THE LOLA T87/00
All pictures copyright Lola Heritage unless otherwise stated.
1987 Indy Car Champion Bobby Rahal in his T87/00.
The two previous Indycar designs the 1985 T900 and the 1986 T86/00 had been quite successful with the T900 taking five wins between Al Unser Jr. and Mario Andretti while the T86/00 secured three victories shared between the same drivers. Both seasons saw the March 85C and 86C taking the lion's share of the wins and the two Championships so 1987 saw Lola making a concerted effort to get back on top and wrest the title from their Bicester rival.
The full technical details of the T87/00 can be found in the Lola Press Release below.
There was an important pre-season change of driver seats when Al Unser Jr. switched to the March camp whilst Bobby Rahal made the reverse trip by switching from March to the Lola stable. On paper it would seem as if Little Al had made the better move but the season saw Al take no wins while Bobby took three and the PPG Championship. A great part of Bobby's success was down to the fact that he and the Budweiser/Truesports T87/00 were competitive on all tracks, in addition to his wins he took five seconds and two thirds as well as the victory in the non-chmpionship Marlboro Challenge race at Tamiami Park. Mario Andretti took two victories to give the T87/00 five wins to the ten of the March 87C and given that, on average, there were three or four times as many Marches on the grid Lola had a better ratio of cars to wins.
In 1988 Emerson Fittipaldi took two victories in the Marlboro T87/00 switching from a March 88C after six rounds giving the design six victories in total.
As an aside one of the Truesports entries was chassis number 13, one of the very few Lola's to be given this number as most designs jumped from chassis number 12 to 14.
Other T87/00 drivers:
Fulvio Ballabio (1987 & 1988)
John Beekhuis (1989)
Gary Bettenhausen (1989)
Tony Bettenhausen Jr. (1988 & 1989)
Steve Butler (1989)
Steve Chassey (1990)
Jim Crawford
Wally Dallenbach Jr.
Derek Daly (1987 & 1988)
Mark Dismore (1989)
Dominic Dobson (1988)
Dennis Firestone
Stan Fox (1990)
A. J. Foyt
Jean-Pierre Frey (1988)
Michael Greenfield (1989 & 1990)
Scott Harrington (1989)
Ludwig Heimrath Jr.
Phil Krueger (1989)
John Paul Jr. (1989)
John Richards
Johnny Rutherford (1988)
Dick Simon (1987 & 1988)
Didier Theys (1987 & 1988)
Dennis Vitolo (1989)
Jeff Wood
Year(s) of Construction: 1987
Total Built: 13
The T87/00 at a wintery Lola factory.
T87/00 CHAMPIONSHIP WINS
YEAR |
CHAMPIONSHIP |
WINNER(S) |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | PPG Indy Car World Series | Bobby Rahal | Lola T87/00-Cosworth |
Two more shots of....
T87/00 SIGNIFICANT RACE WINS
1987
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5th April | Long Beach - Toyota Grand Prix | Mario Andretti | Round 1 of PPG Indy Car World Series |
| 14th June | Portland International Raceway - Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 | Bobby Rahal | Round 5 of PPG Indy Car World Series |
| 28th June | Meadowlands Sports Complex - Meadowlands Indy | Bobby Rahal | Round 6 of PPG Indy Car World Series |
| 30th August | Elkhart Lake -Road America 200 | Mario Andretti | Round 11 of PPG Indy Car World Series |
| 31st October | Tamiami Park Street Course | Bobby Rahal | Non-Championship Marlboro Challenge |
1988
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th September | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course - Escort Radar Warning 200 | Emerson Fittipaldi | First Lola CART win for Emmo - Round 11 of PPG Indy Car World Series |
| 11th September | Elkhart Lake – Road America 200 | Emerson Fittipaldi | Round 12 of PPG Indy Car World Series |
....Bobby Rahal.
T88/00 at the Indianapolis 500: Bobby Rahal, Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Ludwig Heimrath Jr. Missing - Dick Simon
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