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The new Lola T92/10 sportscar was unveiled in Huntingdon last week. It was shaken down at Silverstone on Friday by Cor Euser, on behalf of Euro Racing, Lola's first customer.
The Judd VI 0-powered Lola completed only a handful of laps because of 'new car problems’ but was due to have a second run at Donington yesterday (Wednesday). The car is expected to make its debut in the Miami IMSA event on February 23, prior to joining the SWC trail.
The T92/10 is Lola's first proper customer sportscar for some eight years, although the marque undertook a successful project on behalf of Nissan two years ago. A showcase for the high quality work of Lola Composites, the design is largely the work of Dutchman Wiet Huidekoper.
Aerodynamically, the car follows the basic pattern of narrow cockpit, low swept back tail and double rear wing established by the Jaguar XJR14 and the revised Peugeot 905. However, it is distinguished by the air intakes in the — something of a Lola sportscar nose trademark. Air flows from the nose 'nostrils' through ducts in the sidepods to the side-mounted radiators, and exits in front of the rear wheels.
'Relative to the previous Lola benchmark the downforce gain is in excess of 40%, for no increase in drag,' says Huidekoper. 'Also, great emphasis has been placed in terms of aerodynamics on getting the major amount of the downforce on the front — as sportscars always understeer. When we run really high downforce, we can still get nearly 50% of that downforce on the front.
The car does not have a front wing like the Jaguar and 905, and at first glance does not appear to have adjustability at the front. But Huidekoper says there is scope to use additional components, such as louvre panels, which were not shown at the launch.
Cockpit access is via Jag-style 'windows', and Peugeot-type mirrors are located just in front of them. Sidepods are easily detachable, as on the Jaguar, allowing easy access to components.
The car uses a high-sided, single-seater style chassis which is said to be narrower than the Jaguar. Like the Mercedes C291, the Lola has an integral composite roll-hoop. A complete chassis has successfully passed a FISA crash test.
'It's an incredibly stiff structure, and from a survival cell point of view it encloses the driver more than a classic chassis. A lot of thought has gone into driver comfort, so no brake dust or heat off the engine will come into the cockpit.'
The car utilises pushrod suspension and has been designed to accept a variety of engine installations.
'The gearbox is a six-speed longitudinal 'box which is a development in common with the T92/00 Indycar,' says Wiet. 'They have the same gear clusters, but we have our own one-piece casing. It's been developed so that it wouldn't intrude into the venturis as much as the standard DGB might have.'
In contrast to some of the factory opposition, the first Lola has come in well under the 750kg weight limit.
'The dry weight of the production car with the Judd engine — which is very light — is 672kg. With fluids in, ready to run, you get to 694kg or something. Where Peugeot and Mercedes struggled is that they'd never built a light racing car. Of course, a company like Lola does that every day — if we didn't we wouldn't be in business! You know how to meet an Fl car at 500kg, so what you do is apply that knowledge. It's no more complicated than that.
You could say that we copy each other, but if Jaguar hadn't seen the Peugeot before, and if we hadn't seen either one of those cars, we would still have built something like we've built. It makes sense to be able to peel the bodywork off, it makes sense to make the chassis narrow and high rather than low and wide. It gives much more scope for development.'
Entered by Euro Racing in all races
26th April - Monza 500 Kms - Cor Euser/Charles Zwolsman - Qual 6th - Race DNF (Gearbox)
26th April - Monza 500 Kms - Stefan Johansson/Jésus Pareja - Qual 5th - Race DNS (Gearbox failed on Formation lap)
10th May - Silverstone 500 Kms - Cor Euser/Charles Zwolsman - Qual 5th - Race DNF (Gearbox)
10th May - Silverstone 500 Kms - Stefan Johansson/Jésus Pareja - Qual 6th - Race Disq (Illegal fuel)
21st June - Le Mans 24 Hours - Heinz-Harald Frentzen/Syunji Kasuya/Charles Zwolsman - Qual 12th - Race 13th
21st June - Le Mans 24 Hours - Cor Euser/Charles Zwolsman/Jésus Pareja - Qual 9th - Race DNF (Gearbox/Starter motor)
19th July - Donington 500 Kms - Heinz-Harald Frentzen/Phil Andrews - Qual 7th - Race 4th
19th July - Donington 500 Kms - Cor Euser/Jésus Pareja - Qual 5th - Race DNF (Dashboard fire)
30th August - Suzuka 1000 Kms - Jésus Pareja/Hideshi Matsuda - Qual 4th - Race 5th
30th August - Suzuka 1000 Kms - Cor Euser/David Tennyson/Heinz-Harald Frentzen - Qual 7th - Race DNF (Engine)
18th October - Many-Cours 500 Kms - Cor Euser - Scrutineering only following arrest of Charles Zwolsman.
18th October - Many-Cours 500 Kms - xxx - Scrutineering only following arrest of Charles Zwolsman.
This is probably the model of the T92/10 that Lola showed to potential customers prior to completing the first chassis.
THE LOLA T92/10
All pictures copyright Lola Heritage unless otherwise stated.
The T92/10 would be Lola's first customer sportscar (other than the S2000 models) since the 1983 T616, there had of course been the Corvette, Nissan and Grand Champion Sportscar designs but these were commissioned and not for general sale. It was intended for the new 3.5 litre formula World Sportscar Championship introduced by the CSI for the 1991 season.
The designer of the T92/10 Wiet Huidekoper took inspiration from the previous year's Jaguar XJR14 that had won the Championship and the Lola used the same rule interpretation whereby the side window was easily removable and doubled as the entry/exit for the driver which allowed for a narrow and high-sided very stiff monocoque. Additionally, it was intended that the tub would provide good accessibility, optimal driver safety while being light, durable, compact and aerodynamically efficient.
The 1992 season was one of the worst in Sports car history with very small fields and, other than the Le Mans 24 Hours, the largest number of finishers was seven. The Championship was dominated by the Peugeot 905 Evo 1 which won five out of six rounds, the original schedule was for ten rounds but lack of entries saw five rounds canceled with one replacement round at Magny-Cours added. The T92/00 only finished three out of ten starts with a best result of fourth at Donington, Euro Racing finished the year in fifth place (out of six) in the Team Championship. In a final ignominy team owner Charles Zwolsman was arrested at the Magny-Cours event for drug smuggling, this happened on several occasions and he would eventually pass away in prison in 2011.
Year(s) of Construction: 1992
Total Built: 3
The following write-up originally appeared in Autosport magazine
The new Lola T92/10 sportscar was unveiled in Huntingdon last week. It was shaken down at Silverstone on Friday by Cor Euser, on behalf of Euro Racing, Lola's first customer.
The Judd VI 0-powered Lola completed only a handful of laps because of 'new car problems’ but was due to have a second run at Donington yesterday (Wednesday). The car is expected to make its debut in the Miami IMSA event on February 23, prior to joining the SWC trail.
The T92/10 is Lola's first proper customer sportscar for some eight years, although the marque undertook a successful project on behalf of Nissan two years ago. A showcase for the high quality work of Lola Composites, the design is largely the work of Dutchman Wiet Huidekoper.
Aerodynamically, the car follows the basic pattern of narrow cockpit, low swept back tail and double rear wing established by the Jaguar XJR14 and the revised Peugeot 905. However, it is distinguished by the air intakes in the — something of a Lola sportscar nose trademark. Air flows from the nose 'nostrils' through ducts in the sidepods to the side-mounted radiators, and exits in front of the rear wheels.
'Relative to the previous Lola benchmark the downforce gain is in excess of 40%, for no increase in drag,' says Huidekoper. 'Also, great emphasis has been placed in terms of aerodynamics on getting the major amount of the downforce on the front — as sportscars always understeer. When we run really high downforce, we can still get nearly 50% of that downforce on the front.
The car does not have a front wing like the Jaguar and 905, and at first glance does not appear to have adjustability at the front. But Huidekoper says there is scope to use additional components, such as louvre panels, which were not shown at the launch.
Cockpit access is via Jag-style 'windows', and Peugeot-type mirrors are located just in front of them. Sidepods are easily detachable, as on the Jaguar, allowing easy access to components.
The car uses a high-sided, single-seater style chassis which is said to be narrower than the Jaguar. Like the Mercedes C291, the Lola has an integral composite roll-hoop. A complete chassis has successfully passed a FISA crash test.
'It's an incredibly stiff structure, and from a survival cell point of view it encloses the driver more than a classic chassis. A lot of thought has gone into driver comfort, so no brake dust or heat off the engine will come into the cockpit.'
The car utilises pushrod suspension and has been designed to accept a variety of engine installations.
'The gearbox is a six-speed longitudinal 'box which is a development in common with the T92/00 Indycar,' says Wiet. 'They have the same gear clusters, but we have our own one-piece casing. It's been developed so that it wouldn't intrude into the venturis as much as the standard DGB might have.'
In contrast to some of the factory opposition, the first Lola has come in well under the 750kg weight limit.
'The dry weight of the production car with the Judd engine — which is very light — is 672kg. With fluids in, ready to run, you get to 694kg or something. Where Peugeot and Mercedes struggled is that they'd never built a light racing car. Of course, a company like Lola does that every day — if we didn't we wouldn't be in business! You know how to meet an Fl car at 500kg, so what you do is apply that knowledge. It's no more complicated than that.
You could say that we copy each other, but if Jaguar hadn't seen the Peugeot before, and if we hadn't seen either one of those cars, we would still have built something like we've built. It makes sense to be able to peel the bodywork off, it makes sense to make the chassis narrow and high rather than low and wide. It gives much more scope for development.'
1992 FIA Sportscar World Championship
Entered by Euro Racing in all races
26th April - Monza 500 Kms - Cor Euser/Charles Zwolsman - Qual 6th - Race DNF (Gearbox)
26th April - Monza 500 Kms - Stefan Johansson/Jésus Pareja - Qual 5th - Race DNS (Gearbox failed on Formation lap)
10th May - Silverstone 500 Kms - Cor Euser/Charles Zwolsman - Qual 5th - Race DNF (Gearbox)
10th May - Silverstone 500 Kms - Stefan Johansson/Jésus Pareja - Qual 6th - Race Disq (Illegal fuel)
21st June - Le Mans 24 Hours - Heinz-Harald Frentzen/Syunji Kasuya/Charles Zwolsman - Qual 12th - Race 13th
21st June - Le Mans 24 Hours - Cor Euser/Charles Zwolsman/Jésus Pareja - Qual 9th - Race DNF (Gearbox/Starter motor)
19th July - Donington 500 Kms - Heinz-Harald Frentzen/Phil Andrews - Qual 7th - Race 4th
19th July - Donington 500 Kms - Cor Euser/Jésus Pareja - Qual 5th - Race DNF (Dashboard fire)
30th August - Suzuka 1000 Kms - Jésus Pareja/Hideshi Matsuda - Qual 4th - Race 5th
30th August - Suzuka 1000 Kms - Cor Euser/David Tennyson/Heinz-Harald Frentzen - Qual 7th - Race DNF (Engine)
18th October - Many-Cours 500 Kms - Cor Euser - Scrutineering only following arrest of Charles Zwolsman.
18th October - Many-Cours 500 Kms - xxx - Scrutineering only following arrest of Charles Zwolsman.
T92/10 SIGNIFICANT RACE WINS
1992
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19th April | Mugello | Charles Zwolsman | Round 1 of the Interserie Championship - Winner Div. I class |
1995
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8th October | Donington - B.R.S.C.C. Interserie Cup | Robbie Stirling | Round 5 of the Interserie Championship - Winner Div. III class |
| 5th November | Jarama - Interserie Coupe 95 | Robbie Stirling | Round 6 of the Interserie Championship - Winner Div. III class |
1996
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8th April | Brands Hatch | Robbie Stirling | Round 1 of the Interserie Championship - Winner Div. I class |
| 3rd November | Albacete | Robbie Stirling | Round 5 of the Interserie Championship - Winner Div. I class |
2001
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20th May | A1-Ring - Int. Castrol Pokal am A1-Ring | Robbie Stirling | Round 2 of the Interserie Championship - Race 1 - Winner Class 3 |
| 30th September | A1-Ring - Competition Car Technology Internationale Trophy | Robbie Stirling | Round 6 of the Interserie Championship - Race 2 - Winner Class 3 |
2016
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30th July | Silverstone Classic | Nathan Kinch | Group C - Race 1 - First overall and Winner Class C3A |
This is probably the model of the T92/10 that Lola showed to potential customers prior to completing the first chassis.