8 LOLA MK4/4A

BEST RESULT 2ND 1962 BRITISH AND GERMAN GPS POLES 1 SUPERTIME POSITION 4TH DESIGNER ERIC BROADLEY

NOT MANY CONSTRUCTORS WIN A WORLD championship grand prix with their first F1 design, but Lola nearly managed it in 1962. Reg Parnell commissioned Lola to build cars for John Surtees and Roy Salvadori, run under the Bowmaker Racing Team banner.

Salvadori struggled and suffered poor reliability, but Surtees was competitive immediately. He took pole on the car’s debut at the Dutch GP (though the time was disputed by some), but crashed out when the suspension broke.

Chassis flex was a problem on the spaceframe car, but extra tubes were added around the cockpit during the campaign. The final car built had body panels welded to the chassis, creating a semi-monocoque.

After Zandvoort in May Surtees scored points in the next five GPS, including two second places in the German and British GPS. At Silverstone the Lola was the only car to finish within a minute of Jim Clark’s revolutionary monocoque Lotus 25, while at the Nurburgring Surtees was narrowly beaten by Graham Hill’s BRM after a titanic struggle in tricky conditions.

Surtees did score an F1 victory with the car, the non-championship Mallory Park 2000 Guineas, an event that included Clark, Hill and Jack Brabham.

The team’s form – and, perhaps more importantly, its budget – disappeared thereafter, but Lola still beat Porsche and Ferrari to fourth in the constructors’ table and Surtees was fourth in the drivers’ standings.

“Lola beat Porsche and Ferrari in the championship”