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Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 348

The ex-Roger Penske, Mark Donohue Can-Am Lightweight 1969 Lola T163 Sports Racer Chassis no. SL 163/17

Schätzpreis
0 $
Zuschlagspreis:
150.000 $
Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 348

The ex-Roger Penske, Mark Donohue Can-Am Lightweight 1969 Lola T163 Sports Racer Chassis no. SL 163/17

Schätzpreis
0 $
Zuschlagspreis:
150.000 $
Beschreibung:

Lola’s Eric Broadley was a prolific designer and constructor of racing cars. Unusually for the time he pursued a business plan that relied on customers exclusively, with no factory or even factory-backed team to carry the flag in competition. Lola’s cars had to be right, because essentially all the development was carried out by clients’ teams who were not, as fierce competitors, likely to share their setup sheets with other Lola teams. As the proliferation of highly successful multi-car teams in all forms of motorsports today show, that was an inherent challenge. It was as well a different era commercially where purses of a few thousand dollars were sufficient to attract teams and drivers from all over the world to travel across America in the annual late-season romp called the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series, the Can-Am. It was, however, huge money at the time, with purses in the series’ first three years amounting to just over a million dollars plus sponsor and contingency money. Roger Penske and Mark Donohue were early participants in the Can-Am, finishing second in the series’ first year, 1966, and tying for third in 1967, both years driving Lola T70s. The team won the 1967 U.S. Road Racing Championship, taking six of the seven races. In 1968 as the team’s activities expanded they made a change to the dominant McLaren chassis but running a customer car against the factory McLaren team was inconsistent with the Penske/Donohue objective of always having the best machinery obtainable. For 1969 Penske made a deal with Lola to use its chassis for both oval track and road racing. Broadley and Lola had worked their way through several iterations of the basic T70 and now created a new and improved car, the T163. 1969 was to be a seriously ambitious year for Penske and Donohue encompassing the Trans Am Camaro, Lola T152 and T150 for the USAC oval races, a new T70 MkIII for endurance races and the improved open T163 for Can-Am. Penske wanted even more than the standard T163 and asked Lola to build a special extra lightweight version just for them, as Mark Donohue notes in his book The Unfair Advantage, “He could use titanium, or whatever was more expensive, for just this one car.” Donohue noted that Broadley wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, but complied, creating a unique lightweight tub with multiple reinforcements to make up for the light gauge aluminum used. Other commitments kept the Penske team from readying the lightweight T163 in time to compete in the first Can-Am races and, even though it still had little preparation and testing, it wasn’t until Mid-Ohio in August that both car and team showed up for their first Can-Am. The T163 handled, by Penske/Donohue standards, badly then broke a half shaft in practice and another in qualifying but not before Mark qualified as “the best of the rest” in third place, 3.6 seconds behind Denny Hulme, 3.3 seconds behind Bruce McLaren and a half second in front of Chuck Parsons in a standard Lola T163. Not surprisingly nine laps into the race a half shaft failed. The broken shaft tore up rear of the chassis, which wasn’t helped by running into an embankment. Penske recognized the futility of continuing to try to develop the lightweight T163 for Can-Am along with the team’s other, more successful and commercially more important, race series and withdrew from the remainder of the Can-Am races in order to concentrate on what was important, lucrative and capable of being won. The Lightweight Lola T163 was eventually sold to the present owner who was racing another Lola T163. The damaged car rested in his garage and never raced again. About fifteen years ago he began a restoration which first entailed re-skinning the tub with thicker aluminum than Lola had used in the search for an “unfair advantage” for Penske and Donohue. A variety of reasons were proposed in the past for the half shaft failures. Donohue thought it was due to removing the suspension bump stops which moved the half sh

Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 348
Auktion:
Datum:
15.08.2008
Auktionshaus:
Bonhams London
Carmel, Quail Lodge Quail Lodge's West Field 7000 Valley Greens Drive (at Rancho San Carlos Rd) Carmel CA 93923 Tel: +1 415 391 4000 Fax : +1 415 391 4040 motors.us@bonhams.com
Beschreibung:

Lola’s Eric Broadley was a prolific designer and constructor of racing cars. Unusually for the time he pursued a business plan that relied on customers exclusively, with no factory or even factory-backed team to carry the flag in competition. Lola’s cars had to be right, because essentially all the development was carried out by clients’ teams who were not, as fierce competitors, likely to share their setup sheets with other Lola teams. As the proliferation of highly successful multi-car teams in all forms of motorsports today show, that was an inherent challenge. It was as well a different era commercially where purses of a few thousand dollars were sufficient to attract teams and drivers from all over the world to travel across America in the annual late-season romp called the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series, the Can-Am. It was, however, huge money at the time, with purses in the series’ first three years amounting to just over a million dollars plus sponsor and contingency money. Roger Penske and Mark Donohue were early participants in the Can-Am, finishing second in the series’ first year, 1966, and tying for third in 1967, both years driving Lola T70s. The team won the 1967 U.S. Road Racing Championship, taking six of the seven races. In 1968 as the team’s activities expanded they made a change to the dominant McLaren chassis but running a customer car against the factory McLaren team was inconsistent with the Penske/Donohue objective of always having the best machinery obtainable. For 1969 Penske made a deal with Lola to use its chassis for both oval track and road racing. Broadley and Lola had worked their way through several iterations of the basic T70 and now created a new and improved car, the T163. 1969 was to be a seriously ambitious year for Penske and Donohue encompassing the Trans Am Camaro, Lola T152 and T150 for the USAC oval races, a new T70 MkIII for endurance races and the improved open T163 for Can-Am. Penske wanted even more than the standard T163 and asked Lola to build a special extra lightweight version just for them, as Mark Donohue notes in his book The Unfair Advantage, “He could use titanium, or whatever was more expensive, for just this one car.” Donohue noted that Broadley wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea, but complied, creating a unique lightweight tub with multiple reinforcements to make up for the light gauge aluminum used. Other commitments kept the Penske team from readying the lightweight T163 in time to compete in the first Can-Am races and, even though it still had little preparation and testing, it wasn’t until Mid-Ohio in August that both car and team showed up for their first Can-Am. The T163 handled, by Penske/Donohue standards, badly then broke a half shaft in practice and another in qualifying but not before Mark qualified as “the best of the rest” in third place, 3.6 seconds behind Denny Hulme, 3.3 seconds behind Bruce McLaren and a half second in front of Chuck Parsons in a standard Lola T163. Not surprisingly nine laps into the race a half shaft failed. The broken shaft tore up rear of the chassis, which wasn’t helped by running into an embankment. Penske recognized the futility of continuing to try to develop the lightweight T163 for Can-Am along with the team’s other, more successful and commercially more important, race series and withdrew from the remainder of the Can-Am races in order to concentrate on what was important, lucrative and capable of being won. The Lightweight Lola T163 was eventually sold to the present owner who was racing another Lola T163. The damaged car rested in his garage and never raced again. About fifteen years ago he began a restoration which first entailed re-skinning the tub with thicker aluminum than Lola had used in the search for an “unfair advantage” for Penske and Donohue. A variety of reasons were proposed in the past for the half shaft failures. Donohue thought it was due to removing the suspension bump stops which moved the half sh

Auktionsarchiv: Los-Nr. 348
Auktion:
Datum:
15.08.2008
Auktionshaus:
Bonhams London
Carmel, Quail Lodge Quail Lodge's West Field 7000 Valley Greens Drive (at Rancho San Carlos Rd) Carmel CA 93923 Tel: +1 415 391 4000 Fax : +1 415 391 4040 motors.us@bonhams.com
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