The Lola T70 that was Steve McQueen’s Le Mans crash-test dummy

At Silverstone, our Lola T70 reunion was completed by a spry 80-something ex-mechanic who has a fascinating connection to SL76/141: David Westley, inset, ran the car when it ‘raced’ (and crashed) without a driver. He was on the set of Le Mans when the Lola turned into a Porsche 917K and became a remote-control movie star.

“Ulf Norinder had a racing manager who knew Andrew Ferguson at Team Lotus,” explains Westley, who had previous T70 experience working for Roger Nathan. “Andrew sent a letter asking would I be interested in working in France for six months or so? Yes, OK. They found me an apartment near the end of the Mulsanne Straight.”

Westley has happy memories of the summer of 1970, and no wonder. “Just outside the circuit there was a big warehouse where the cars used in the film were laid out, the Porsches and Ferraris, the GT40 camera cars and Lolas. The mechanics would deliver the cars to the circuit every morning, then in the evenings drive them back. There was a young Italian guy who one night took a Ferrari out into Le Mans. He got caught by the police for driving a race car to a nightclub.”

Westley had a unique brief. “I looked after installing the equipment that made cars remote-controllable, so they could be used for crash scenes. We spent months practising, going around the local airport doing turns and figures of eight. To make those cars remote control we had to strip out all the existing engines and put stock Camaro engines in. We took ailerons from aircraft flaps on the wings and they were like a large solenoid with pistons. We mounted them against the throttle, brakes and clutch so we could move each in and out. The steering would be similar, but with a chain and sprocket around the steering column so that we could actually steer the car as well. The guy I was working with did the remote-controlled aircraft for the Battle of Britain film. He did the electronics and I did the mechanical side.

“The crash scenes were a one-shot deal. We did two main shots, one with the Lola dressed up as a Porsche and one with a Ferrari down at Arnage, shooting it through the trees. For the Ferrari, we used a concrete ramp where there was previously a sand bank. We took the sand away, put the concrete ramp in and covered it in sand, then shot the car in a straight line through the trees.”

The Lola-as-a-Porsche shot didn’t quite go to plan. “We lost control of it,” says David, “but decided not to tell anybody because it wouldn’t look good for us! Still, the crash looked phenomenal in the film. In fact I don’t think we could have done it any better.”