RM Auctions' Monterey event will see a high number of car collectors aggressively bidding against each other for all sorts of rare, beautiful exotica from days long past. One of these motors is the last of three Lola Mk6 GT racing cars ever produced. Chassis #LGT-2 is the black sheep of the family for one big reason.
The Ford GT40 look-alike packs 400 hp thanks to the same 289 c.i. (4.7-liter) Ford V8 fitted to the Blue Oval's Le Mans warrior. Coupled to a four-speed Colotti Type 37 manual transmission, this was a pretty fast car for its time considering it tipped the scale at just over 950 kilograms. However, #LGT-2 isn't propelled by that mill.
A wealthy Texan, John Mecom, bought the final Lola Mk6 GT produced and swapped the Ford powerplant with a good ol' Traco-Chevrolet V8 displacing 6 liters capacity and producing 530 ponies at 6,500 rpm. The racer saw two nut-and-bolt restoration jobs during its lifetime.
Throughout 1963, all three Lola Mk6 GTs were used as testbeds for the Ford GT40 program that fructified the next year. From 1964 to 1969, Ford produced some 107 GT40s in Slough, U.K. and Michigan, U.S.A. Compared to the lesser known Lola, the GT40 went to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans a staggering four times in a row.
Nevertheless, the sports prototype that made the Ford GT40 possible is and will always be the hideously underappreciated Lola Mk6 GT. The most special example of the breed, chassis #LGT-2, is slated to hit the auction block next month in sunny California and RM experts expect it to fetch at least $2 million.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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