Lola Heritage - Lola Mk4

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Considering their only moderate success in F Junior with the Mk2 and Mk3 in 1960 and 1961 it is perhaps surprising that 1962 saw Lola's true debut as a Formula 1 manufacturer.

The Bowmaker Racing Team would be responsible for running the new design, the Lola Mk4, and although Bowmaker was a new name to F1 both the team and it's backers already had a notable Grand Prix pedigree.

The Samengo-Turner family, owners of Yeoman Credit Ltd, had been connected with F1 for several years, their first full season was in 1960 as sponsors for the Ken Gregory-run team of three Cooper T51s. The cars were entered under the Yeoman Credit Racing Team name and interestingly this was the first sponsored GP team in F1.

At the end of 1960 Yeoman Credit moved from Ken Gregory's BRP team and approached Reg Parnell to run a F1 team for them in 1961. This new team continued to use the Yeoman Credit Racing Team name and entered a pair of Cooper T53s for John Surtees and Roy Salvadori with some success, both drivers winning non-championship F1 races. For the next year, 1962, the team took on the running of the new Lola Mk4 and as Yeoman Credit had effectively sold out to Bowmaker Finance there was a change of name to the Bowmaker Racing Team although the three Samengo-Turner brothers continued to be involved.

John Surtees testing the Mk4 prototype fitted with the 4 cylinder Coventry Climax.
(The Lola Archive)

A study in concentration, John Surtees on his way to victory at Mallory Park using the Climax V8 engine.
(The Lola Archive)

As mentioned above the manager of the Bowmaker Racing Team was the legendary Reg Parnell who had raced in F1 in a variety of machines including a Maserati, a works Alfa Romeo, the Ferrari "Thinwall Special" and the BRM V16. He had also driven for Aston Martin in sports cars and on his retirement in 1957 he became the Aston Martin team manager leading them to the World Championship in 1959. Number one driver would be John Surtees who was fast making his name in the world of four-wheel racing following on from his hugely successful motorbike career, notably for MV Augusta for whom he won seven world championships. The number two was the experienced Roy Salvadori who had had some success in F2 driving a Cooper as well as a couple of podiums in F1 with a best of second at the Nürburgring in 1958 again in a Cooper, his biggest success came in 1959 when, sharing an Aston Martin with Carroll Shelby, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Roy Salvadori in the V8 car at Monaco.
(The Lola Archive)

A beautiful cutaway drawing of the Mk4 V8.
(The Lola Archive)

The design of the Mk4 continued along the lines Eric Broadley had developed in his earlier F Junior cars, the chassis was a bronze welded spaceframe of 18 and 20 gauge tubing of 1.25", 1" and 0.75" diameters, as before it was fully triangulated and three perforated steel and one tubular steel bulkheads added to the stiffness. On completion the frame was stove enamelled in a fetching shade of yellow.

Suspension at the front was slightly unusual, at the top was a single fabricated transverse link with a trailing link that helped feed the loads through the chassis, at the bottom there was a reversed wishbone also with a trailing link. The top wishbone was fitted with steel Unibal bearings whilst the lower used rubber bearings inboard and nylon bearings outboard. The co-axial coil springs and Armstrong dampers were outboard and Alford and Adler forged uprights, based on the Triumph Herald unit, were employed, the steering arms from the rack and pinion Elektron case were located well-forward of the wheel centre. At the rear there were double reversed, adjustable wishbones, both employed steel Unibal bearings inboard and nylon bearings outboard. In addition twin radius rods were fitted, as were Hardy Spicer splined driveshafts, adjustable anti-roll bars were used front and rear.

Brakes were outboard Girling units all-round with 10" discs at the front and 9.5" discs at the rear operated by a standard twin hydraulic system. The 2.5 inch core block water radiator was at the front with the main longitudinal chassis members (covered in expanded polystyrene for driver protection) doubling as water pipes, an oil cooler was fitted in front of the radiator. Fuel capacity was 26 gallons (118 litres) split between up to four aluminium tanks, one behind the driver, two side tanks and one forward of the instrument panel. A Colotti Type 32 5-speed gearbox and a multiple dry plate clutch transmitted the power. Wheels were a cast Elektron light alloy spoked Lola design with 6 inch rims at the front and either 6 0r 7 inch at the rear, tyres were Dunlops 500X15 at the front, 600X15 at the rear.

Bodywork came in four fibreglass sections, nose (fitted with perspex windscreen), tail, front undertray and belly, rear undertray and belly.

The Mk4 was designed to accept the 1.5 litre Coventry Climax V8 but late delivery meant that for testing and early races Bowmaker had to use the earlier 4 cylinder Mark II Coventry Climax FPF. The intended Climax V8 had a capacity of 1,494 cc with a bore of 63mm and a stroke of 60mm, it was tilted 15 degrees to the driver's right. Fitted with 4 twin-choke 38mm downdraught Webers and Lucas transistorised ignition it produced 174 bhp at 8600 rpm.

The Driver, the Designer and the Team Manager: John Surtees, Eric Broadley and Reg Parnell.
(The Lola Archive)

Roy Salvadori looks pensive as one of the Bowmaker mechanics works on the engine.
(The Lola Archive)

The Mk4 made its debut at the non-championship Brussels GP at Heysel in March, using the Climax FPF Surtees finished fifth in the first Heat but retired in the second. After another non-championship event at Snetterton the first of the V8 cars appeared for Surtees in the Richmond Trophy where he retired with a jammed throttle after sharing the fastest lap with Jim Clark.

The Mk4 made it's Championship debut in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort where both Surtees and Salvadori had V8 engines. Showing the potential of the car Surtees took pole but retired when a wishbone broke and the team withdrew Salvadori in case there was a similar problem with his car. Following a lack-lustre fourth at Monaco for Big John it wasn't to be long before the Mk4 won it's first race when Surtees won the non-championship 2000 Guineas at Mallory Park in a strong field that included Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill and Michael Parkes.

John Surtees had maintained for most of the season that the chassis was suffering from flexing and when a mechanic jacked up the car at Spa one wheel went up the other three didn't! Emergency strengthening by welding extra tubes around the cockpit was the instant solution and resuled in fifth for Surtees.

The new modifications seemed to help and at Aintree for the British GP Surtees qualified second behind Jim Clark and that was the position they finished in. The Mk4's good form continued at the Nürburgring where in one of the appalling wet and misty days that only the NordSchleife seemed able to produce Surtees took a fighting second 2.5 seconds behind Graham Hill's BRM.

Despite the introduction of the revised Mk4A Surtees found himself becoming less competitive as the other leading teams moved ahead, the Lola cause was not helped by their financial backing drying up as Bowmaker were having business problems. For the rest of the season results were poor as a lack of reliability prevented any good finishes.

At the end of the 1962 season two of the cars were fitted with 2.7 litre Coventry Climax engines and taken "down-under" for the Tasman series. Driven by Surtees, Tony Maggs and Masten Gregory, the highlights were Surtees taking the laurels at the New Zealand GP in January 1963 and Lakeside in February as well as finishing second in the Australian GP in the same month.

With the withdrawal of the Bowmaker backing the team continued into 1963 as Reg Parnell (Racing) Ltd with a Mk4 and a Mk4A being run as a second string option to a pair of Lotus-Climax 24s. The cars were driven by a wide variety of pilots, notably Mike Hailwood and an emerging young Chris Amon, the Mk4s were now heavily outclassed and no significant results were obtained. Another Mk4 was sold to talented privateer Bob Anderson who concentrated on non-championship races and he celebrated Lola's second F1 victory when he took first at the Rome GP.

Bowmaker mechanics Peter Bryant (later to design CanAm cars for Shadow) and Jimmy Potton prepare one of the team's Mk4s.
(The Lola Archive)

Year(s) of Construction

Total Built

1962

DIMENSIONS

Wheelbase: 94 inches (239 cm)
Track: Front 51 inches (129.5 cms) Rear 51 inches (129.5 cms)
Length: 148 inches (376 cms)
Weight: 1060 lbs (481 kg) without fuel

MK4 RESULTS: 1962

RACE (NC= Non-championship)	DRIVER	CHASSIS	QUAL.	RESULT

IV Grand Prix de Bruxelles, Heysel (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP41 Climax FPF	10th	5th Heat 1 Retired Heat 2 - Engine

III Lombank Trophy, Snetterton (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP41 Climax FPF	4th	Retired - Overheating

XIV Lavant Cup, Goodwood (NC)	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP41 Climax FPF MK4 BRGP43 Climax FPF	3rd 5th	Retired - Accident 2nd

X Glover Trophy, Goodwood (NC)	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax FPF	5th 10th	Retired - Engine 4th

VII Aintree 200 (NC)	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax FPF	3rd 15th	Retired - Valve gear Retired - Throttle linkage

X Dutch GP, Zandvoort	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	1st 17th	Retired - Broken wishbone Retired - Withdrawn

XX Monaco GP	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	11th 12th	4th Retired - Suspension

I International 2000 Guineas, Mallory Park (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	4th	1st

XIII Crystal Palace Trophy (NC)	Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	1st	2nd

XXI Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	11th	5th

III Grand Prix de Reims (NC)	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	3rd 7th	Retired - Valve spring 6th

XLVIII French GP, Rouen-les-Essarts	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	5th 14th	5th Retired - Oil pressure

XV British GP, Aintree	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	2nd 11th	2nd Retired - Battery

XXIV German GP, Nürburgring	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	4th 9th	2nd Retired - Gearbox

VIII Kanonloppet, Karlskoga (NC)	Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	4th	2nd

III Grote Prijs van Danske (NC)	Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	5th	7th Heat 1 Retired Heat 2 - Accident

IX Gold Cup (NC)	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	6th 11th	Retired - Valve Retired - Throttle

XXXIII Italian GP, Monza	Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	13th	Retired - Valve

IV USA GP, Watkins Glen	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	18th	Retired - Crankcase plug

I Mexican GP, Mexico City (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	8th	Retired - Accident rear suspension failure

V Rand GP, Kyalami (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	4th	3rd

IX South African GP, East London	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	5th 11th	Retired - Valve R etired - Fuel tank leak

MK4 RESULTS: 1963

RACE (NC= Non-championship)	DRIVER	CHASSIS	QUAL.	RESULT

IV Lombank Trophy, Snetterton (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	9th	Retired - Gearbox

XXIII Grand Prix de Pau (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	11th	Retired - Brakes

IV Grand Prix d'Imola, Castellaccis (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	6th	3rd

XII Gran Prix di Siracusa, Syracuse (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	2nd	4th

XV Gran Premio di Roma (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	2nd	1st Aggregate of two Heats, 1st in both

XXII Belgian GP, Spa-Francorchamps	Lucien Bianchi	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	16th	Retired - Accident

XV British GP, Silverstone	Bob Anderson John Campbell-Jones	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	16th 23rd	12th 13th

XIII Grand Prix der Solitude (NC)	Bob Anderson Mike Hailwood	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	12th 14th	8th Not classified

IX Kanonloppet, Karlskoga (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	6th	8th - Aggregate of two heats 8th Heat 1 - 9th Heat 2

II Gran Premio del Mediterraneo, Pergusa (NC)	Bob Anderson	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	4th	6th

I Grosser Preis von Osterreiche, Zeltweg (NC)	Chris Amon	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	6th	4th

XXXIV Italian GP, Monza	Bob Anderson Mike Hailwood	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	17th 18th	10th 12th

X Gold Cup. Oulton Park (NC)	Bob Anderson Mike Hailwood	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	9th 10th	Retired - Gearbox 7th

I Mexican GP, Mexico City (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	8th	Retired - Accident rear suspension failure

V Rand GP, Kyalami (NC)	John Surtees	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8	4th	3rd

IX South African GP, East London	John Surtees Roy Salvadori	MK4 BRGP42 Climax V8 MK4 BRGP43 Climax V8	5th 11th	Retired - Valve Retired - Fuel tank leak

Mk4 Downloads

During the 1962 season Bowmaker published a small 14 page booklet promoting their F1 team, it contains a write up on the team, pictures of the cars, circuit maps etc.

Bowmaker Racing Team promotional booklet, 14 pages. (1.3Mb zip file)