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It's hard to imagine why, of all organisations, Lola were unsuccessful in their 2003 bid for chassis supply. Was it price? Was it to give the MK chassis a year and thereby a chance of selling a competititive chassis?
Lola of all people could wipe the floor with the others. Since the demise of Reynard they fly the flag for British off the shelf chassis consruction and sales and it would be criminal to deny them the opportunity to compete against Dallara of Italy, G-Force of West Sussex, England (where I grew up) or MK of the US.
Once Lola are in I can see them destroying the opposition and turning things into a one make formula on merit alone and I wish them all the best.
I understand one of the stalling points in negotiation was that the car could not carry over one single feature of their CART chassis (inter series rivalry gone mad!). Perhaps it was thsi inter-series competition, rather than cost, or giving MK a chance, that made the final decision to exclude Lola from 2003 chassis supply so final.
I can't help feeling though that it was a little anti-Brit jealousy and a hope of MK success in the best traditions of "The USA believes in free trade as long as a US company wins the contract" that swung the decision.
I hope Lola slay Dallara/MK/G-Force chassi'd teams in 2004
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