This Lola T70 Spyder is “everything that a race car should be”

Lola first built the T70 Spyder as a successor to its Mk6, and this particular car, SL70/3, was the first to be shipped and raced by Mecom Racing where it found success with Walt Hansgen winning the Monterey Grand Prix Laguna Seca 200 Miles in 1965.

“They painted it in their race colours,” explained Poulton, referring to the pale blue and white stripe livery which brightened up our overcast paddocks on the Sunday afternoon. “Then, the car started out at Sebring in 1965 with John Cannon and Jack Saunders. It was winning for about half the race [but] there was a failure on the car, unfortunately.”

Towards the end of the ’65 season the car suffered a crash and was condemned to a warehouse to be replaced. Happily though, it didn’t rest there for too long. “This one was dragged back out of the warehouse shortly afterwards and rebuilt, as most of them were. It’s been in various places for the last 60 years until it came to my ownership about two or three years ago.”

Poulter started buying racing cars around a decade ago, with numerous visits to Goodwood events inspiring future acquisitions. “There were a couple of cars that I used to see at Goodwood that I always coveted and [the T70] was one of them. The other one was a Triumph Dolomite, which I also bought to run at the Members’ Meeting [presented by Audrain Motorsport], but this car I always coveted. It was the most beautiful car here, in my opinion. Particularly the colour scheme, the whole package is just stunning. It came up for sale and I was fortunate enough to buy it.”

The T70 Spyder is quite at home at racing at Revival, where this year it joined fellow 1960-66 sports-racing prototypes in the Whitsun Trophy with Alex Brundle at the wheel. Results of the Official Practice session saw the T70 start the race in fourth, but hopes of a strong finish were sadly dashed prematurely.

“It was running third, but unfortunately we had a minor fuel pump issue, which is really frustrating and [Brundle] made the decision to retire the car, which was alright, but it would have been right up there. It's super quick. It has quite narrow tyres so it's a bit sketchy, particularly in the wet.”

“We've had a couple of skirmishes with it, but besides that, actually, [it’s] pretty easy to deal with because the benefit of the American cars is that they all ran massive American engines.” In this case, the engine is a 5.7-litre V8 courtesy of Chevrolet, producing 558PS (410kW). “They're pretty easy to get parts for, [but] the chassis and suspension components are difficult to get hold of.”

The body work presented a similar challenge, but Poulter was able to source a convenient solution. “I was fortunate enough to buy the moulds from the administrators from Lola originally, so we have the moulds which means we can make new body panels for it, which is a massive benefit if it does have a small skirmish. So, besides the suspension components, it's actually not that difficult to run.”

And while it ran, the T70, along with all the cars at the 2024 Revival, helped lead historic racing into the future by being powered solely by sustainable fuel.

“You've got to do a little bit of prep and be careful about it,” reported Poulter, “and change the carb setting slightly; the ethanol in the sustainable fuel can cause damage to some of the pipe work, but you've just got to be careful with it. Besides that, the car ran great. As I said, we had a minor component failure [in the race] which is unfortunate, but besides that the car was going like a train. No issues at all.”

While this particular T70’s result in the Whitsun Trophy was far from desirable, the experience of being at Revival was still a joy for Poulter, running the T70 as well as himself racing a 1953 Porsche 356 in the Fordwater Trophy where he finished 12^th .

“What’s there not to love about Revival? It’s the whole package, the history of the track, the attention to detail that the Duke of Richmond puts in place, it’s the quality of cars, the quality of drivers.

“I'm a middle-aged man pretending to be a racing driver, and I'm racing against current and ex-pro drivers – there's nowhere else in the world you can do it to that level. The way the cars are laid out in classes so that the public get to see all the cars they want to see and they know exactly where they are, it's just phenomenal.”

When attendees came across the T70 on its way to sessions on the track, Poulter jovially noted that, whilst being admired, aurally it was an underestimated beast.

“The comedic thing is always when it's in the paddock before the race because people are sort of standing around looking in the car, all looking very nonchalant, and I'm sort of telling them to put in earplugs and they're like ‘No, no, I'm fine’. When we were out on the practice session there were people running away because I think even with the quiet exhaust it's 110 decibels, so it's probably 130 decibels, if not more. It’s ridiculous. It’s one of the loudest cars [at Revival].”

Between the sounds that Chevy engine produces and the striking shape of the bodywork, the Lola T70 Spyder is certainly difficult to ignore. For Poulter, it is the ultimate racing car, and there surely couldn’t be a higher compliment than that.

“It's everything that I think a young boy or girl thinks about when they think about a race car. It's just stunning and it's loud and brash – everything that a race car should be.”

Photography by Nick Wilkinson and Jochen Van Cauwenberge.