted inboard on specially made backplates bolted to the sideplates of the differential, as on the Mk1 Alfin drums were used. The Lockheed two leading shoe design was operated by twin master cylinders.

A low and wide fibreglass body covered the chassis with the nose and top panel back to the cockpit being a single unit, inside the nose a large aluminium cross flow radiator was mounted to the front of the chassis. The two S.U. carbs emerged on the left of the car between two top frame tubes one of which stretched diagonally from the top left mounting point for the front damper to the right front corner of the cockpit. A six gallon (27 litres) fuel tank sat to the right of the driver with a oil tank for the dry-sumped engine was mounted above and to the right of the driver's legs. The wheels were 13" cast magnesium bolt-ons with the hubs being integral on the front and were fitted with Dunlop R5 racing tyres, 450X13 on the front and 525X13 on the rear.

All the Mk2s had the prefix BRJ for Bromley Junior as part of their chassis number.

The Mk2 of John Fitzpatrick sits in the paddock at an Australian meeting during 1974.
(The Lola Archive)

The Mk2 is a popular entry in Historic Racing, this example is seen at the Porto Historic GP in 2005.
(Picture courtesy of João Abreu)

When the Mk2 was first tested at Brands Hatch it set some suspiciously fast times, it was revealed that as Lola hadn't received their first F Junior engine in time a 1100cc Coventry Climax engine had been temporarily fitted!

The Mk2 was an extremely good front-engined F Junior design with a reputation for excellent handling, regrettably for Lola 1960 saw the debut of the rear-engined Lotus 18 with works Ford-Cosworth engines and Jim Clark driving. Despite this handicap the Mk2 ran well on occasions scoring a second, driven by Peter Ashdown, at Brands Hatch on it's debut in the 1959 Boxing Day meet. South African John Love had a "class" win at Chimay in June, the Juniors running with Formula 2 cars, Love also taking seconds at the Nürburgring and Roskilde and thirds at Rheims and Albi. Peter Ashdown in the works car finished second at Monte Carlo in the Monaco GP support race whilst Dennis Taylor won in July at the Nürburgring South Circuit at the race where Love took second. In August Argentinean Juan Manuel Bordeu won at the Swedish circuit of Karlskoga and Richard Prior led Peter Ashdown home at the Nürburgring South Circuit in October. Generally results in the UK were disappointing with the competition from Lotus, Cooper and Elva but Peter Ashdown did win at Snetterton in June as did Richard Prior in August and Martin Wallis and Richard Prior finished third at the July Goodwood and September Snetterton events respectively.

Year(s) of Construction	Total Built
1962	The Lola Chassis Log is incomplete but 29 is a likely figure.

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 82 inches (208 cm)
Track: Front 45 inches (114 cms) Rear 45.5 inches (115.5 cms)
Length: 128 inches (325 cms)
Weight: approx. 800 lbs (363 kg) without fuel