Amendments to the first twenty
Lola T70 Spyders

My idea to flush out the real histories of several "missing" Lola T70s by putting them up on our website seems to be bearing fruit! I have received several calls/e-mails telling me what happened to certain cars and so here are the amended histories of three cars from the first twenty of which more has been learned about:

In the cases of SL70/3 and SL70/12, I have now seen documentary period evidence that they have, somehow, made it through to the present day. For SL70/11, I am making an educated guess; there is a so-called extra Surtees Team SL70/1 (which I have myself examined). It is definitely a Mark I, with mixed Mark I/II body panels. It has no chassis plate and various folks have homed into the Team Surtees Armstrong dampers that it has worn for many years, as proof that it was a Surtees Team car but hey, you know what? Dampers can be screwed on and screwed off.

It’s now my belief that this is the old Sherman Decker car, which was repaired after its crash and had "disappeared". There is also the fact that I have now discovered that a Mark II chassis, SL71/17, was delivered to Team Surtees, probably in about July 1965. It is probable that the Team/factory did build another car around this chassis and this was the car that Surtees was slated to drive at Mosport, where he actually crashed SL71/16, which had been assigned to his team mate, Jackie Stewart. (Surtees was driving this car in practice.) Therefore, the team only ever had one Mark I, SL70/1, and that car was sold to Japan at the end of 1965.

Educated guess is all but there’s no other Mark I missing (that wasn’t destroyed!), so by a process of elimination, I believe that this so-called "Surtees" car is actually SL70/11.

SL70/3

Sold to John Mecom on 11th March 1965. 4.7 Ford engine. Metallic blue.
John Mecom was the Lola distributor in the United States and ran his own race team.

1965:
15/3: Sebring 12 hour International Race. Cannon/J. Saunders, #22. (DNF with oil cooling problems.)
11/4: USRRC Pensacola: Hansgen; DNF.
24/4: Stardust GP, Las Vegas: Hansgen; 2nd.
02/5: USRRC Times GP, Riverside: Hansgen; DNF.
09/5: USRRC Monterey GP, Laguna Seca: Hansgen, #11; DNF.
05/6: USRRC Players "200" Mosport Park.. Hansgen; Crashed in practice, Hansgen suffered chest injuries.
Car badly damaged.

Engine/gearbox saved and used in SL70/6.

1973:
28/4: The damaged car was sold to an American buyer, without engine or gearbox by Charlie Hayes of California.

SL70/11

Sold to Carl Haas (Greenwich Autos Inc.) U.S.A. White. LG500 gearbox.
Sold to John Bunch, New Canaan, CT.

Driven by Sherman Decker of Oneonta, New York. Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

1965: White.
29/8: Mid-Ohio: S. Decker; DNF.
19/9: Mont Tremblant-St. Jovite, Sherman Decker rolled his Lola, "completely demolishing it" (Autosport). (Probably damaging it badly-ED.) Repaired, according to Joan Decker, Sherman’s widow.

1966:
22/5: Bridgehampton: S. Decker; DNF.

Probably:
That car’s history then became:
1966? Apparently: Sold to ‘some kid from Lime Rock, Connecticut’
1967: (December.) Sold to Bob Lutzingen of New York.
1969: Sold to Tom Shoral, an Attorney in Pittsburgh.
1969: Sold to Dave Walin of Buffalo.
1969: Sold to John Krause who raced the car with a big block engine (Chevy XL1) installed.
1977: Sold to Larry Elting with crash damage, sold to Chuck Haines.
1983: Sold to Dave Hankin of California, U.S.A. Original Mk I tub.
The car had a Mark II rear body plus a 366 cubic inch fuel injected Chevrolet engine. It also had a cooling slot behind each front wheel, which was only seen on the early Team Surtees cars (and SL70/2!).
Armstrong dampers fitted in June 1965, which were made to special order for Team Surtees. (Confirming letter from Armstrong with the documentation available with the car.)
2004: Sold to Brad Kraus.
2005: Restored by Hudson Historics. Gordon Eggleton, their chief engineer, told your author that: "Undoubtedly, a Mark I chassis – Spot welded steel."
2006: Feb. HSR Sebring.
2006: April: To Europe for sale. FIA papers.

SL70/12

U.S.A. John Mecom.

1965:
31/10: Los Angeles Times GP, Riverside: P. Jones, #18; DNF when in 4th.
14/11:Stardust GP, Las Vegas: P. Jones, #18; DNF when leading race.

Your author spoke with John Mecom about this car and he is certain that he purchased tub #13 as a replacement for chassis 12, which was crashed early on in its life. He could not remember the driver’s name but he said that he raced it at several USRRC events before crashing it in qualifying somewhere. John says that he remembers this well because the tub came without a chassis plate and simply had SL/13 stamped into the bulkhead.

1969: Crashed Lola sold by Ronnie Bucknum to Tom Bancroft, Essex Falls, NJ.
1975: Sold to A. E. Russell.
1979:
07/4: An American buyer purchased the remains of SL70/12 from A. E. Russell.