THE LOLA T250
All pictures copyright unknown unless otherwise stated.
Designer John Barnard sitting on the rear wheel of the T250 at the London Racing Car Show, in the background the Can-Am T222. (Motor Sport magazine)
Formula Super Vee, backed by Volkswagen, was looking as if it would be a very popular class of racing at the start of the 1970s with well supported Championships in both Europe and the USA announced and Lola clearly saw it as a potential market and thus was born the T250. The car was designed by the young John Barnard who would of course go on to become one of the most successful Formula One designers ever, working at McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton.
The regulations for the Formula were, like Formula Ford, designed to keep costs down and therefore the chassis was a spaceframe with outboard suspension all round which followed typical Lola thinking, wishbones at the front and a top link/reversed lower wishbone and twin radius rods at the rear. Unusually for a car of this period, although there were disc brakes at the front, there were drums at the rear. The engine was a 1600cc air-cooled VW type 4 unit mated to the ubiquitous Hewland Mk8 gearbox.
The T250 won six races in the US and Europe in its debut season. In Europe Greger Kronegärd won three times in the Jo Bonnier-entered car finishing as runner-up in the Formula Super Vau Gold Pokal Championship. In the US Formula Super Vee Championship both Tom Reddy and Tom Davey were victorious finishing second and third respectively in the final standings.
Year(s) of Construction: 1971
Total Built: 20
Many T250s were updated with a full-width nosecone and a rear wing.
T250 RACE WINS
1971
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
---|---|---|---|
11th July | Road Atlanta | Tom Reddy | First US Championship Lola Super Vee win - Super Vee Championship Round 2 |
8th August | Mantorp Park | Greger Kronegärd | Formula Super Vau Gold Pokal – Round 4 |
21st August | Talladega | Tom Davey | US Formula Super Vee Championship - Round 3 |
22nd August | Keimola | Greger Kronegärd | Formula Super Vau Gold Pokal - Round 5 |
12th September | Gurnigel | Greger Kronegärd | Formula Super Vau Gold Pokal - Round 6 |
18th September | Oulton Park - BARC (NW Centre) | Greger Kronegärd | Round of the Volkswagen Motors Formula Super Vee Championship |
1972
DATE |
VENUE/MEETING |
DRIVER |
NOTES |
---|---|---|---|
25th November | Road Atlanta - SCCA | R. Wheelock | Road Race of Champions (FSV class) |