Lola Cars

Lola Cars International Ltd. was a racing car engineering company founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley and based in Huntingdon, England. Enduring more than fifty years, it was one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola Cars started by building small front-engined sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. Lola was acquired by Martin Birrane in 1998 after the unsuccessful Lola MasterCard attempt at Formula One.

Lola Cars was a brand of the Lola Group, which combined former rowing boat manufacturer Lola Aylings and Lola Composites, that specialized in carbon fibre production. After a period in bankruptcy administration, Lola Cars International ceased trading on 5 October 2012. Many of Lola's assets were subsequently purchased by a partnership composed of Multimatic Engineering and the Carl A. Haas Automotive company.

Sports cars

Early days – the 1960s

Lola was one of the top chassis suppliers in the 1960s. After its small front-engined sports cars came various single-seaters including Formula Junior, Formula 3, Formula 2 and Formula 1 cars. Broadley designed Lola Mk.6 coupe fitted with the Ford V8 engine. Ford took a keen interest in this and paid Broadley to put the company on hold for two years and merge his ideas with Roy Lunn's work, giving rise to the Ford GT40. Broadley managed to release himself from this contract after a year and started developing his own cars again, starting off in sports cars with the Lola T70 and its successors (T16x, T22x) which were used successfully all over the world from the World Championship for Makes to the CanAm series, until 1973. In 2005 Lola announced that a new batch of T70 coupés, to the original specifications, would be released. These will be homologated for historic racing and there is talk of a one-make series for the cars.

Auto racing

Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing or automobile racing) is a sport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. The main aim of an individual event is to set the fastest time in a set number of laps or time limit. The finishing order is determined by race time, with the fastest time in first place, second-fastest in second place and so on. Any driver failing to complete a race for any reason is deemed "retired", or, more commonly, "out". Retired drivers will have their positions determined by the order in which those retired, with the first to retire finishing last, the next second-last and so on. In most events, a driver's final race position may be classified if he/she completes a certain amount of the race distance, usually just short of completing the full race (for example, in Formula One, a driver's race position is classified if he/she completes 90% of the full race distance). There are numerous different categories of auto racing, each with different rules and regulations, such as compulsory pit stops and car regulations, for all cars and drivers to comply. The continuous exposure of a driver to vibration and G forces in years of automobile racing may have a substantial effect on the high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders.

Racing Cars

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Racing Cars are a Welsh pop band, formed in the Rhondda Valley, Wales in 1973.

Career

They were signed to one of the biggest British record labels of the time, Chrysalis Records. Racing Cars's debut album yielded their only hit single with "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" It reached number fourteen in the UK Singles Chart in 1977, and was inspired by the film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Touring to promote their debut releases, Racing Cars backed Bad Company in 1976, including dates at Earls Court and the York Theatre Royal. Without any similar further chart appearances, Racing Cars ultimately acquired the dreaded one hit wonder label. However, the band was sufficiently established on the touring circuit to issue two further albums which included bit parts for the session pianist Geraint Watkins; American saxophonist Jerry Jumonville; The Bowles Brothers Band (on vocal harmonies); and Ray Ennis from Newport, Gwent who had previously played with a band called Good Habit. (Note. Not to be confused with Ray Ennis of Swinging Blue Jeans.) These never reached the same commercial heights.