News & Features November 8, 2007, 1:27PM EST

Dramatic Climax

(page 2 of 2)

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Lola-Climax Mk I

By 1960, the Lola Mk I was the car to have in small-bore sports racing, clearly outshining the (1956 design) Lotus Eleven and generally proving faster than the Lotus 17 and Elva Mk 5, which were designed to compete with it. It remained the class of the field until the mid-engined Elva Mk 6 arrived in 1961, followed by the Lotus 23 in 1962. If you accept the concept that the 1950s was the period of front-engined, skinny-tired race cars and that the '60s were the advent of mid engines and sticky tires, the Lola Mk I was the last and the greatest of small-bore 1950s racers.

Did I mention that they are fun to drive? It seems to be a combination of Lola getting everything right. First of all, they're gorgeous, and though it shouldn't matter, it does; sitting in one just makes you feel good. It's an amazingly small car in its feel, much smaller somehow than the Lotus Eleven. The body is stretched very tightly over the mechanical package, the wheelarches bulge to cover the 15-inch wheels and tires, and the cockpit hangs on to a 6 foot, 200 lb driver like me just like a formula car. This is a car you wear. Driving it, the first thing you notice is that it's amazingly quick. The Climax engine is a joy to run.

The car weighs 1,100 lbs dripping wet and the cars my shop maintains routinely generate 115 hp at the wheels, so you're talking power to weight of under 10:1, which ain't slow. The tires are really skinny (4-inch tread at the front, 4 1/2 at the back) so they don't have a lot of grip, but you're not turning or stopping much weight either. Plus, the car just loves to be driven loose. This is not a knife-edge car; the limit is wide, forgiving, and asking to be explored.

One of the great driving experiences

The overall combination is one of the great driving experiences in vintage racing, and also one of the most ego-satisfying. A well-driven Lola Mk I can show its heels to Ferraris and Listers in the '50s grid on short tracks like Laguna Seca and can run embarrassingly close to the lead even at tracks like Watkins Glen or Elkhart Lake. Unfortunately, the vintage racing world has already discovered this, and Lola Mk I values have doubled over the past three or four years. They now trade at a substantial premium over the Lotus Eleven, which, with its aluminum body and frequently longer racing resume, would appear to be a better "collector" car.

A Lotus Eleven with full race preparation sold at the same auction for $165,000, while this Lola Mk I sold for $188,000, needing, I'd guess, $25,000 worth of work to have it truly race-ready. Interestingly, I'd say this was almost exactly fair money.

The Lola Mk I uses a fiberglass body (except for the first few). The cars were sold to privateers and mostly raced in regional- and national-, rather than international-level events. On top of that, they ran in the small-bore class, which isn't where the grand reputations were established, so they really shouldn't (and probably don't) have much collector value. On the other hand, they were and are giant killers. They are incredibly fun to drive, relatively inexpensive to maintain, and drop-dead gorgeous. The Lola Mk I is probably the ultimate weapons-grade vintage racing car, and the value reflects the fact. It was fairly bought in today's market.

Details
Years Produced: 1959-62

Number Produced: 35

Original List Price: $2,800

SCM Valuation: $175,000-$225,000

Chassis # Location: Top of tube just above driver's left foot

Engine # Location: Boss on right front of block

Club Info: Lola Heritage

Website: click to visit

Alternatives: 1956-60 Lotus Eleven, 1959 Lotus 17, 1958-60 Elva Mk 4, 5

Investment Grade: A

Provided by Sports Car Market—The Insider's Guide to Collecting, Investing, Values and Trends

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