What does a restored Lola T70 sports car sound like?

Racing driver Andrew Jordan took the iconic Lola T70 sports car to the Silverstone track. The car was restored completely to original specifications – no modern bells and whistles, just an honest racing engine that sounds like it did half a century ago. Jordan, of British BTCC fame, didn’t just hit the track for show – he actually rode the Lola in full force at the Silverstone Classic media day. Remember the sound: naturally aspirated V8, intake pipes on top of the engine, exhaust without mufflers. Nobody builds like that now.

The Lola T70 is a British sports prototype developed by Lola Cars in 1965 under the direction of Eric Broadley. Broadley originally wanted to build this car for Ford instead of the GT40 because he thought the GT40 was too conservative in design. When Ford rejected his ideas, he built the T70 under its own Lola brand. And the T70 became a two-seater sports prototype with an aluminum monocoque, which was equipped with large American V8s.

In 1966, former Formula One champion John Surtees drove the Lola T70 Mk.2 to victory in Can-Am’s inaugural season, winning five of six races. The sixth race of the season was won by Dan Gurney in a Ford-powered T70, the only time a Ford-powered T70 has won in Can-Am. In total, the T70 sports car scored 232 victories in 671 races from 1965 to 1983.

The engine in the T70 is located at the rear; as a rule, American V8s with a volume of 4.9 to 5.7 liters were installed. Racing versions developed up to 550 horsepower, and the car’s weight ranged from 680 to 860 kg, depending on the modification.

In April 2026, the revived Lola Cars announced a new version of the T70S. This is not a replica, but a modern interpretation, released in an edition of 16 copies. The machine is built on a chassis made of natural composites – plant fibers, basalt and sugar cane resin, without petroleum products. The T70S GT for public roads weighs 890 kg and is equipped with a 6.2-liter V8 producing 500 horsepower with a six-speed manual transmission, while the track version T70S (530 hp) is lighter – 860 kg.