Lola T70 MkII Spyder (rF2)

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Fresh off the GT40 project in 1964, Lola's Eric Broadley designed his own sports racer, the T70, to race in 1965. It combined everything he had learned working for Ford with all of the ideas they wouldn't let him try. Though it was quick straight away, he immediately set to work on improving it and in 1966 the MkII was put into production. Lighter and faster, it dominated all competition on both sides of the Atlantic, proving to be unbeatable in nearly every event it entered. It won its debut race, the final round of the 1965 British Road Racing Championship, and then swept all 7 races the following year. It won 5 of 6 rounds of the 1966 Can Am series in North America and also won the US Road Racing Championship in '66 and '67.

The chassis was designed to accept either a Ford or Chevrolet small-block V8 and cars competed with both, although the Chevrolet engines were more popular and, overall, more successful. Among the Chevrolet-powered teams was that of John Surtees, which became the de facto works outfit. It is Surtees' 1966 5.9L Can Am car that we have tried to re-create here.

Credits:
@aphidgod - physics, project lead
@iRacer5 - sounds
@Andy-R - skins, testing
@pctm - skins
@mantasisg - rFactor2 model export
@NightEye87 - conversion work
@A3DR - model import & improvement, shaders, textures
@Alman - updated logo

This car is built on an rFactor2 mod by CrossPly (available here @ RD) so first of all let me thank John for allowing me to use his work. Second, that work was partly based on the official Howston model (et al) so let me also thank Tim Wheatley & ISI/Studio 397 for permission to use those bits as well. I hope we've done you proud!

Thanks also to John Starkey and Ian Bamsey, whose books were used as technical reference, and to everyone who has shared information about these cars on the internet. That's what it takes to bring these things to life.

4k Skin Pack available here:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/lola-t70-mkii-spyder-rf2-4k-skin-pack.137692/

This project is dedicated to Eric Broadley and John Surtees, both of whom we've lost during the completion of the work. RIP, gentlemen, and thanks for the fantastic car.

Reactions: Pheeuma, asinquecualo, Perico Lospa and 143 others

aphidgod

I would encourage you to go do some research on the T70 before making these kinds of assumptions. The GT40 has absolutely no chance against it IRL or in AC. They're not even in the same class of car.

Can Am was a wild series, this particular T70 was running faster laps than 1966's F1 cars at the same track. There are no cars in Assetto Corsa that really make a good race partner for it, but there were no cars IRL that did either. It won nearly every competitive event it was entered in.

It took my test drivers some time to match the IRL laps John Surtees ran at Silverstone in 1966 and the same goes for other tracks we have period data from. This car was given way too much juice by Lola in 1966 and we have accurately brought that performance to AC.