Good grief! This is a V8-engined, 200mph Can-Am car for the road

Well, here’s something we didn’t expect to see today. Lola has announced a continuation project that’ll see it build 16 completely new examples of the iconic T70 sports prototype from the late 1960s. And here’s the best bit… there will be a version that’s completely road legal.

Yep, the ‘new’ car is called the T70S (or the T70S GT if you opt for the road-going spec) and we’re told that it’ll be “identical to the original fire-spitting, Steve McQueen-Era, V8 monster, but refined with advanced manufacturing processes, sustainable materials and an unparalleled attention to detail.”

This is very exciting indeed. Lola has used archive drawings and scans of a Mk3B to recreate the final iteration of T70 (nerd alert: hence the lower nose and double-stacked headlights), although this new version will get completely natural bodywork. Seriously, the patent-pending Lola Natural Composite System (LNCS) replaces the old fibreglass panels, with plant fibres, basalt fibres from volcanic rock and a plant-based resin that is synthesised entirely from sugar cane processing waste. Next time you see someone licking a Lola, you’ll know why.

Fancy some stats? We’ll kick off with the road legal GT. That car – which you can see in silver up above – gets a 6.2-litre Chevrolet V8 making 500bhp and 455lb ft of torque. All that power is sent through a Hewland six-speed manual gearbox, and it weighs just 890kg dry. Top speed is 200mph, and one Johnny Herbert is the car’s official test driver.

“The T70S GT was never meant to dilute the race car. If anything, it reveals just how close the two truly are,” says Lola. “This is a Lola made usable, not softened. The architecture, the
seating position, and the uncompromising relationship between driver and machine remain fundamentally intact.”

On the inside, the road car does get a little bit of extra Alcantara stuck onto the otherwise exposed aluminium monocoque. It also gets storage space for headsets, a “modest” amount of luggage space and air conditioning. Luxury.

The race-spec T70S (the blue car in the gallery above) will come with an FIA Historic Technical Passport and uses a period-correct small block 5.0-litre Chevrolet V8 that sends 530bhp and 425lb ft of torque through a five-speed Hewland LG600 gearbox. Apparently 0-62mph takes just 2.5 seconds if you can shift quickly enough (vs 2.9 seconds for the GT), and it’ll top out at 203mph. Without an engine cover and some of the creature comforts of the road car, this one tips the scales at just 860kg.

“The bodywork panels are the only parts of the car that do not use the same material as the 1969 original,” reads the official bumf, so you’ll genuinely be able to pretend that you’re John Surtees, Mark Donohue, Denny Hulme, Richard Attwood, Dan Gurney, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Al Unser or Parnelli Jones. Take your pick from the in-period greats that raced a T70. Back in 1966 Surtees won five out of seven races to take the inaugural Can-Am title in a Mk2, while in 1969 Lola secured a one-two finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona, beating five factory Porsche 908s and a couple of Ford GT40s with the Mk3B.

Of course, Lola Cars did build a very small number of continuation T70s back in the 2000s before going out of business in 2012, but the rights are now owned by Brit racer Till Bechtolsheimer. He purchased all of the bits in 2022 and subsequently teamed up with Yamaha for a Formula E entry in 2025. Thankfully, this latest project should be a whole lot louder…