Page 1 of 1 After a dominant showing with the highly developed T332 in 1974, the British racing car constructor felt it was time to design and built a brand new F5000 car for the 1975 season. The new car was dubbed the T400 and replaced a design that dated back to the T300, which was first raced during the 1972 season.
Lola founder and designer Eric Broadley started with a clean sheet with sophisticated aerodynamics and suspension setup. At the front the car featured rising rate suspension with in-board mounted front dampers. The exterior design was substantially cleaner as the distinct high-mounted radiators of the T300 were replaced by radiators tucked away aft of the front wheels where they formed part of the deformable structure.
With the T332 such a success, the major teams fielding F5000 cars around the world ordered new T400s. Unfortunately, the T400 represented such a major step forward that the teams did not immediately understand the car and given the limited time available for testing and development reverted back to the existing T332s. These still proved top runners, so many of the T400s were simply set aside and forgotten about.
One team that did manage to get the T400 to work was Belgian Team VDS, who raced in the British F5000 championship. This allowed Teddy Pilette to score four wins in the last eight races on his way to his second British F5000 title. In Australia, the T400 was also eventually turned into a winner but in North America, no victories were scored while the T332 won nine races.
For 1976, Lola developed another brand new F5000 car but sold only three, while the further developed T332C proved in high demand and a huge success on the track. Lola did manage to sell 14 T400s but few were raced beyond the 1975 season and 12 are still known to exist. Page 1 of 1
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After a dominant showing with the highly developed T332 in 1974, the British racing car constructor felt it was time to design and built a brand new F5000 car for the 1975 season. The new car was dubbed the T400 and replaced a design that dated back to the T300, which was first raced during the 1972 season.