autoevolution
 

The Lola T600 Engineering Marvel of the 80s Is a Chevrolet at Heart

The 80s - what a marvellous time to live in for people who love cars, and motorsports more specifically. Big tobacco and alcohol sponsorships, crazy fast machines and a thirst for developing ever increasingly powerful engines.
Lola T600 GTP 1 photo
Photo: Autosprint.ch
While most people tend to relate to the 80s as the Turbo Era, with so many vehicles using turbochargers to achieve high horsepower figures, some teams and companies decided to go for a more conservative approach.

It's 2020 and you'll be hearing lots of people swapping their factory engines for a Chevrolet V8 unit, as their reliability is well known and appreciated. Well, it seems that this was quite true in the 80s as well.

The Lola T600 was introduced in 1981 and you could very well say that it paved the way for the Group C class of racing, with its ultra advanced ground effect tunnels. The launch of the Grand Touring Prototype category would have the Lola T600 hit the racetracks with its massive Chevrolet built, six-liter V8 engine, which was capable of pushing 600 horsepower to the rear wheels.

Although some of these cars were fitted with Porsche 935 engines - and one of them with a Chevy Turbo V6 one, the initial V8 unit still seems to be the iconic one at the end of the day, at least when talking about this T600.

Just about a dozen of these cars were built, and while they did achieve some victories in their early years, the chassis last made an appearance in an IMSA race in 1987, as it had already become outdated in comparisson to its competitors. Even so, we're lucky enough to get to see them at special events dedicated to old timers.

And for the car in the video below, we actually get to see it spreading its wings on two famous tracks, Monza in Italy and Paul Ricard in France.

If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Dragos Chitulescu
Dragos Chitulescu profile photo

The things Dragos enjoys the most in life are, in no particular order: cars, motorcycles, diecast cars, and drifting. He's seen (and driven) many vehicles since he started his writing career back in 2009, but his garage currently houses a 1991 Mazda RX-7 FC3S Turbo II and a 1999 Suzuki SV650-S.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories