Lola or Serenissima?
TOLY ARUTUNOFF’S letter in Octane 166 about the Lola GT that he bought as a Serenissima in the early 1970s raises a fascinating subject, and one that I will try to shed some light on following conversations with Giovanni Volpi in Venice, and a Swiss friend.
Toly did indeed buy Lola GT Mk6, chassis #LGT1, which was the Le Mans entry in 1963. When he bought the car, it was stored in Formigine, badged as a Serenissima at the front and with Serenissima logos with the Venetian flag on each side. It was fitted with a Serenissima V8 double overhead-cam engine, #101F1, mated to a red GSD Colotti-Francis T32 gearbox. The car had modified Gullwing doors, was painted a cream-white colour and – as Toly correctly remembered – was missing its rear engine cover and carburettors.
As remarkable as the car is its charming back-story. After Stirling Moss’s accident in 1962, the jobless Alf Francis moved to Modena and became part of GSD (Gear Speed Development) Colotti-Francis SpA, a venture by his friend Valerio Colotti. GSD also developed gearboxes for Eric Broadley’s new GT, and, when Ford Advanced Vehicles took over Lola in late 1963 and kicked off the GT40 programme, Bruce McLaren started to test technical ideas on Lola GT Mk6 #LGT1. With a carnet de passage, the light blue Lola was brought to Monza and used as a mule for gearbox, carburettor and suspension settings. Bruce said: ‘I think this car will be in the news next year.’
However, after the tests, only the special Ford engine was shipped back to Slough, and the engineless Lola was abandoned with Colotti in Italy. At the end of 1966, when Alf Francis’s partnership with Colotti came to an end, he became technical director of Giovanni Volpi’s Serenissima Automobili in Formigine. But the untaxed Lola was still in Italy and, when the carnet couldn’t be extended any longer, Ford wanted rid of it without any extra cost.
Valerio Colotti refused to take it but Alf was willing to accept the ‘gift’ and solve the carnet problem with some creative thinking. He removed the V8 from the unused Serenissima Jet Competizione that was stored in Formigine, put it in the Lola, and badged the Lola as a Serenissima. Simultaneously, the Jet was painted light blue, stamped as #LGT1 and exported to Austria as a ‘Lola’ using #LGT1’s carnet. Then the car was trucked back to Italy with its Serenissima papers, and all the carnet problems were solved.
By this manoeuvre, Alfa could keep the Lola untaxed in Italy, and built his own car with gullwing doors and the Serenissima engine. The Lola – but not the engine – certainly belonged to Alf, which is why I feel that Toly bought it from him rather than Nello Ugolini (and later sold it back to Alf). In any case, Alf unfortunately forgot to return its engine, which caused Giovanni Volpi to claim that it had been stolen. To Volpi the engine was a piece of history, because it was not just used in the Jet but also in the 1966 British Grand Prix, where Bruce McLaren scored with McLaren-Serenissima M2B-2 and engine #101F1 the very first Formula 1 Championship point for a McLaren.
In the 1970s, Alf turned down several offers for the engine, saying that it was a ‘priceless jewel’, but after an extended period without cash or drink he sold it in 1978.
The engine was reunited with the Jet in Switzerland and the Lola was sold to Jim Whitmer of Oklahoma, who fitted a GT40 rear end, installed a Ford engine and then rolled it. The car was finally found around 2000 in Vancouver on a trailer and went to Japan.