How Lola has revived a sportscar icon in a more sustainable form

Mention the word sustainability in a motorsport context and it does not always prompt the most enthusiastic of responses. Countless claims have been made about various cars and categories featuring sustainable initiatives in recent years, but often these have amounted to little more than a box-ticking exercise or delivered limited meaningful environmental benefit.

Those criticisms certainly cannot be levelled at Lola. Since Till Bechtolsheimer revived the brand in 2022, sustainability has been at its core. It has entered all-electric Formula E and has now created a new version of its much-admired T70, but produced in a far greener way.

“Till was very keen that Lola becomes a technology business – we’re not just a legacy company, we are developing new technology,” explains technical director Peter McCool. “He wanted to demonstrate how he could put that innovation into a vehicle, and so the T70 Mk3B was chosen because it’s probably the prettiest, most iconic car in the Lola back catalogue. The idea was to make it sustainable – and that was quite a challenging brief.”

Reinventing the legendary T70 – which achieved Can-Am and Daytona 24 Hours glory in the 1960s – in a more eco-friendly manner while keeping its good looks and strong handling was some undertaking, especially when Bechtolsheimer was insistent on no petrochemicals being used. And a particular challenge of the T70S (S standing for sustainable, of course) was the bodywork.

“The T70 Mk3B was chosen because it’s probably the prettiest, most iconic car in the Lola back catalogue. The idea was to make it sustainable – and that was quite a challenging brief” Peter McCool

“Every time I suggested something with an epoxy resin that was 30% bio, that was never enough,” recalls McCool. “Then 60% bio was never enough, Till constantly pushed us and wouldn’t accept that we’d used petrochemicals or there wasn’t an organic-derived original component.”

This pursuit of sustainability eventually led to the creation of the Lola Natural Composite System, a patent-pending form of bodywork that features a mix of plant and basalt fibres combined with a resin produced from sugar cane processing waste. “The reason we’ve got basalt in there is because I wasn’t allowed to use glass as that uses a lot of components in its manufacture,” explains McCool.

“But the glass would’ve given the impact resistance on the external bodywork for stone chips, so we had to protect that. In looking for a sustainable, natural impact-resistant composite or fibre we came across basalt. We combined it with our PFA resin, and it gives us great impact resistance, but it also gives us a very strong and durable laminate.

“Combining that with flax, I can’t deny there wasn’t a chunk of luck in it but when you’re combining three or four different materials in formats you’ve not done before, our testing was hugely positive and exceeded my expectations.”

Drawings of the original T70 Mk3B have been scanned to produce a 3D image from which the T70S was created

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro

Having been “very proud” of the LNCS, the intention now is for this to be widely used across the motorsport industry, helping the sector as a whole become more sustainable. “If you take carbon fibre, which I’ve used a lot of in my Formula 1 past, it’s nearly a wonder material and had nearly 60 years of development,” adds McCool, who was previously a designer for Super Aguri and McLaren in F1.

“The mechanical properties of it are amazing and, when woven with an epoxy resin, it’s very expensive, very carbon-footprint-intensive but it’s incredibly stiff, and hard to beat. But if you take any other fibre combination – glass fibre, polyester resin, glass fibre epoxy resin – we better that from a performance perspective. 

“I’m hoping our LNCS can have quite a big take-up because the manufacturing techniques are similar and yet it’s got a lower global warming potential, and it’s a really robust, functional, lightweight, stiff bodywork system. I’m expecting it to kind of replace the flax bio-epoxys in the market and they’re used quite significantly in smaller applications. It’s not structural – we wouldn’t do an F1 chassis or an LMDh monocoque in this because of the combined properties – but for bodywork it’s very effective.”

Other sustainable initiatives have also been used in the creation of the T70S in addition to the LNCS. “Making the chassis out of recycled aluminiums, recycled steels is relatively easy but we were driven to find low-carbon-footprint magnesium manufacturing and that was quite a challenge,” says McCool. “We’ve developed a supply chain that can give us magnesium extracted from salt water using solar power, it’s really quite innovative.”

“Being a designer, I’ve surprisingly not actually tried to drop its centre of gravity, or reduce its weight, or change the camber gain of the front suspension” Peter McCool

Alongside developing software that has enabled Lola to “calculate the carbon footprint of every nut and bolt in the car”, it is no surprise that construction carbon dioxide emissions have been cut by 54%, and as much as 80% in some stages of the manufacturing process.

The car itself is just as impressive as its green credentials. It is powered by a five-litre Chevrolet V8 that produces 530bhp, taking it from 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds. No wonder McCool describes it as “an absolute beast of a thoroughbred race car”. It also looks and handles like its 1960s forebear, the original drawings having been scanned to produce a three-dimensional model.

“Being a designer, I’ve surprisingly not actually tried to drop its centre of gravity, or reduce its weight, or change the camber gain of the front suspension,” laughs McCool. “I’ve done none of that, it’s original and it’s nice to pay homage to it.”

Nevertheless, there are a few subtle tweaks on safety grounds. For instance, the seatbelt mountings have been reinforced, but these modifications have been made in a manner to ensure the car is still eligible for an FIA historic technical passport. Testing is well under way of the initial T70S, with a successful outing in the heat of Miami being followed by further UK running over the summer.

Lola ambassador Herbert has completed much of the testing mileage of the new car

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro

Three-time F1 race winner Johnny Herbert has been conducting a significant chunk of that mileage in his role as Lola ambassador. He sampled the fabled David Piper T70 Mk3B beforehand to offer a direct comparison between the machines and McCool has been full of praise of Herbert’s “fantastic” efforts.

“He’s positive, he’s constructive, when a car twitches he can tell you exactly why it twitches and what’s happening, he has a really good handle on how the tyres work, and he’s a fantastic team player,” says McCool.

Alongside the T70S designed for the track, a road-going GT version has almost been finished, with its testing due to commence at the end of July. The T70S GT features a different engine and gearbox – a sequential system electronically connected to an H-pattern gear lever to give drivers the full “analogue” experience – as well as all the storage solutions and safety systems required for the road.

“He’s positive, he’s constructive, when a car twitches he can tell you exactly why it twitches and what’s happening, he has a really good handle on how the tyres work, and he’s a fantastic team player” Peter McCool

“The road car needs to be driven from Silverstone to the Savoy in London, that was the brief,” states McCool. 

A special interior has been designed and he says the driving experience will be very similar to the track version – “except, when you select a gear, you don’t have to match the revs and heel and toe and keep the revs on at a traffic light!”

Only 16 of the cars in total are due to be made, with deliveries expected to start early next year, but the T70S has already turned heads in testing. “It’s beautiful, when you fire it up, it’s unbelievably noisy and absolutely everybody smiles,” McCool concludes.

When a car can do that and incorporate innovative sustainable initiatives, that is certainly something to be enthusiastic about.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the August 2026 issue and subscribe today.

McCool describes the T70S as “an absolute beast of a thoroughbred race car”

Photo by: Dom Gall