Lola T92/10 - Development

Development

Following years of success building prototypes for Chevrolet in the IMSA GTP series as well as Nissan in the World Sportscar Championship and All Japan Sports Prototype Championship, Lola ended the 1991 season without a major manufacturer to back their sports car effort. Lola was therefore left to develop a car with the intent of allowing customers to buy a complete package, rather than relying on a major automobile manufacturer to dictate the car's design.

Chief Designer Wiet Huidekoper started with a clean sheet of paper for the T92/10 and following extensive windtunnel development with scale models, achieving extraordinairly high down-force (negative lift) figures combined with modest drag giving the car an L/D ("lift-over-drag") ratio, which exceeded 8 in high down-force trim . The car had a much smaller windscreen and cock-pit roof section than Lola's previous Group-C designs. The new car had two large air intakes on the nose, which provided the air for the engine cooling and to cool the brakes. These sat much farther back than on the previous Lola designs in order to improve aerodynamics and to increase cooling. This made for a small flat nose which gave the Lola T92/10 its distinctive and elegant look. An engine inlet would be added to the roof of the car given that the T92/10s would be normally aspirated. The sculpted sidepods were a departure from the norm. The rear would also be radically different to the previous Lola designed Nissan Group-C car, supporting a tall wing instead of the single element wing that had been previously used.

For an engine, Lola would turn to Judd to supply a motor to meet the then new 3.5 litre requirements for Group C. Judd would use their Formula One V10 engine though dubbed the GV10 in the sportscar application. It's compact design allowed for much tighter bodywork on the Lola, and was powerful enough to compete with the major manufacturers of the World Sportscar Championship.

A model of the T92/10 was unveiled to the public for the first time at the 1991 430km of Nürburgring. A total of three T92/10s were built, as the Group-C category was cancelled by the FIA in April 1992. This stifled the development of the car, as there was no longer any incentive of potential future sales.