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1972 Lola T280

Sale 14267 - Important Collectors' Motor Cars and Fine Automobilia, 4 Dec 2006
Olympia, London. Bonhams

Lot No: 625
1972 Lola T280 Sports-Racing Two-Seater
Chassis no. T280 HU 4

Sold for £199,500 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Lola continued to mine a rich vein of Formula 5000 success after moving to its current Huntingdon base at the end of 1970, yet the firm had not abandoned its sports car roots. Indeed, the open monocoque-chassis T210 had set new parameters of excellence in the fledgling 2-litre class in 1970, taking northern rival Derek Bennett’s Chevron concern, which was still using spaceframe coupés, by surprise. Swiss-based Swedish veteran Jo Bonnier, Lola’s European agent, won the drivers’ title that year and Austrian Helmut Marko won it again in 1971 with the T210’s T212 successor, helping Lola to the manufacturer’s crown. The subsequent ultra-successful and extremely attractive T290 family of 2.0-litre sports cars (which evolved through T292, T294, T296 and T298 versions) kept Lola in the hunt in European championships, for class honours at Le Mans and in the USA. This T290 family of cars (and the closely related T280 series, powered by 3.0-litre Formula 1 Cosworth DFV V8 engines) are widely regarded as classics of production racing sports car design.

Paperwork on file shows that the Rosso Bianco collection acquired this T280 from Geoffrey Marsh of Marsh Plant Holdings in May 1984. At that time the car was with Ray Mallock Atlantic Racing having been raced by Messrs Mallock, Cooper and Wilds in Thundersports 1983. Mallock continued to work on the car for Peter Kaus. Other research in relation to ‘T280 HU 4’ quotes the provenance as Carlos Gaspar, to whom it was delivered new on 25th May 1972; Jeremy Lord; Jörg Zaborowski; Ray Mallock (1983); Rosso Bianco Museum.