1997 T97/30 Lola Formula One car for sale!

[Ardius]

http://www.lola-group.com/content.asp?ContentId=18&nav=Motorsport&Page=Cars+Parts+For+Sale

The spare car for the 1997 Australian Grand Prix is being sold off by Lola! Screw buying an old Williams, this machine is rare and legendary.

 

[senamic]

Hmmmmm, I will just grab my spare $x and place a bid.

Seriously, I would find it funny, but plausible, if the online community pooled their resources. And then painted Loller on the side (people who have played BAT would get this).

 

[PeterJB]

Is that the Mastercard Lola? As in the one that is longer on one side than on the other?!

 

[Ardius]

Yup, its the infamous Mastercard Lola, the same car that never saw a windtunnel, the same car that never went testing, the same car that was 10 seconds off the pace and effectively ended Sospiri's career.
Someone should buy it and take it to Goodwood so it can be alongside other cars of its category, like the Life 190. 👍

 

[yeti]

Great find...

I wonder - how quick is an old F1 car like this is - in comparison to todays supercars...

C.

 

[PeterJB]

Probably roughly the same pace. If it was 10 seconds off then, and those cars were roughly 5-10 seconds off today's cars, then it's roughly 15-20 seconds off, so on the Top Gear Test Track it could get a 1:15 at best.

 

[lbsf1]

nice car.
I think it would be faster than 1.15 on the tg test track (its about half as long as grand pri curcuits) maybe about 1.10 i guess. Whoever buys it give it to top gear to test it. lol

 

[Jim Prower]

They've already had the Renault F1 car 'round their track. What would a car roughly 10 years older prove?

 

[SaberFire]

It wouldn't "prove" anything.

It'd just serve as a warning.

 

[yeti]

They've already had the Renault F1 car 'round their track. What would a car roughly 10 years older prove?

It would prove how the sport has moved on...

Although I guess the best way to do that would be to compare lap times?!

C.

 

[Peter]

Is that the Mastercard Lola? As in the one that is longer on one side than on the other?!

Really? I don't see any difference.

 

[PeterJB]

Obviously it isn't an enormous difference, nor does the angle it's shown at show it off. It's probably nothing more than a few centimetres at the most.

 

[F1 fan]

Yup, its the infamous Mastercard Lola, the same car that never saw a windtunnel, the same car that never went testing, the same car that was 10 seconds off the pace and effectively ended Sospiri's career.
Someone should buy it and take it to Goodwood so it can be alongside other cars of its category, like the Life 190. 👍

If I won the lottery, I'd buy the mastercard lola, the life 190 and the Andrea moda S921

http://cfm.globalf1.net/?page_id=157

That way, I'd have an excuse for being so far off the pace. Everyone has their own dream garage. If money was no object, I'd get some terrible F1 cars (along with some great ones) just for laughs. Seriously, who wouldn't like to show up at a track day with one of them?

Awesome find on the Lola. My mates and I have been laughing about that for years. Would love to buy it.

 

[TheCracker]

I wonder - how quick is an old F1 car like this is - in comparison to todays supercars...

Probably roughly the same pace. If it was 10 seconds off then, and those cars were roughly 5-10 seconds off today's cars, then it's roughly 15-20 seconds off, so on the Top Gear Test Track it could get a 1:15 at best.

Using the Hungaroring as a comparison (you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find lap times for some cars)

The Lola T97/30 (which was apparently no quicker then a contemporary Lola F3000 car) would be able to lap this circuit in somewhere between 1m28.400 and 1m31.500. Lets call it 1m30.000.

A McLaren Mercedes SLR has lapped a somewhat dusty lap in 2m15.700 Lets say that on a clean track the quickest of todays supercars, being generous, could lap between 2m00.000 and 2m05.000.

Even a slow F1 car (or any powerful single seater) is still much much quicker then a supercar.

 

[Ardius]

Yeah, its still a lightweight, high powered racing car with large amounts of downforce, even if it was the slowest relative to its competition. You could probably get a few more seconds out of it by putting a decent engine in it rather than the V8 Ford ECA Zetec-R it had.

 

[lbsf1]

How much is it selling for. If we all banded together could we afford it.
I have seen decent f1 cars selling for 100grand on motorheads. If this was 75grand. If we all put in a tenner then we would only need 7.5 thousand people.

edit: (this may have been a spar of the moment idea, Please don't have a go at me if it is legistially impossbile)

 

[Ardius]

^The F3000 car below it is selling for £50k, so I imagine between that and £100k.

 

[PeterJB]

I saw an old Footwork being sold in a magazine for 20k, but that doesn't exactly have the same legacy of this car!

 

[F1 fan]

I saw an old Footwork being sold in a magazine for 20k, but that doesn't exactly have the same legacy of this car!

Yeah, I saw it too. My friend wanted to buy it... He was a big fan of Arrows but couldn't realistically afford one of the "orange" arrows. What am I saying? He couldn't afford the footwork either. We can all dream.

Bit off topic, but you know the "formula one driving experiences"? Normally they use crappy early 90's cars... As in the ones that never made the grid. Which I'll admit are still cool... Anyway, point is I saw one company advertising one of those experience days and they have two of the Jaguar f1 cars. Anyone who's going to do one of these should probably try and find that company (can't remember the name). Not only will you get to drive a modern f1 car, but you'd get to drive one of the best looking (imo) f1 cars, with the added bonus that you know that at some point, the legendary Niki Lauda has probably kicked the damn thing.

Anyway, sorry for going off topic.