Lola T360

[Chris Townsend]

T360 HU18 is indeed the car that Steve has bought back from the US.

Chris

[Chris Townsend]

And time for a periodic, but serious, update of T360 history

AU1 works jig model in 1974, to Andrew Miedecke 1977 for AF2, then John Davis

HU1 [Dark blue] works development car in UK in 1974, for Richard Scott and then Ken Bailey. Does not appear in build record. Perhaps sold to US for Allan Karlberg in 1975/6

HU2 [White] United Racing in June 74 for Tom Klausler. Retained 1975 for Mike Hall.

HU3 [White] United Racing in June 74 for Bill O'Connor; retained until end 1976

HU4 [White] no idea!!! [might be Karlberg car]

HU5 [Black] Nigel Clarkson and Richard Scott in UK, from July 74. 1975: Nick May; 1976: Brian Robertson; 1977: John Morrison; 1978: Kevin Bowditch; 1979: Martin Mansell

HU6 [White, repainted black] for Gary Magwood in Canada, August 1974.
Retained to end 1976

HU7 [White] Nov 74 to Planer Intl for Ted Wentz, 1975 British season. Destroyed in testing accident by Roy James, at Oulton, Sept 75 and replaced by HU18

HU8 [Red] Bobby Rahal, 1975

HU9 [Red] Robert Young [SCCA and odd pro race] 1975 -1978

HU10 Don't know - could be Klausler '75 or a Scott team car

HU11 Don't know - could be Klausler '75 or a Scott team car

HU12 White to Sandy Shepard April 75 for SCCA. Returned to Haas in p/x on a T460 in early 76

HU14 Sold to early 75 to an LA driver/owner allegedly called Tom Carnets who I cannot trace

HU15 [Red] sold via Pierre Phillips to Tom Weichmann for 75. [Raced once] then to Sans Thompson [Seattle] SCCA until 1978, then Bill Moll [Seattle] unraced

HU16 [Black] Pierre Phillips' team car in 1975 for Tom Gloy.

HU17 [White] last car delivered and probably the team spare for Bill Scott's team in late 75 season

HU18 [Blue] Works development car for T460. Raced late 75 by Wentz, then Trimmer and mike King 1976 UK. To Carl Liebich 1978 as spare car

HU19 not built?

HU20 [White] Freddy Phillips from July 75 [run by Scott] then used by Harry McDonald early 76

HU21 [White] Robert Joubert for Dave Walker 1975 Canadian series

HU22 Delivered as early as Feb 75 for Bill Scott team, either car of Howdy Holmes or EFR.

Chris

[David McKinney]

Originally Posted by Chris Townsend

HU14 Sold to early 75 to an LA driver/owner allegedly called Tom Carnets who I cannot trace

Tom Carsten?
He was well-known in Californian racing circles in an earlier period. Not sure if he was from LA though, or further north

[Dan Rear]

I wonder where HU5 went after Mansell in the UK FAt series in 79 ?? I don't recall it here at all after that.

[Chris Townsend]

Dan

I don't think there was much left of it. Bowditch crashed it very hard.
Mansell called it a Lola FA79 rather than a T360

Chris

[Dan Rear]

Agreed Chris, but I saw it out in 79, so it must have been a runner then at least.

[allenbrown]

Jim Frank has just emailed me to say he now owns HU20 with history researched all the way back to Bill Scott. Details on the way to you Chris so you can digest.

[brahal]

Just wanted to set the record straight on a few counts.

1. I drove and have in my collection T360 HU-9(not 8) which I drove in the 1975 Players F/At Championship.

2. I tested T362? at Snetterton and Silverstone for Lola along with fellow American Ted Wentz in Oct? of 1975. This was the prootype for the T460

3. Because I won Indy in 86 with March #13, we thought we'd try the same # when we switched to Lola for the 1987 season. We weren't superstitious were we! We didn't win at Indy but I did win my second consecutive championship in the car

4. As an aside, I also own Lola T290 HU-34 which I drove in 1973 and 1974 SCCA events, winning the Central Division Bs/r National Championship in '74

Hope this clears some things up. It's a great site!

[John Turner]

Very warm welcome, Bobby; great to have you on board.

[Bryan Miller]

Bobby, welcome aboard from the bottom of the world.

HU-9 , to B. Rahal , Chris , is that the sound of wheels falling off the little red wagon that I hear.

Bryan.

[allenbrown]

It's great to have you here Bobby. Be warned we may have one or two questions

[DBAKER]

Hello everybody. I am new to this site but I have been following it for a little while now. I own T360 HU22 and currently race it in North American Monoposto events. I have been told it was the last one built (Feb. '75) and I am certain it was one of the BSR cars as noted in your last update. Excellent site and very interesting reading.
Dean Baker

[Chris Townsend]

Dean

HU22 was built in February, shipped to Haas 22. Feb 75. However, a number of cars were sent later than this, culminating in HU17 being sent out in July.

I think it was a BSR car, simply on delivery date and colour.
Do you have a log book, or any part of an ownership trail? If we can eliminate some of the unknowns in this jigsaw it helps get the provenances clearer all round.

Chris

[DBAKER]

Chris,
I do have log books but they only go back to 1978 or so. My understanding is that it was originally white which might suggest Howdy Holmes car as it was white with blue and red stripes (Jiffy Mixes livery). There were also some funky modifications to the pedal box of the car that might have suggested a shorter driver although the car had passed through a few hands before I got it. Also of note is that I have 3 1/2 complete sets of original wheels that came with the car and each piece of each wheel is stamped "BSR", presumably for identification at the tire busters since there were other teams running T360s. Perhaps the other BSR cars have the same stampings?
Always looking for more info and original photos if you know of any sources. Unfortunately I do not have that elusive document connecting car, driver, and team.
Dean

[allenbrown]

Dean

Are you by any chance related to the famed Dick Baker, doyen of Canadian vintage racing? I recall that he had a son Dean.

Allen

[Chris Townsend]

Dean

Can I ask who the ownership trail begins with?
I'm hoping for either Guy/Gary Revesz [SCCA Cen Div] or Peter Dragffy [Montreal]
If not?

Chris

[DBAKER]

I believe the first own in the logbook was a guy by the name of jim O'Brien. I will have to confirm this and the date.
Dick Baker is my father.
Dean

[Colin Haste]

Chris
I see we have T360 HU1 as having a dark blue body T360 AU1 also came with a Dark blue body.
Colin

[Chris Townsend]

Colin

I think that HU1 and AU1 have demonstrably separate histories in 1974.
My feeling is that AU1 is the car tested by Bond in 1973
HU1 may well have morphed into the later works development car.

Chris

[Colin Haste]

Chris sorry a misunderstanding, I was just pointing out for the record that AU1 came with a dark blue body. it was also "for the record" bought in to Aus by Don Baker & Glenn Abbey for Chris Farrell.
Col

[Dan Rear]

I see that Bev Bond was entered in some 1973 (yes thats right!!) UK FAt races in a T360. Anyone know anymore about this?

[Chris Townsend]

Dan

Entered, but never appeared. I think this was probably with what became AU1 and things never went beyond the testing stage.

Chris

[swift]

I know it's been a while since i last posted but came across this picture of father Ken in the ex-Richard Scott car at Brands in 1974. If i remember correctly Ken retired after a piece of the nose cone detached itself causing the car to suffer from chronic understeer. Having to "throw the car" into the corners to get round, he confessed to "throwing it too far" at Dingle Dell and went off backwards through a corner marker board and hit the armco damaging the steering rack.

[Colin Haste]

It's interesting that the rear wing of this car is set with a much larger canterlever than the standard T360 and is not using the Lola fairing. This would not help the understeer.
Colin Haste

[swift]

As i recall, because this was the works development car, the factory were constantly trying new ideas out. I'm not sure if this picture shows the car inits final form but, one idea was try a spacer to mount the rear wing a lot further back and one at the front too which pushed the nose out further. I do have pictures of it on the grid at Silverstone just before it was destroyed at Copse!! This gives the impression of the car being really, really long.The understeer was induced because a huge piece of the nose cone (which had been moulded on for this race, another factory mod) had become detached and eventually flew off.

Ken was super impressed with this car as it was very, very quick but extremely fragile. during qualifying for its final race, ken lost the clutch a few laps into the session plus the handling went awry with it suffering from major understeer. Despite all this, Ken put the car on the front row! Upon investigation, it was discovered that a clutch pipe had burst and all the fluid had escaped (hence no clutch) and a rear anti-roll bar link had sheared off leaving the rear of the car with no arb at all, hence the understeer!