People
Founder and chief designer of Lola Cars; consultant engineer on the Ford GT40
The record
Founder and chief designer of Lola Cars, whose Mk6 GT led Ford to retain Lola as a consultant to Ford Advanced Vehicles during the GT40's early development.
Born in Bromley on 22 September 1928, Broadley trained as an architect and worked as a quantity surveyor. With his cousin Graham he built and raced a Ford-engined 1172 Special before designing the Coventry Climax-powered Lola Mk1. Its spaceframe and aluminium body, made by Maurice Gomm, drew customer interest after Broadley became the first driver to lap Brands Hatch in under a minute.
By the 1959 Easter Monday meeting at Goodwood, three Mk1s filled the first three grid positions. Lola then entered Formula Junior, and Reg Parnell's Bowmaker team commissioned the 1962 Formula One Mk4 for John Surtees and Roy Salvadori. Surtees put it on pole at Zandvoort and finished second in the British and German Grands Prix. In January 1963, Broadley showed the 4.2-litre Ford V8 Lola Mk6 GT.
Attwood and Hobbs ran the Mk6 at Le Mans in 1963, until Hobbs crashed after the gearbox jumped out of gear. Ford engaged Lola as a consultant to Ford Advanced Vehicles, moving the Lola operation to Slough while developing the GT40 from the Mk6. Broadley later said he spent eighteen months on Ford's work; after the split, Lola retained one of its two Slough units and built the T70.
Lola's business centred on selling customer cars. In 1989, Broadley said that sound construction mattered because a car could not be consistent unless it was built reasonably, contrasting his approach with the fragility he associated with some Chapman frames.
The Mk6 used a monocoque centre section with tubular front and rear subframes. Broadley later said the GT40's steel monocoque had been required for intended production rather than for strength or safety.
In 1989, Broadley said a specialist working for a large company had to preserve its separate identity. He said Ford stipulated construction policy and supplied a body shape that he considered unworkable.
The stations
The house
Credited through Lola Cars.
In the register
The files above are the register's own record of this name. The people index holds everyone the register credits.
In their words
“If you are going to build a race car, build a race car, don't try to turn this thing into a semi-production car.”
Eric Broadley · Motor Sport, October 1989
