I was reading a british magazine at Barnes & Noble today and there was a picture of a silver Lola Mk6, the car that Ford bought two of in order to use as mules to test components on while developing the GT40 , and I was surprised that it said Allen Grant (famous factory Cobra racer) was the owner/restorer (the exterior is finished but apparently the car didn't run for the last 40 plus years). I had never heard his name connected with the Lola Mk.6 . I also thought that there were only three Mk6, two sold to Ford, one to Mecom.If Grant's is another car, does that mean it's four? Maybe a Lola expert can answer that. Hopefully the Grant Lola Mk6 will be vintage racing soon or at least on display at a major event like Pebble Beach. The picture of Grant's silver car in the magazine was from 2009. It looks from the picture in the magazine like Grant is going for a stock look , not the beflared multi-air scooped version that the Mecom car became. Maybe what stopped Grant initially was no engine and gearbox, I imagine a 260cu.in. Ford V8 is easy to find but a vintage Colotti gearbox is a whole 'nother animal.
It doesn't take a Lola expert to end your 'speculation' of more than three Lola Mk VI's Allen Grant owns serial number LGT/P, the prototype car that starred at the 1963 London Racing Car Show. The car was raced at Silverstone and the Nurburgring. Grant purchased the car in Europe in 1965. It was shown at Pebble Beach in 2009 as it appeared in the '63 London show. The second car, LGT/1, ran at LeMans.The third car, LGT/2, was sold to Mecom which was Chevy powered.
Thanks for your answer. I thought I read the one he bought had no engine and transmission but maybe it did when he wanted to buy it but they sold it to him without either because a 260 Ford V8 was more rare on that side of the pond than this, and also even a Colotti was too valuable to let go. If he didn't buy it until 1965 it was already "old hat" kind of like trying to sell a piston engine fighter plane in a jet age. I am re-reading Trevor Legate's book GT40 and missed reading the first time around that two Lola Mk6s were tested by Ford at Monza in '64, which leads me to assume that Ford had the two in hand which must have included Grant's if Mecom already had his in hand. I thought Mecom had been running a Chevy engine from the beginning but this ad for a Mk6 I found on the internet says he didn't put a 6-liter Chevy in until 1964. Here's the quote from the the ad : http://www.hallandhall.net/stock.asp?StockID=3352 ------------------------------------ 1963 Lola Mk6 Chevrolet A unique car built by Lola for John Mecom and driven by Augie Pabst at Nassau, Sebring 12 Hours, Guards Trophy (Brands Hatch), Riverside etc. Originally constructed in 1963 with a Ford 289, Mecom sent the car back to Lola to be fitted with a 6 litre Chevrolet in 1964, following the purchase of the design by Ford to start their GT40 project. Weighing around 820 kgs and with a potential 540 bhp it should be more than a match for GT40s in historic racing. --------------------------------- I'll write them and see what engine it had at nassau in '63--I thought I saw pictures of it in the Mecom garage which had a lot of Chevys.
