Topic: Solved NIC#1145 - 1960 Lola-Climax F2 prototype

[nicanary]

Exactly what is this car?

[knewit]

Formula Junior at Modena testing

[nicanary]

Formula Junior at Modena testing

It's not Modena. The car started life as a Formula Junior but in this photo it's something different.

[nicanary]

Experts?

[FrontMan]

....a camera car for a feature film?

[nicanary]

....a camera car for a feature film?

I can understand that line of thought, but the answer is no.

[tobytwirl]

Well it's a Lola mk2 Formula Junior from about 1959, and there is a story that during testing at Brands it put in surprisingly fast times. It transpired that the correct FJ engine had not arrived so they fitted a 1098 Coventry Climax engine with twin Webers as an interim measure.  Is this that car?

[nicanary]

Well it's a Lola mk2 Formula Junior from about 1959, and there is a story that during testing at Brands it put in surprisingly fast times. It transpired that the correct FJ engine had not arrived so they fitted a 1098 Coventry Climax engine with twin Webers as an interim measure.  Is this that car?

That's an interesting story, but not the answer I have. For a start, the photo is not taken at Brands Hatch.

However, of course it IS a Lola FJ.  The engine is not from that formula. LOCKED for tobytwirl for 24 hours to find out more.

[tobytwirl]

This is interesting. Attached 2 photos of the climax engine installed in the Lola. There is a remarkable similarity with your photo. Note also the Ford Zephyr hubcap in the background! Perhaps the car had not yet got to Brands, but these do look like photos of the same car at the same moment.

[tobytwirl]

Forgot the photos ……………….

[tobytwirl]

and

[gte4289]

This is interesting. Attached 2 photos of the climax engine installed in the Lola. There is a remarkable similarity with your photo. Note also the Ford Zephyr hubcap in the background! Perhaps the car had not yet got to Brands, but these do look like photos of the same car at the same moment.

While your second photo looks like an image of the puzzle car at the same moment, the first of your two photos (Reply #9, 'Coventry Climax' motor) appears to show a different car altogether.

[nicanary]

This is interesting. Attached 2 photos of the climax engine installed in the Lola. There is a remarkable similarity with your photo. Note also the Ford Zephyr hubcap in the background! Perhaps the car had not yet got to Brands, but these do look like photos of the same car at the same moment.

It is indeed a Coventry Climax engine, as opposed to the Ford which would have been fitted for Formula Junior.  However according to my information it was not a 1098cc unit.

I agree with gte4289 on one count. The first photo is not the same car, but the second one is. Still locked for you until about 4pm .

[tobytwirl]

I must stop doing this late at night, the 2 engines have their carbs on different sides! One picture apparently shows a Formula Junior spec Ford engine and the second the climax engine. It is labelled as 1000cc.

[tobytwirl]

To make it more confusing the picture labelled coventry climax (2) is almost certainly a Lola mk1 sports car and that would have had a 1098cc climax engine. The other one, which in my source is labelled as a Ford Engine, is clearly not and is also not the same as the 1098 climax. I now have another photo of this same car labelled with a F2 climax engine - which in 1959 would have been 1500cc. So is that it - it would explain the fast lap times attributed to the car.

[nicanary]

You got there in the end. The specialist website which covers Lola history is littered with errors. Many of the images have incorrect captions.

Peter Ashdown, works driver, was convinced that the FJ chassis could cope with more power, and decided to have a bash at Formula 2.  He got engineer Gerald Smith to design and construct a new twin-cam head and this was fitted to a Climax FWB of 1460cc, standard fitment for British F2 cars. It raced only once at Crystal Palace Whit Monday 1960 and was disappointing, and never raced again.

The puzzle photo is taken at testing at Goodwood. I have seen a photo of the car being towed through Chichester. There are incorrect postings all over the place about this car - sometimes that the engine was a bored-out FWA, sometimes that it was a Ford.

Another point to you.

[tobytwirl]

Merci.