Lola T850

The racing car manufacturer Lola Cars in Huntingdon, founded by Eric Broadley, was represented in the Formula 2 European Championship until the late 1960s, including with the T100 and T102 models, which became known through works commitment by BMW. In the 1970s, Lola then focused primarily on the US racing series and offered only sporadically chassis for Formula 2, which were largely unsuccessful. In 1976, Lola built four Type T450 Formula Two cars, one of which was supplied to the German team ATS Wheels. The drivers failed with him several times in qualifying. The 1977 car built as a one-off successor to Lola T550 was even worse; he did not even manage to take part in the race. Lola's Formula 2 ambitions ended with him.[3][4]

After a break of several years, Lola returned to Formula 2 at the start of the 1981 season with the T850. It has its origins in a two-year-old construction by Lola's competitor, Ralt. It is based on the Ralt RT2, which ran exclusively for the British Toleman team in the 1979 Formula 2 European Championship. For the 1980 season, Toleman engineer Rory Byrne had further developed the Ralt RT2 into the Toleman TG280; with him, Brian Henton won the championship title that year. The following year, Toleman moved up to Formula 1. The old TG280s were catered to drivers like Jim Crawford and Jo Gartner, who used them with moderate success until 1983. Interest in the cars was so great that Toleman decided to start producing more customer vehicles in the late 1980s. However, because Toleman had no capacity to build Formula 2 customer cars in addition to the Formula 1 commitment, Lola was commissioned to build this new customer TG280s. Lola launched a series of 10 cars and sold them under its own name as the Lola T850 to European and Japanese Formula 2 teams.

After the cars were sold, Lola did not continue her involvement in Formula 2. This made the T850 the last Formula 2 car to bear the Lola name. Only with the introduction of the successor series Formula 3000 in the spring of 1985 did the T950 appears again as a Lola car in the class below Formula 1.

The model designation follows the nomenclature that was common at Lola at the time: the last two digits code for the racing series for which the respective model was designed - here: 50 for Formula 2 and 3000 - while the first digit stands for the generation within this group stands. [5] Accordingly, the 850 is the eighth model that Lola designed for Formula 2. However, this is incorrect insofar as there is a jump from the 550 to the 850: there is no Formula 2 cars with the designations Lola 650 and 750.

The construction of the Lola T850 is largely identical to that of the Toleman TG280 from 1981. The car has a monocoque made of aluminum sheets. A double-wishbone axle is installed at the front and rear, with outriggers at the rear. The wheelbase is 2514 mm, and the overall length of the car is 4191 mm. The front track measures 1473 mm and the rear 1422 mm. The cars could - like the TG280 - be equipped with Hart 420R engines; in addition, the use of BMW engines was also possible.

The 1981 European Formula 2 season was characterized by the dominance of the works teams March, Maurer, and Ralt. With Project Four and Toleman, two professionally organized and successful private teams left the Formula 2 European Championship at the turn of the year 1980/81. The previous midfield teams gained importance as a result. Two of them, Docking Spitzley and Sanremo Racing, became customers of the Lola T850 in 1981. While the car was able to achieve individual podium places in 1981, it played no longer a significant role in 1982, and in 1983 it was only used as a stopgap.[5][6]

For the 1982 season, Docking Spitzley had the T850 revised in detail. This affected both the wheel suspension and aerodynamics. Responsible engineers were Frank Dernie and Pat Symonds, who worked primarily on Toleman's Formula 1 car. As in the previous year, the cars started with Hart engines; Drivers were Thierry Tassin and Carlo Rossi.

Tassin finished the opening race in second place, but was later disqualified because the side shooters broke the rules. Two weeks later, Tassin finished sixth at the Hockenheimring; that was the only race of that year that he finished in the points. At the second edition of the Grand Prix de Formule 2 Belgique in Spa-Francorchamps, which took place in heavy rain at times, both drivers came off the track. Tassin had previously been third with Rossi sixth. Both cars were so badly damaged in the accidents that the team had to skip the subsequent championship race at the Hockenheimring. At the next race at the Thruxton Circuit was just rebuilt Tassins DS1; Rossi, on the other hand, drove an old Toleman TG280. Like some of its competitors, the team skipped the eleventh race of the season in Sweden because of the long journey. At the last championship round, Docking Spitzley once again registered both pilots with the DS1, but Tassin missed the qualification. After the end of the season, the Docking-Spitzley team, which had suffered from financial difficulties throughout the year, gave up Formula Two involvement.

Contrary to expectations, Lola was only able to sell two T850s in Japan.

Heroes Racing Corporation used a BMW-engined car for Kazuyoshi Hoshino in the Japanese Formula Two Championship in 1981 and 1982. In the first season, which was dominated by contemporary March models and powerful Honda engines, Hoshino managed one win and one-second place, finishing runner-up overall in 1981. Hoshino started the 1982 season again with the T850. After a third place in the opening race and two subsequent failures, he switched to a current March 822 in the summer of 1982, with which he won the fourth championship race. Heroes Racing gave the T850 to Toshio Suzuki for the last two races, who dropped out once and finished ninth once.[8]

After a break of more than a year and a half, two Lola T850s appeared again in the last race of the 1984 season in Suzuka. Both had BMW engines tuned by Toda Racing. One car entered Gear Racing for Norimasa Sakamoto, who finished 14th and last. Maribu Motorsport Club entered the second T850 for Hironobu Tatsumi. Tatsumi was the first driver in the race to drop out.[9]

With the North American market in mind, Lola built a Formula Atlantic adapted version of the T850. The car was factory-designated the Lola T860, but was marketed under the Toleman TA860 name. Contrary to expectations, this version was not successful; Lola only sold two cars.