Meet the Fleet – Sportscars: Lola GT Mk VI

• BODY: Aurora Model Motoring
• WHEELS: Vincent
• TIRES: Road Race Replicas

I have 4 Lola GT’s in my racing fleet. I have profiled 2 of these in the past, one as a new build and the other-a very special one-as a reminiscence of the T-Jet I have owned longer than any other. And in those previous posts I have mentioned the irony that I have 1 more of them on my HO-scale track than exist in 1:1, as only 3 of the real thing were built.

In spite of its nearly nil production, the importance of the Lola GT Mk.6 to the history of sports car racing is hard to overstate: designed and built in England by Eric Broadly and fitted with an American Ford small-block V8, it is widely credited as the car that gave conceptual birth to the Ford GT-40, a car that, for better or worse, helped change the face of motor racing forever. Since the turquoise copy is a lifelong possession, this black version was the 3^rd I acquired. This is one of the early Aurora “Tuff Ones” releases, and I got it on the cheap because, as you can see, it’s a little worse for wear; the orange on the stripes is worn off at the edges from use or storage or both. However, I always thought this worn affect adds some patina to the car and makes it look more realistic, and anyhow, the lower half of the driver’s side A-pillar is not missing, which it is on so many of these cars due to what I imagine was some sort of production problem in the molding process. So to my eye, it has just the right amount of wear!

This car is also a little special in being mounted on the only opaque white Ultra-G chassis I have acquired to date; these white chassis are special editions that come under the Auto World “i-Wheels” releases, a series of cars done up in a strange “polarized” color scheme that are almost all white-even the tires are white. I don’t understand the appeal of these, and since they sell at a significant premium over the more realistic looking versions, I have only ever bought one-a Buick Riviera-because I wanted that particular body in pearl white. That car was, in turn, mounted on a translucent blue chassis, which suited it very well and which it lives on to this day, thus donating this white chassis to the car I thought it would look best on. I am very happy with this choice, as the black/white/red color combo, offset by chrome Vincent “Steel” wheels, looks bitchin’.

All of which brings us to every world builder’s guilty pleasure, namely: the lore! Christened “Shotgun,” this rare black beauty is wheeled by one Roger “BLIZZARD” Rasner, a California native who’s been around sports car racing since his teens, primarily as a mechanic; he cut his teeth working for Shelby American back in that company’s glory years in the mid-60’s, and thus knows Ford powered performance cars backwards and forwards. (Rasner, incidentally, has a brother named Riley who races in the Muscle Car series with a very modified ’59 Chevy Impala). Still wearing its original racing #3, this car shows well on race day, and while it has yet to win a tournament, it has several race victories to its name. “Blizzard” has every intention of using this “Shotgun” to continue racking up those victories at Drag City!