In 1966, Goodyear bought this Lola T70, intending it to be driven by the renowned A.J. Foyt during the first-ever Can-Am season. The car was later sold in 1967 to driver Bob Bondurant, who leased it to Universal Studios for its appearance in the movie “Winning,” featuring Paul Newman.
Lola boldly called the MkII version of their T70 the most successful sports car of 1966. And rightly so since it won some of the most important UK races as well as the USSRC and CanAm Championships in North America.
Eric Broadley’s T70 sports prototype was upgraded from the same successful formula as the MkI by having an American-sourced V8 engine in a small prototype chassis. Most of the successful cars were run with the small-block Chevrolet engines, but one victory was achieved with the Ford 333 and Penske tried the 427 Chevrolet with no success whatsoever.
The MkII specification introduced much more aluminum in the chassis which reduced the overall weight by 32 kg (70 lbs). More weight was saved by using color-impregnated fiberglass. This resulted in a 289 Ford-powered T70 weighing just 726 kgs (1500 lbs) while the Chevrolet 327 was at 726 kgs (1600 lbs). Other small changes that came with the MkII were wider wheels, consolidated radiators with one large cooling unit in the nose and revised suspension points.
In total 33 MkII Spyders were built by Lola and author John Starkey calls this series the most successful of all the T70 variants.
Photo Source: Fiskens – Fine Historic Automobiles
