This specific chassis was designated to be firstly an experimental chassis housing the 3.0-litre Cosworth DFV 8-cylinder engine and later a spare car for the Team Bonnier in 1972. Jo Bonnier shared the car with Gerald Larrousse in May at the 1.000 km of Nürburgring, where they finished 6th overall. Later that year the car was intended to be raced at the 24 hours of Le Mans, but sadly Bonnier lost his life just prior that race.

The car was then exported 8 by the Team Bonnier to USA, just to come back to Switzerland in late 1973 where it was used in some European Interseries races but with a 2.0-litre engine. Some years later HU1 was sold to Franco Sbarro, a former Team Bonnier engineer who rebuilt the chassis going back to the initial 3.0-litre DFV configuration. After the rebuild the car is stored idle and remains mainly unused.

In 1986 the Dutch collector Paul van Doorn purchases the car but does not use it. The Lola is then being sold on to a French race preparer who intends to restore the car once again but does not find the time to do so. Another ten years later, now in 2007 the car finds a new buyer who finally commissions a ground-up restoration to early specification by the well-known race car specialists of MecAuto in Belgium.
Throughout the restoration it has been decided to keep some of the main chassis parts but to rebuild the roll bar structure and the rear tube frame for security reasons. All the genuine parts which have been replaced are still available and come with the car.

The entire car has been stripped and rebuilt without any cost limitations and is now in absolutely perfect condition throughout. Also all safety devices are new (two bag tanks, harnesses for HANS support, electric fire extinguisher, etc). Today the vehicle is painted in period correct Team Bonnier livery using the Lola colour code.

The Cosworth DFV engine was fully prepared by Geoff Richardson to sports car specifications and is fresh apart from a recent 15 lap shake-down in Spa. Already at the few installation laps which have been used for setting up the car, HU1 showed its full potential and was capable of lap times good enough for a potential front row position in that years CER race! Read the rest of this entry »