Lola-Aston Martin T70 Mark III
Lola-Aston Martin T70 Mark III

Lola-Aston Martin T70 Mark III

(1967)

That Aston Martin was, in the mid 60's, developing a new V8 engine, was a poorly kept secret. And the best way to test any new development is on the race track. The new 5.0 litre V8 was fitted into the Eric Broadley designed, Lola T70 Mark III chassis and unveiled in January 1967 at the Racing Car Show. Results on the track during 1967 were poor; the first car retired during the 7th lap of the Nurburgring 1000km, then only two and a half hours at Le Mans. The second car, with a longer tail lasted only 3 laps of Le Mans before retiring - the first car of the race to do so.

Lola-Aston Martin T70 Mark III

Despite this inauspicious start, lessons were indeed learned and the breed was consistently improved. Indeed the Aston Martin V8 engine made plenty more visits to the La Sathe circuit powering RHAM/1, Nimrod, EMKA and finally 22 years later, in AMR1. Production of the V8 engine finally ended in 2000 with a fraction over 5000 units built.

This car, chassis number SL73/101, was photographed at the 1996 Coys Festival, Silverstone and the Aston Martin Centenary Celebrations at Kensington Palace in July 2013.