Scale: 1:24
SKU: 20699
Barcode: 4967834206991
Model supplied unpainted & unassembled.
Lola Cars Limited is a British automobile manufacturer founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England. The company is now owned by Till Bechtolsheimer, who purchased it in 2022. Lola Cars endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola started by building small front-engine sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles.
The T90/50, like the T89/50, was designed by Mark Williams and a lot of work was done on the aerodynamics for the new car resulting in redesigned sidepods together with new front and rear wings that produced a lot more downforce. The downside was a less drivable car that was more difficult to set up which caused problems for some of the less experienced drivers.
The chassis was constructed from an upper and lower autoclaved carbon fibre sections bonded and riveted together, this allowed the chassis joint line to be nearer the neutral axis of the car and the edge of the lower section to be radiused. The cockpit was designed to be more comfortable with the driver sitting lower to aid the aerodynamics. Tall narrow narrow entry sidepods were fitted improving cooling and aerodynamics and the body was all-enveloping with an engine cover and integral airbox. The whole car was both smaller and lighter than its predecessor.
The front suspension featured an extended wishbone base to reduce specific loading with pushrod operated Koni spring/damper units mounted longitudinally across the top of the chassis moulding accessed via a hatch. The rear suspension had a stiffer fabricated steel upright with an improved rocker pivot design and rocker ratio and a revised driveshaft design to deal with increased loadings.
The car was a winner from the start being victorious in the opening rounds of both the Japanese and European Championships and going on to win all ten rounds in Japan with Kazuyoshi Hoshino taking the Championship whilst in Europe it was seven wins and Érik Comas as Champion. The story continued in Japan in 1991 with the T90/50 winning six more races and giving Ukyo Katayama the Championship.
Lola sold an amazing thirty-nine cars with twenty-four of the T90/59s going to Japan and the other fifteen racing in Europe. Competition came from the Reynard 90D that won four races in Europe but was unsuccessful in Japan. The only other manufacturer was Leyton House (formerly March) who fielded a handful of cars in both Championships without success. As for engines it was the Mugen Honda V8 that ruled the roost in Japan winning all rounds and the top seven positions in the final standings, in Europe it was seven wins to Mugen Honda and four wins to the venerable Ford Cosworth DFV V8.
