Lola T616 Mazda - Not So Dumb Luck

In 1982, BF Goodrich ran a Porsche 924 with road based T/A Radial tires to a class victory at Le Mans, and with a bigger budget and a thirst for better publicity for the tires they decided to move up to the C2 class for 1984. The team called Lola and asked them to build a chassis, and they delivered. Lola chose their already established T600 as the basis for this new car, which would be designed around a very unique engine. Following the class victory of Mazda in C2 the previous year with the 717C, BF Goodrich made an agreement with Mazda to run their wankel rotary engines.

Lola’s chassis was a good one, a carbon fiber reinforced aluminum monocoque. The fiberglass body made use of venturi tunnels fed through a large front grille. These tunnels provided the car with large quantities of downforce without the expense of a lot of drag. For twistier circuits a large rear wing was fitted, but for faster tracks like Daytona, Le Mans, and Monza a much lower wing was used. One of the other interesting aspects of the aerodynamics of the car was the adjustable front wing. A concept taken from Formula 1, the wing provided much needed front downforce and could be adjusted for different tracks, a feature other sports prototypes didn’t have. The naturally aspirated 13B two rotor engine produced 309hp at an absurd 8500rpm and achieved an astonishing 236hp per liter. Because the engine only weighed 110kg, the overall weight of the car was able to be kept down to a svelte 700kg.

After a shaky debut at the Daytona 24 Hours, the cars would start to find some success in their second race, the IMSA event in Miami where they were able to achieve 5th and 6th overall. Following this brief stint in North America, two of the three cars were sent to Europe to contest the World Sportscar Championship. Their first major event, the Monza 1000km, yielded a victory in the C2 class and 8th overall. The next major race was Le Mans, where they would have the chance to prove on the world stage that BF Goodrich tires were the best. Their opponents were all running Goodyears, Dunlops, Michelins, and Avons, which already had established popularity and were widely used across the grid. BF Goodrich still had something to prove. Not only would they have to prove their tires, but they also had direct factory competition from their engine supplier, Mazda.

Mazda had come to the race with a full factory team and a new car built off of the success of the previous year’s 717C. The new 727C had the same engine as BF Goodrich’s Lola, and both weighed 700kg, but the Mazda had much less downforce, and therefore less drag. In the speed traps on the Mulsanne straight the Mazda was an 8mph faster than the Lola. The other key difference between the Lola and the Mazda was the gearbox. BF Goodrich and Lola chose to run a 5 speed Hewland gearbox with synchronizers. Mazda chose a Hewland as well, but seeked faster shifts and so went with a 5 speed with a dogleg shift pattern and no synchronizers. In qualifying the first of the Mazdas was a full 9 seconds faster than the fastest Lola, although both Lolas outqualified the second of the Mazdas.

Come the race and the #87 Mazda took the class lead near the beginning, leading the class for most of the race. The Lolas lurked not far behind along with some of the other C2 competitors, while the second Mazda struggled near the back of the field. The straightline speed of the Mazda was so astonishing that when in the slipstream it could keep up with the class C1 Porsche 956s. Despite this overwhelming speed advantage, the choice of gearbox would end up proving costly for Mazda. Seeking the shift speed from the dogleg configuration Mazda had gambled on the gearbox without synchronizers. Later in the race this would catch up with them. The gearbox of the class leading #87 began to show signs of failure, and Mazda brought it into the pits for a repair before it failed completely. This lengthy repair would save the Mazda from a DNF but it put the Lolas in contention for the win.

At the end of the race the Lolas ended up in 1st and 3rd in class, 10th and 12th overall. Goodyear had accomplished their mission, proving that their tires could compete on the world stage and win races, although the class victory had a bit more luck involved than that. Their success in the four rounds of the World Sportscar Championship they competed in gave them 2nd overall in the manufacturer’s championship despite missing half of the season. For 1985 BF Goodrich would sell the cars, choosing to move up yet another class to C1. The two cars that raced at Le Mans have since been restored to their original condition by the owner of the team that raced them.

Thank you all in advance for reading!

On a different note, I'm still a bit annoyed that the captions are no longer available. This article would have been greatly improved if I had the ability to caption the images.

#blogpost