1/43-1966 Lola T70 Spyder (Pepsi/Sunoco) by BEST, driver Mark Donohue, rating A+ :thumbsup:

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/7lolaPepsi01.jpg

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/7lolaPepsi02.jpg

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/7lolaPepsi03.jpg

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/7lolaPepsi04.jpg

Thanx for lookin', Frank

I got a soft spot for Lola T-70 coupes because of the Hot Wheel I had as a little feller,
but the open version is pretty cool too. Nice one!

I have some older Best (Italy) from >10 years ago - is this the same company? This Lola seems to be more detailed (seat belts, engine parts) than the ones I have...

A wonderful selection for this thread! That is a beautiful example of this car. They missed the decal around that left front wheel well, but other than that, that is as good as I have ever seen from Best!

I have the red #5 Stewart of this car, and the assemble line is so bad on the right side, that I can only display with the left showing! But one of the neat things about the Best T70 is that even the bottom is diecast. I just don't see that very much in this scale.

Again, great pics of a great car! I really need to put that version on my want list, that is a classic release!

... Nice one!
Thanx! :thumbsup:

I have some older Best (Italy) from >10 years ago - is this the same company? This Lola seems to be more detailed (seat belts, engine parts) than the ones I have...
I think it's the same company but some of their later diecasts were better detailed. Is this the type box it came in?

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/7lolaPepsi05.jpg

A wonderful selection for this thread! ... one of the neat things about the Best T70 is that even the bottom is diecast. I just don't see that very much in this scale.
Again, great pics of a great car! I really need to put that version on my want
list, that is a classic release!
Thanx! :thumbsup: As you already know this is the start of my 60s American road race car collection.

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/7lolaPepsi08.jpg

Thanx, Frank

From around 1998, plastic base, great wheels! Older style box, Made in Italy.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm12/kschnelle/Alfa/BestAlfa33Andretti.jpg

I think they're still using that casting - maybe upgraded, as I bought an LM version in the newer box last year.

seen that car in real life, over the last weekend!

Made in Italy.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm12/kschnelle/Alfa/BestAlfa33Andretti.jpg
Sex-on-wheels.
Dalm schtraight it's made in Italy
This car in 1/43rd has more panache and character than most 1:1s

I forgot to post mine! Thanks for letting us share in your thread!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/WilsonRacePhotos/Road%20Racing/DSCN0677.jpg

I like this red one a little better.
It looks cleaner without that front air dam that the blue one has.
Is this a Best also?

Yep, another BEST model. This Mk.1 #SL70/1 is the 1965 Brands Hatch ride of Jackie Stewart for Team Surtees. Stewart posted an overall third in this car, powered with a good old American 350!

Did those Lolas ever run big blocks Ward?

The biggeset I can find is the Lola-Chevrolet T70 Mk3B (chassis SL76/138) running 6.2 liters. So that is like what, a 380 cubes?

This was November of '69 in the South-Africa KYALAMI 9 HOURS Springbok race and was driven by Brian Redman and John Love.

In all the years, I can find nothing bigger, but I think I must be missing something. Almost all were 5.0, 305 small blocks. And almost all were Chevy's, a neat twist from the company that built the FORD GT40's!

Hopefuly someone will fill in my missing info. Did someone not run a bigger plant in the Can-Am series?

Wuh??? Lola built the GT-40s???
I feel like I shouda known that!!!
Thanks for the info 'Stang.

Yep, but let me clarify before I start a slew of response. When Ford decided to go sports cars racing (after the well known battle with Enzo Ferrari over the failed purchase) they first looked at Lotus, but for several reasons, they decided the Lola GT was a better platform to work from.

They had tapped English automotive engineer Roy Lunn (already working for Ford) to head up the project and signed Eric Broadley (Lola) as a consultant for 1 year. Ford purchased two Lola GT's and began work in the England based Lola shops. It was moved to a new location soon after that.

By the time we see the GT40 Mark IV (the one everyone thinks of when you say GT40) it has become a totally Dearborn project. By that point, Lola was perfecting the T70.

So I did not want to start any mis information. Lola was key in the original creation (Mark 1), but not by the time we get to 1966. After that is was all American!!

Thanks 'Stang!

Thanks for letting us share in your thread!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/WilsonRacePhotos/Road%20Racing/DSCN0677.jpg
That's really nice!


It looks cleaner without that front air dam that the blue one has.

Maybe you'll like the one below a little more.

Did those Lolas ever run big blocks Ward?
See text below.

1/43-1966 Lola T70 "Sunoco Special" Spyder driven by Mark Donahue @ St Jovite made buy Best

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/16LolaSunoco01.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/16LolaSunoco02.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/16LolaSunoco04.jpg

For the first season of the CanAm championship (1966), the Lola T70 spider was the car to have. Lolas won five out of six races that year, and four out of the five winning Lolas were powered by Chevrolet V8s. The only other winning make of car in 1966 was the Chaparral 2E which won the fourth round of the 1966 CanAm series at Laguna Seca.

John Surtees won 3 races in his Lola Chevrolet T70, and in doing so became champion. Dan Gurney won the second round at Bridgehampton in his Lola T70 Ford and Mark Donohue won the third round at Mosport, Ontario in his Penske prepared Lola T70 Chevrolet. He was a lucky winner in that he was one of the few front runners to avoid being caught up in a first corner pile-up, which badly damaged John Surtees Lola putting him out of the race. Donohue went around the outside of the accident and emerged in the lead, which he kept until the end of the race.

One of the reasons Mark Donohue put forward for his relative lack of success in the 1966 season was lubrication problems with the large capacity "Big Block" Chevy V8 in this car. Penske and Donohue felt they would gain an "unfair advantage" (also the name of his biography from which I gathered much of the information on this model) by running a bigger and hence more powerful engine than the rest of the field, most of whom had smaller Ford and Chevrolet V8s. Unfortunately, the larger engine had an inadequate oil circulation system which meant the engine was starved of oil when cornering hard, a problem which often resulted in engine failure and consequent retirement in many races in 1966.

Thanx, Frank

Oh yah' Frank, that is a sweet addition to the thread! I knew someone had to run a big block, but like I said, I could just not find it! That 6.2 L was the biggest I could find in my digging, but I should have though Can-Am! Love the car as well!

Great info!!!

The biggeset I can find is the Lola-Chevrolet T70 Mk3B (chassis SL76/138) running 6.2 liters. So that is like what, a 380 cubes?

This was November of '69 in the South-Africa KYALAMI 9 HOURS Springbok race and was driven by Brian Redman and John Love.

In all the years, I can find nothing bigger, but I think I must be missing something. Almost all were 5.0, 305 small blocks. And almost all were Chevy's, a neat twist from the company that built the FORD GT40's!

Hopefuly someone will fill in my missing info. Did someone not run a bigger plant in the Can-Am series?

I dunno if it raced but i have seen a 510 CI Chevy engined Lola T70 MKIII coupe, but it was built on a can-am spyder chassis (only they allow big block engines)

510? OK, now were talking! I am not sure what the official number is bewteen little and big, but 510 counts as BIG for me!

yep, The owner was nice... he even sent my pics I gave to him (High Res of course) to the Lola Factory, according to what he said! lol

heres a picture of it: (CLICK ON THUMB to see bigger picture and then click that picture to see fullsize))
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/8404/img2440d.th.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2440d.jpg)

Wow Alex, that is STUNNING! Where did you snap that photo?

Orlando... at the Orlando Festivals of Speed, the Ritz Carlton of Grand Lakes, I think. The owenr took off the air cleaner top showing the webbers (AWESOME) and opened the front so I could take pics and get the chassis plate, very nice guy.

How cool is that! Thanks for the pic.

Yeah well, if he was REAL nice he woulda let you HAVVITT!!! :)

or take me for a ride, eh?