Although the material on this page (photographs and/or Downloads) is offered freely for download, all items remain the copyright of Lola Heritage or Lola Cars (except where indicated) and may not be further distributed for profit or personal gain. If you wish to use any of these items for public display (e.g. web site, books or magazines etc.) please contact Lola Heritage first.

THE LOLA T54


All pictures copyright Lola Heritage unless otherwise stated.


pic

The MRP Lola T54 of Dick Attwood leads Mike Spence in the works Lotus and the Brabham of Alan Rees at Anchor Corner in the Aintree 200.

1964 saw the introduction of the new Formula 2 category as a replacement for the very popular Formula Junior cars that had been racing all over Europe and the rest of the world since 1958. Although the cars were very similar the major change was the switch to a more powerful race-tuned but production based 1-litre engine and almost immediately the popular pick was the Cosworth-Ford SCA.

The SCA used the Ford 1500 cc five-bearing block as a basis with the capacity reduced to 998 cc and dry sump lubrication with the valves operated by a single overhead camshaft, two twin-choke Weber 40DCM2 carburettors delivered the fuel with coil ignition taking care of the sparks. Other features included a counter-balanced nitrided steel crank, a light alloy cylinder head and pistons with combustion chambers in the crown and alloy steel conrods. Power was initially 115 bhp on the Webers which was similar to the Cosworth Formula Junior engine, although 100 cc smaller, but later developments, including fuel injection, added another 25 bhp.

The T54 was basically the Formula Junior MK5A with a few modifications to make it suitable for F2 (full details of the Mk5A HERE) and, despite it effectively being a three year old spaceframe design, it was a competitive proposition, being little slower than the works Brabham and Lotus cars that won the bulk of the races. The three cars run by MRP (Midland Racing Partnership) were BRJ 57, BRJ 60 and BRJ 63, these were the three Mk5A cars they had used in 1963 Formula Junior races renamed as the T54 and would, in turn, become the T55 used later in the 1964 F2 season.

pic

Tony Maggs in the MRP T54 at Mallory Park.

SIGNIFICANT T54 RESULTS

1964

DATERACE/VENUEDRIVERRESULT
5th AprilXXIV Grand Prix Automobile de PauRichard Attwood2nd
12th AprilIV Preis von Wien, Aspern, ViennaRichard Attwood1st
18th AprilAintree 200Tony Maggs2nd
26th AprilXXVII Internationales ADAC-Eifelrennen, NürburgringRichard Attwood2nd
5th JulyXXX Grand Prix de ReimsRichard Attwood6th
19th July VI Trophée d'Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand#Tony Maggs4th
27th SeptemberI Grand Prix de l'ile de France, MontlheryChris Amon5th
#Introduction of the T55
Other drivers of the MRP T54s in 1964: David Hobbs and Brian Hart

Additionally Bill Bradley and Richie Ginther raced a car in the early season listed as a T55, chasasis number SL-64-1. No such number exists in the Lola Chassis Register (Admittedly probably not a contemporary listing) but MRP had a Mk5A chassis SL3/65 which is a rebuild of BRJ 59 and this may be it.

Year(s) of Construction: 1964

Total Built: 3 (BRJ 57 - BRJ 60 - BRJ 63)