Sports Car News
Gallery: Test driving Steve McQueen’s stunt car – with Jackie Oliver
This Lola T70 has had more interesting history than most – starring in Le Mans and being raced by a sports car legend
Lola revives the T70 with FIA-approved historic racer and road-legal GT
Lola’s iconic T70 returns as the T70S and T70S GT, merging historic racing heritage with modern engineering and sustainable composites
This is the new, track-only Lola T70S but there’s a roadgoing GT available too & Bodywork is Lola’s LNCS, derived from plant and basalt fibres with resin from sugercane waste
Wait, isn’t Lola dead?
It was. The original Lola ceased trading in 2012 but was revived in 2022 when businessman and racer Till Bechtolsheimer (who handled a Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini GT3 in 2024) acquired the rights and rebuilt the famous brand.
5-litre V8 in the competition car
Holy Can-Am…
Oh yes. Lola’s T70 returns, kind of. But this isn’t quite the same car that scored a 1-2 in the 1969 Daytona 24 Hours and carried John Surtees to the inaugural Can-Am title in 1966. Instead, this is the T70S… a new car.
Related article
Really?
It’s a fully verified competition machine complete with FIA Historic Technical Passport that’ll be eligible for most historic events. There’s also the T70S GT, which is road legal, Lola released images of it with reg plate just to make it clear, below.
It doesn’t look very road-y
And that’s what makes it so appealing. It’s more than just a continuation car. It takes the T70 design and reimagines it using modern engineering with an aluminium chassis, double wishbone suspension and bodywork made from a new composite material derived from plant waste. Lola developed the material, Lola Natural Composite System (LNCS), itself and reckons it’s stronger than glassfibre and more refined than carbon fibre.
T70S GT
Any tech?
That’s limited, because it would simply go against what the T70 is about. There are no cockpit screens, traction control, ABS, power steering or even a radio, not that you’d want to listen to one over the sound of a 6.2-litre Chevrolet V8 singing. But you do get air conditioning and a clever six-speed manual Hewland gearbox that can be switched to a sequential setting if you did want to take it on a trackday. The racing version has a 5-litre Chevy V8 and five-speed gearbox, as God intended.
“Respectful refinement”
Hit me with the figures
How does 500bhp and 890kg sound? That makes 560bhp per tonne – comparable with a Bugatti Veyron or old-school McLaren F1 – and means the T70S GT can do 0-62mph in 2.9sec. It’s also capable of 203mph. Pricing TBC, but Bechtolsheimer reckons it’ll be comparable to “the very best” original T70 values, which can reach around £750,000. Only 16 are scheduled for build.
×