1969 Lola T70 Mk3B Chevrolet

Having been raced for almost all of its life, SL76/148 is remarkable for having stayed out of trouble and today is one of the very best original Lola T70 Mk3Bs that there is.

Eric Broadley’s Lola

Established in 1958 by Eric Broadley, Lola Cars Ltd was set up to market production versions of the beautiful little sports racer which impressed from its debut at Crystal Palace. Huge effort had gone in to the detail design and build of the prototype, which took Broadley and associates eight months in a garage behind the family tailoring shop in Bromley, close to the South London parkland circuit.

Finished the previous evening, the 1100cc Climax FWA-engined ‘Broadley’ showed promisingly over two races, Eric lapping close to winner Ivor Bueb’s Lister-Jaguar times in the latter. At Snetterton three weeks later, the renamed Lola finished second to Keith Greene’s Lotus Eleven. Third time out at Brands Hatch the combo won their heat against huge Lotus opposition. The writing was on the wall.

Peter Ashdown, who had fallen out with Lotus founder Colin Chapman, switched horses to Lola and capitalised in 1959, when the first four production Mark 1s were built at sheet metal maestro Maurice Gomm’s premises in Byfleet. From 1960, subsequent examples were crafted back in Bromley. More than 30 were supplied to customers as far afield as the USA, Canada and New Zealand.

A neat, if outmoded, front-engined Formula Junior (Mk2) widened the marque’s appeal in 1960, but the ambitious Broadley’s ability and willingness to meet new challenges saw rapid expansion. By 1962, Lola was in F1 with its Mk4, run by Reg Parnell’s Bowmaker-financed team. Two years after his car debut, motorcycle legend John Surtees won Mallory Park’s non-championship 2000 Guineas race. He would become one of Lola’s greatest assets, even after becoming F1 World Champion with Ferrari in 1964.

Lola Mk5 and 5A Formula Juniors, with F1-derived tubular chassis, were competitive, despite being heavily outnumbered by Lotuses and new force Motor Racing Developments’ Brabhams designed by double F1 champion Jack’s brilliant right hand man Ron Tauranac. Richard Attwood won the 1963 Monaco GP support race. Lola flourished elsewhere too, its Mk6 GTs accelerating Ford’s GT40 programme.

While Lola offered single-seaters for the ladder to 1500cc F1, and won the 1966 Indianapolis 500 with Graham Hill, big-banger sports cars were the big ticket. Debuted in 1965, the robust steel and aluminium monocoque T70 family of cars - initially open spyders, then closed coupes - underpinned the books, and Surtees beat McLarens to win 1966’s inaugural Can-Am Series.

T70s sold in large numbers, keeping the factory workforce busy near Slough. Powered by brawny V8 engines - mostly small-block Chevrolets, but some Fords and Aston Martins - T70s were difficult to beat in shorter distance races. The ultimate Mk3Bs were produced to the tune of 16 cars and with Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons, debuting Roger Penske’s special machine, Lola won the 1969 Daytona 24 Hours.

This Car, SL76/148

Tracing Lola T70 histories can be an invidious task, for many have been updated or backdated to suit trends or owners’ whims, or even duplicated. Presenting one of the few Mk3Bs with an unbroken history is thus a delight. Chassis SL76/148 boasts contemporary success in a golden era of sportscar racing and an extensive CV as a much-loved historic warrior.

In 1969, Lola sold this ‘new’ T70 Mk3B, SL76/148, to British privateer racer Barrie Smith, while in fact the chassis number SL76/148 had been on two previous versions by this point. The first was built by Lola and supplied through Bonnier to Swedish racer Picko Troberg for use in the 1969 season. Troberg, who finished his yellow Mk3B with the green livery of PR for Men aftershave, raced it at the Nurburgring 1000km in June with co-driver Bjorn Rothstein who crashed the car extremely heavily in practice, signalling the end of that car.

Troberg had Lola supply a new SL76/148 to him directly afterwards. However, the second car came to grief with a young Ronnie Peterson driving at the Osterreichring in July. While Peterson was unharmed by the crash, the second SL76/148 was beyond repair and returned to Lola.

After this second disaster in the space of two months, Lola took the undamaged engine and gearbox from the crashed car and fitted it into a new Mk3B chassis and body unit which was given the SL76/148 number. Troberg failed to make payment to Lola and did not receive the third rebuild of SL76/148.

Instead, SL76/148 was sold as a ‘new’ car to British privateer Barrie Smith, and it is the car we have the pleasure of discussing today. Despite the chassis number’s early start, this car is one of the very clearest and most original of all Lola T70 Mk3Bs.

Barrie Smith had found success racing an old Lotus 15 in 1965, and progressed to campaigning two Chevron B8s in 1968 and in early 1969. Running his Avalon Racing outfit from a garage near Margate in Kent, Smith upgraded to the 5,000cc V8 T70 Mk3B in mid 1969 when the opportunity from Lola arose.

Smith’s SL76/148 was finished in red and came with all of the undamaged Troberg parts as spares. Sponsor stickers were applied along with Barrie Smith’s name along the top of the rear bodywork on either side. Racing with the help of his friends, Smith used a Avalon Racing sign written AEC coach as his transporter, its windows giving passers by a glimpse of the big Lola.

The maiden adventure in a very European late summer with SL76/148 was at Anderstorp in Sweden on the 14th September. Racing in the Nordic Challenge Cup amongst a very well attended field including Porsches, Alfa Romeos and many other T70 Mk3Bs, Smith took a fine 7th place finish with his new Lola.

Smith and his team travelled to Zandvoort for the Trophy of The Dunes two weeks after Anderstorp. Having qualified 7th, Smith retired the Lola after a spin. A week after Zandvoort came the Preis von Tirol at Innsbruck in Austria, with the race won by Frank Gardner’s sister Lola while Smith’s result isn’t recorded.

On the 12th October, Smith and his team raced at the Salzburgring, Austria, in the Donnaupokal Rennen. Smith took 4th overall and 1st in the over 2-litre class. The following week, SL76/148 and Smith were at Hockenheim for the Hessenpreis where they took an 11th place result. The final race of 1969 came a week later at Zolder for the AvD-Rundstreckenrennen. Having qualified 4th, Smith retired the Lola from the race.

1970 started in Brazil for Avalon Racing, with SL76/148 being shipped there by early January. Sharing driving duties with Ed Swart, Smith first competed in the 1000km Buenos Aires on the 11th January, starting 18th amongst a very competitive grid and retiring from the main race. A 200 mile event was held on the same circuit a week later and after lining up in 25th, engine failure put the Avalon Lola out of contention.

Back in the UK by early March, SL76/148 and Smith were on the grid at Thruxton for the RAC British Sports Car Championship round. Held during the Wills Trophy Easter weekend, the sports car race was very well attended with two Ferrari 512s, a pair of Porsche 917, four Lola T70 Mk3Bs and a wide range of Chevrons and Porsche 910s. Smith qualified SL76/148 in 7th place and rose to finish a fine 4th while the race was won by Jo Siffert in David Piper’s 917.

The only race of May came at Fassberg, central Germany, where Smith took a 5th place finish. On the 13th June, Smith travelled to Crystal Palace and entered both the Special GT and Sports Racing grids. In Special GT he finished 3rd, while in the SR he took victory, his first with the big Lola.

Buoyed by the recent success, the next race came at Monthléry for the Coupes de l’ACIF on the 21st June. Smith set 6th fastest time in practice and raced through to a 4th place finish on the partially banked circuit. From Monthléry, the Avalon Racing team went to the Norisring in Germany. Racing in a round of the Interserie held with two heat races, Smith set 14th best time and finished 11th in the first race while taking 10th in the second, scoring a 9th place finish on aggregate.

The following saw another Interserie round, this time at Hockenheim for the Südwestpokal. Racing against a selection of Group 5 and Can-Am cars, Smith finished in 14th place. A third Interserie round came at Croft on the 11th July, a race combined with the RAC British Sports Car Championship, although Smith did not arrive with the Lola.

Instead, on the 14th July, Smith raced SL76/148 at Magny-Cours and finished 5th. On the 9th August, Smith raced in the GP Swerige, held at Anderstorp in Sweden, and took 11th place. At Pheonix Park, Ireland, in September, SL76/148 sported a large ‘For Sale’ sticker on the nose. Smith took pole position and led the race convincingly until a dying battery slowed the Lola to take 3rd.

A week later on the 20th September, the Avalon Racing team returned to Zandvoort for another Trophy of The Dunes only for piston failure to put the Lola out. Quickly resolved, the Lola was at Crystal Palace on the 27th where Smith took another win in SL76/148.

For the conclusion of 1970, and Smith’s ownership of SL76/148, the Lola was shipped to South Africa for the Kyalami 9 Hour race of 7th November. Sharing the driving with local hero Jackie Pretorius, the duo set 8th best time and had a strong race to finish 7th overall and win Class J.

On the return from South Africa, Smith sold SL76/148 to John Farley. Farley, a Chevrolet V8 enthusiast who had previously fitted a V8 into a Cooper F2 chassis for Chris Summers to race, painted SL76/148 blue and added some silencing before road registering the Lola. With the registration UKT 66H, Farley used SL76/148 on the roads around the South East of England to the surprise of other road goers!

In 1974, Farley sold SL76/148 to Mike Weatherill who kept it for less than a year and in turn sold it to Richard Bond. Bond, an accomplished racer of historic cars, returned SL76/148 to red and raced it with success with two wins and a 2nd place in 1975. 1976, Bond sold the Lola to Geoffrey Marsh of Marsh Plant Hire.

Marsh returned SL76/148 to red and added a pale blue centre stripe and nose band, with further detailing on the rear bodywork. Bond continued to drive SL76/148 for Marsh on occasion, along with others including most notably, Gerry Marshall and Ray Mallock. Marshall was a regular front runner with SL76/148 and took victory at the 1981 Dubai Grand Prix.

In 1985, Marsh sold SL76/148 to David Piper and Richard Attwood. Piper, who had campaigned a sister Mk3B from new, was regularly running cars in historic racing of the day and SL76/148 was to be used as a rental car. Painted red with a white forward point arrow in the style of John Surtees’ team livery, amongst those that raced it over the proceeding years were Lindsay Owen-Jones, Jonathan Baker, Mauro Borella and Colin Pearcy.

Having been active through Piper and Attwood’s ownership, SL76/148 was sold in 2002 to a French collector and in 2005 it was bought by dealer Jean Guikas of France. Known for his often remarkable collection of racing cars, Guikas held on to SL76/148 until it was bought by Chris Beighton, the current owner, in 2006.

A former competitor in British GT under his Team Tiger banner, Beighton added SL76/148 to his collection of racing cars and began campaigning the Lola after a rebuild by Clive Robinson, who first became acquainted with SL76/148 some 35 years earlier.

SL76/148 was finished in the Team Tiger livery of orange with two central black stripes and shared with Jon Finnemore in historic racing around Europe, with Finnemore maintaining the Lola for many years.

In 2013, the preparation of SL76/148 moved to Simon Hadfield Motorsport, the team behind the perennial successes of the Lola T70 Mk3B owned and raced by Leo Voyazides. Over the following decade, Simon Hadfield Motorsport have prepared and maintained SL76/148 with crack test rebuilds every two years to comply with safety regulations.

Having shown like for like performance to its stable mate, the Beighton has experienced multiple successes in SL76/148. Victories in Masters Sports Car Legends at Brands Hatch and Donington Park stand amongst the highlights of its most recent exploits.

January 2024 saw Simon Hadfield Motorsport complete another full crack test rebuild on SL76/148 along with sending the engine to be rebuilt by Steve Warrior. Further work included Hewland Classic rebuilding the Hewland LG600 gearbox and IG Racing rebuilding Koni double adjustable dampers. Following the rebuild of the car, a shakedown test was succesfully completed at Donington Park.

Most recently, SL76/148 travelled to California for the 2024 edition of the Rolex Monterey Pre Reunion and Reunion itself. Running on cut Avon tyres as opposed to the pure slicks used by the competition, SL76/148 was the fastest Lola T70 Mk3B and took a pair of 4th place finishes in the Pedro Rodriguez Trophy.

With fuel cells valid to March 2027, crack testing valid to January 2026, seatbelts valid to December 2025 and fire extinguisher to March 2026, SL76/148 has current FIA HTPs valid to December 2025.

Alongside the car itself, a full and usable spares package has been maintained. From a fresh spare Steve Warrior built Chevrolet V8 engine, to multiple spare sets of wheels, extensive bodywork including a new nose and tail in the matching Barrie Smith red and much more, SL76/148 has the extensive spares required to compete at the highest level. Furthermore, a significant number of key original parts still accompany the Lola today, including the full set of original bodywork, original February 1969 dated fuel cell, original numbered gearbox case, original passenger seat, original seat back with upholstery, original Koni dampers, original radiator, original oil tank, original wiring loom, original driveshafts, original spare wheel carrier and more.

Having just completed one test and the two race weekends at Laguna Seca since rebuilt, SL76/148 sits with under 200 miles on engine and gearbox.

As one of the clearest history Lola T70 Mk3Bs in existence, SL76/148 has a fascinating period race history documented by a series of superb photos collated by Barrie Smith, a photographer himself. SL76/148 has subsequently raced for the majority of its life, yet has kept out of trouble and is today also one of the most original T70 Mk3Bs.

Benefitting from the UK road registration, UKT 66H, that it gained in 1970 with second owner John Farley, SL76/148 is eligible for the very best events worldwide whether they be concours, race or road rally such as the Le Mans Classic, Rolex Reunion at Laguna Seca or the Tour Auto.

Available now for the first time in nearly 20 years, SL76/148’s striking looks in its original red Barrie Smith livery exemplify the iconic sports racing cars of the late 1960s and Lola’s most revered model.