History of chassis SL76/147

Chassis SL76/147 was dispatched on May 20th 1969 to Lola’s European distributor, Jo Bonnier. Bonnier in turn sold the car to renowned Swiss tuner, Louis Morand, who planned to race it with an experimental Chevrolet engine on behalf of his company, Developpement Moteurs Morand.

Prior to this, Louis Morand had sporadically raced small displacement GT cars from the likes of Lotus and Alfa Romeo. Despite having undertaken just a handful of outings during the 1960s, he had shown some promise with his most notable result having been third overall and second in class driving a Lotus Elite at the 1962 Coupes de Paris held around the Montlhery circuit on the outskirts of Paris.

Morand’s dark green and yellow-striped Lola made its competition debut in a twelve lap sports car race around the Ulm-Laupheim airfield track in Germany on July 6th 1969. In the hands of fellow inexperienced Swiss, Gerard Pillon, it placed fifth overall and won its class (albeit behind a group of under two-litre cars).

Three more outings took place during the remainder of 1969, but without much success; the car blew a head gasket at the Hockenheim Solituderennen a week after its debut, the engine then expired during practice for the Zeltweg 1000km World Sportscar Championship event in early August and, on its return to Hockenheim for the shortened Hessenpreis in October, the car suffered another early retirement.

For 1970, Louis Morand undertook a more extensive campaign, but results again proved disappointing.

Over the course of nine outings, SL76/147 only made the chequered flag once (a ninth place finish at a non-championship event at Wunstorf). Amid a generally disappointing time of things, it failed to finish either of the Argentine Temporada races that got the season underway, did not qualify for the Monza 1000km World Championship race and was disqualified from the Spa 1000km World Championship event for receiving outside assistance.

Louis Morand sold the Lola to another Swiss driver for the 1971 season: Denis Veyrat.

Veyrat campaigned the now all-yellow T70 in nine French Sportscar Championship events during 1971 (the Championnat de France des Circuits), during which he picked up two wins and a second place finish.

Having entered just one race during 1972, in 1973 Veyrat sold SL76/147 to Gregory Fischer. Fischer had it converted to Spyder trim and contested the last four Interserie races of ‘73. Best results were a 14th place finish at the Norisring and ninth at Hockenheim.

The car then passed through the hands of Franco Sbarro and on to David Piper who reverted it back to Coupe trim and, in 1978, sold it to Lola’s US distributor, Carl Haas. Since then, the car has gone through the hands of several private collectors.

Notable History

Sold to Louis Morand, Switzerland

06/07/1969 IND Ulm-Laupheim (G. Pillon) 5th oa, 1st SRP2.0+ class (#221)
13/07/1969 IND Hockenheim Solituderennen (L. Morand) DNF (#23)
10/08/1969 WSC Zeltweg 1000km (L. Morand / G. Pillon) DNS (#31)
19/10/1969 IND Hockenheim Hessenpreis (L. Morand) DNF (#??)

11/01/1970 TEM Buenos Aires 1000km (L. Morand / G. Pillon) DNF (#24)
18/01/1970 TEM Buenos Aires 200 mile (L. Morand / G. Pillon) DNF (#24)
25/04/1970 WSC Monza 1000km (L. Morand / G. Pillon) DNQ (#18)
17/05/1970 WSC Spa 1000km (G. Pillon / L. Morand) DSQ (#34)
16/08/1970 IND Wunstorf (L. Morand) 9th oa, 9th SRP2.0+ class (#10)
13/09/1970 IND Imola 500km (G. Pillon) DNF (#7)
04/10/1970 IND Montlhery Coupes du Salon (G. Pillon) ran (#3)
11/10/1970 INT Hockenheim (G. Pillon) DNF (#69)
18/10/1970 IND Paris 1000km, Montlhery (G. Pillon / J. Cochet) DNF (#9)

Sold to Denis Veyrat, Switzerland

21/03/1971 FSC Albi (D. Veyrat) 7th oa (#??)
28/03/1971 FSC Montlhery (D. Veyrat) 1st oa (#??)
25/04/1971 FSC Coupe de Printemps (D. Veyrat) 5th oa (#20)
02/05/1971 FSC Magny-Cours Gr.5+6+7 (D. Veyrat) 1st oa (#154)
09/05/1971 FSC Montlhery Gr.3+5+6+7 (D. Veyrat) DNF (#5)
23/05/1971 FSC Montlhery (D. Veyrat) ran (#??)
08/08/1971 FSC Nogaro (D. Veyrat) 6th oa (#16)
19/09/1971 FSC Montlhery Coupes de Paris (D. Veyrat) 2nd oa (#??)
03/10/1971 FSC Paul Ricard (D. Veyrat) ran (#??)

26/03/1972 FNC Albi (D. Veyrat) DNF (#??)

Sold to Gregory Fischer (Formel-Rennsport-Club), Switzerland

Converted to Spyder trim

24/06/1973 INT Norisring (G. Fischer) 14th oa, 11th Gr.7 class (#20)
15/07/1973 INT Hockenheim (G. Fischer) DNF (#20)
19/08/1973 INT Misano (G. Fischer) DNF (#20)
30/09/1973 INT Hockenheim (G. Fischer) 9th oa, 9th S2.5+ class (#20)

Sold to Franco Sbarro, Switzerland

Sold to David Piper, England

Converted to back to Coupe trim

1978 sold to Carl Haas, USA

Sold again later than year

Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed