Lowwwwla…la la la la la Lowwwwla…
Yeah I can’t help it, every time I hear the name of this racecar maker that song rings in my head…
File this build under “everything old is new again.” The story behind it may not interest anyone but, what the hell, this is my ‘blog, so here goes…
Its taken me many years of adulthood conversations with other people to realize that I seem to have a more vivid and accurate memory of my young childhood than the average person does. That’s not to say there aren’t things missing; for instance, what did ever happen to my first Tyco track? I know I got it for Christmas of 1976 because I’ll never forget the power pack almost burning down the apartment block I lived in during that year, and I know I had it after my mom and dad bought their first house in the summer of 1977 because I can remember playing with it in my bedroom in that house. After that, the memory goes dark; I don’t know what its ultimate fate was, and I never will. So until Christmas of ’79 or ’80 when I got that Matchbox “Race N’ Chase” Speedtrack, I was without an electric racing set. Thus by extrapolation I conclude that it was during that gap that I acquired the car you now see here.
So it was then that I got a plastic baggie full of very beat-up T-Jet slot cars at a garage sale. I don’t even remember why I got it; something in that bag must have caught my eye and I guess my mom bought it for me because it was dirt cheap. What I do remember is that, since I didn’t have a racing set, I had no use for slotties, so I chose to take them all apart and remove and discard the motors and put them back together as free-wheelers to play with along with my Matchboxes and Hot Wheels. This turquoise Lola GT was the nicest of the lot; the rest had been brush-painted, had broken and missing parts, etc. I have no idea what happened to the rest of them, but eventually this one wound up thrown in a shoebox somewhere and forgotten. But here’s the thing: I remembered it was in that shoebox, and I remembered what that shoebox looked like…
Fast forward at least 40 YEARS to less than 2 weeks ago: I’m surfing ebay (which I do entirely too much of, obviously) and a Cigar Box “Speedline” copy of the Lola GT in “violet chrome” caught my eye; though it was clearly very “played with” and the rear wheels had come adrift, the seller was asking only $5 for it. When I saw it, a memory was triggered, and down I went into the basement storage area flailing my way through 40+ years of boxes looking for something I knew I still had. The remarkable thing is, I managed to find it; there it was: the remains of my long-motorless Lola GT. I remembered correctly that the back window was busted, but when I took it apart to check the screw posts I was happy to find they were in-tact. Thus I hit “buy it now” on that Speedline ebay sale. When it arrived, one look confirmed it wasn’t worth saving, but the windows were in excellent condition, so I drilled out the rivets and removed the piece I wanted. I then did the same to the turquoise T-Jet, a more delicate operation since the little peg that held the insert did not want to let go and I had to use the Dremel to drill it down without punching a hole through the roof. After a thorough bath with cleaning solution and a toothbrush, the new unbroken window insert dropped right in. A dab of super-glue to hold it tight and I had a bright, gleaming turquoise Lola GT ready to mount! It got a recently tuned up chassis, a set of Vincent wheels and RRR tires and then I hit the track! After a few laps of flawless performance-no adjustments needed at all!-I touched up some of the scratches on the stripes on the roof with a couple of paint pens and selected and added racing #65 decals, aaaaaand…WHOMP! There it is!
Who could have guessed that a discarded toy sold at a garage sale in California in the late 70’s would wind up flying down the straightaway of my AFX track in Colorado in 2021! I found it very satisfying to reanimate this car that’s been in my possession for most of my life, especially since I’m the one who essentially destroyed it in the first place. Its not quite the same as putting a real junkyard car back on the road, but I’ve done that too-more than once, and the thrill of bringing a “lost cause” back to life is always cool, even when it’s a car that fits in your hand!
La-La-La-La-Lola….