Described consistently as the "prototype" T292, HU40 first appeared at Jarama 5 Nov 1972 where it was raced by Richard Scott. It was then Guy Edwards' works car throughout 1973 after which it was updated to T294 specification and sold by Lola to Martin Raymond for 1974.
It went to Stewart Chubb for 1975 and continued to race in the European series. In 1976, Chubb sold the car to Steven Payne-Herbert and it was used in Can-Am and SCCA BSR racing until 1980. Payne-Herbert kept the car until 1989 when it was sold for vintage racing and, three owners later, it was being offered for sale by Grand Prix Classics in February 2011.
No further details.
This car was sold new to Roger Heavens for 1974.It was raced by Hervé Leguellec in the interserie, Richard Lloyd and Manrico Zanuso. It was entered under the Escuderia Montjuich Tergal banner for Javier Juncadella, Roger Heavens and LeGuellec in the 1000 km Monza and Spa in 1974 and later in 1000 km Austria and the 9 hours Kyalami. In 1975, Richard Lloyd raced the car in some races of the 2L Championship and the Spa 1000 km.
In January 1976, it was advertised by Heavens, noting that it had last raced in the Boxing Day meeting at Brands Hatch (Photo). Martial Legou bought the T292 purchased this T292 through Hervé Le Guellec, who allegedly imported two Lolas into France in 1976. The first one was the HU67 and the second was the T292 HU42 ( found by elimination). Legou destroyed the car; Michel Elkoubi rebuilt the car in 1978.
This car ran as the #25 Pronuptia Lola at 24hLe Mans in 1978 with Bruno Sotty-Gerard Cuynet-JC Dufrey and again as the #23 Pronuptia in 1979. He owned the car until 1981.
In 1983 it was in the possession of Serge Vidal. He redid the roll bar behind the driver and transformed the car in a T296 specification and used a BMW engine.
It was then shipped to Dutch man Jim Vermeulen were it was raced by Jim and possibly by his brother Huub, HU67 passed to Kok Louwen in 1997 and then to Daan De Smedt from Belgium.
In 2014, the car was bought by Andreas Floth from Austria. Andreas started racing HU67 in Austrian Historic racing and then, in 2017, moved to SRCC and HSCC Pre '80 Endurance events. The car is now prepared by Loaded Gunn Racing.
No more info after this.
The last T292 built went to John Abrahams in South Africa for the 1973 Springbok series. It was co-driven in the series by Charlie Lucas. The car came back to England under the care of Roger Hire Racing. The HU65 car was raced by Rikki von Opel in the Nürburgring Interserie in June. It was later raced in the Hockenheim 2-litre race in August (Christian Melville), the Brands Hatch 1000 km in September (Worthington and Nigel Clarkson) and at Kyalami in November (Abrahams and Richard Scott).
In 1975, it was driven at Le Mans by Derek Worthington ( #38, ended P19) and Clarkson and also appeared at the Spa 1000 km and in a couple of UK races.
In 1976 it was sold to SCCA driver Dean Dietrich and was used in the revived Can-Am series in 1977. It then went to Rick Villate for two more seasons of Can-Am.
To David P. Gough (Atlanta, GA) 1982 and used as a road car.
To Ed Swart (Torrance, California) 1997 and then via six other US owners until bought by Cal Meeker (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) in 2013. He chose to keep the ‘Primagaz’ livery for the car as done by previous owner Bradley W.Krause. Photo from 2017 Monterey.
And then: a Lola T 294 HU65 must be back in England
The Lola T 294 HU65 was seen in the LM classic 2014 and 2016 the Spa Historics (Ian Simmonds) and the 10 mille tours in 2018.
When we try to understand, it is possible that in 1974 and 1975 when the car was rented to whoever wanted to drive it [which resulted in a lot of retirements], there were 2 chassis and one identification plate because the chassis were revised at each race so the chassis were alternated?
That the 1975 Le Mans car was sold to Dean Dietrich in 1976 and off to the USA; the other was sold 40 years later and is officially presented as the real HU65.
This car was built as a hybrid car from T280 with preparation for a Ford DFV. Heini Mader, European distributor after the death of Jo Bonnier, completed the car, presumably updated to a T294 spec. He wanted to get the lightest possible machine for hill climb racing, the team requested Lola to prepare a two-litre T294 to be fitted with a Cosworth DFV V8 engine. The actual engine was fitted at Heini Mader where the HU7 chassis plate was also fitted. This would place the car in the three-litre T28* sequence although Lola themselves later used the same number for a T286. This was the only T294 built as a 3-litre Car!
Fielded for Corrado Manfredini, the unique T294 did not actual race the car in hill climbs but in 3 Interserie races and the 6 hours Kyalami (DNF) round of the World Championship in 1974. In 1975, the new owner was Charlie Simmer. He placed a BMW four-cylinder engine. The car did a full interserie 1976championship season, with a P2 in the Zolder race.
Chassis HU7 was then sold to Walter Pedrazza, who crashed the car testing at Sternbeck, which brought its contemporary racing career to a close.
The T294 was acquired again by Heini Mader in 1992. He had former mechanic Pierre Straub restore the Lola with and with an eye on entering it in hill climb racing, it was fitted with a 2.5-litre Cosworth DFY engine. These plans fell through, and it was then displayed for 16 years in the Palexpo Museum.
When the museum closed down, there were two friends of Mader interested and it was eventually sold to Josef Maier. In 2016, the ex-Manfredini Lola was acquired by Mike Gensemeyer of Britec Motorsports. For one of his customers, it was then completely restored to its original configuration complete with a correct DFV engine.
2008, new owner was Josef Maier; in 2017 Felix Haas became the new owner. Saw the car in 2020 Zandvoort and 2023 Spa 6h.
Manfredini also appeared at the Nurburgring Interserie 8/9/74 and finished 5th in a T282, entered by Jolly Club. This T282 is presumably the one reported to be the ex-Gitanes works car from 1973, which is HU06.
Two weeks later, Lella Lombardi finished 3rd in the Jolly Club T282 at the Casale Interserie.
HU6 is a special car as it is the only T282 ever built by Lola. HU6 was delivered new to Scuderia Filipinetti in January of 1973. Reine Wissel, Hughes de Fierland and Jean-Louis Lafosse debuted with chassis HU6 during the 24 Hours of Daytona. The car was nevertheless not quite fast and reliable enough to score a victory against the works team. Lafosse did win a minor race at Magny Cours.
Following the death of team principal Georges Filipinetti, the car was sold to Italy where it was campaigned by the Jolly Club. It raced for several years. Chassis HU6 last appeared in the Swiss national championship in 1986 and 1987.
In 2011, it was completely restored to its original livery and prepared for historic racing in the United States. Chassis HU6 competed in the 2011 and 2013 Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
The car is now owned and raced by Leo Voyazides in historic events. The car has the light blue- Gitanes livery.
HEINZ SCHULTHESS had run very succesfully a GRAC MT14B-012 with FVC engine in 72-73
During this period he imported the GRAC in Switzerland.
Then he bought the Lola T284-HU2 (on some paper it's called T280-4-HU2) and run it in 74-75
This could be the wreck of the prototype T282 (HU05, crashed and apparently written off, Kyalami late 72) hung around for a while and was then rebuilt as a T284 for the 74 season for Schulthess.
After the 24 h Le Mans 1974 where the #28 Michel Dupont Scato entered car for Schulthess (DNF), he did the 1000 km Paul Ricard and the 1000 km Brands Hatch as “Ecurie Gulf Suisse”. In between, he raced the car at the interserie championship.
The same car was participating with Schulthess in the endurance racing. His team mates were Herve Bayard, Corrado Manfredini and Savary. No great results, most DNF. His best result was a P2 in the interserie race at Hockenheim.
Then in 1976, Schulthess entered his T284 for the 300km of Nurburgring. He had already created at that time the Warsteiner Team Schulthess with two TOJ racing cars
