THE LOLA T110
All pictures copyright Lola Heritage unless otherwise stated.
The T110 seems to have been a projected Formula One design between Eric Broadley and John Surtees. How this fitted into the Lola timeline isn't clear, the T110 designation puts it after the T100, the 1967 Formula 2 chassis, but presumably work began on the T100 in 1966, At the start of 1966 Surtees was driving for Ferrari in Formula One and Sportscars until the falling out with Dragoni, the Ferrari Team Manager, at Le Mans. Surtees left the Italian team and completed the season driving a Cooper-Maserati before signing for Honda in the December of 1966.
The logical explanation is that Surtees and Broadley discussed the idea in between Surtees leaving Ferrari and joining Honda, there would have been no point in Surtees joining Cooper for 1967 as the team was now a spent force in F1 and most of the top teams had already decided on their 1967 drivers. One other additional bonus for Surtees would be continuing with Lola sportscars having won the 1966 Can-Am Championship in a T70.
This begs the question what engine would they have used? The Ford DFV had yet to be revealed and anyway Lotus had an exclusive deal with Cosworth in the first year, Repco had shown no interest in supplying engines to customers and it was tough enough working with one team when they were based in Australia. The Maserati engine was heavy and not especially powerful, the Weslake V12 hadn't yet raced and Ferrari weren't even an option. This leaves just one name, BRM who, of course, supplied customer engines and whether the plan would have been to use the H16 or a 2-litre V8 until the V12 was introduced is a matter for conjecture.
Year(s) of Construction: 1967
Total Built: 0