And now the Rebellion R-One is here, and the Lolas of the swiss team are finally retired. All of this ispart of a change for the best, but Lola enthusiats will miss this model that had long time of track action. So, where I want to get in with it? You will see in the next lines.
Nowadays Lola was part of the group of companies that builds Le Mans Prototype chassis to customer teams, alongside with Onroak Automotive(branded as Morgan and Ligier), the previously mentioned Oreca, Zytek, HPD, Dome and ADESS AG(branded as Lotus), and they play an important part into endurance racing.
Without these customer racing programs, grids would be very small by the fact that not all teams can build their own LMPs from scratch and they always go after the cheapest solution with more benefits. Generally, the program would start with a home team, and if the program generates good results, they start to sell the chassis to other teams, and with a wide range of configurations that can be applied.
In the 90s, customer racing programs of the Group C era had Porsche, with their 962s as the main builder, with Spice and Courage Competition right behind. Some small programs appeared too, as the example of Lola, Dallara(branded as Lancia), Tiga and Debora. With new rules on effect, the Group C cars were gone, and Porsche focused on GT cars, Courage continued offering a customer program, but other ones made strong entries in the market, such as Riley & Scott.
The late 90s saw some customer teams running in significantly highlighted marquees, although they're a year past-spec, like BMW with its V12 LM. After that customer teams started using same factory spec chassis, as the example of Panoz, Cadillac and Audi. In the builders-only camp, that was the time when Reynard ceased its operations, and its 02S model had been acquired by DBA, Zytek and Creation, that made their own variations of the model, being popular with the last two ones.
2007 saw a major overhaul in LMP specs, so, to adapt to this new era, much of the companies simply updated their models to actual configuration, as well expanding their programs to the two LMP classes, LMP1 and LMP2. Lola, Zytek and Pescarolo were initial examples of this act, followed by Courage and Honda, but releasing new cars too. Later this time, Radical Cars and Porsche entered with LMP2 programs later, as the Porsche RS Spyder became famous to be on par with dominant LMP1 Audis in ALMS. Audi had a last customer program with Kolles, as they used the outdated Audi R10s in 2009 and 2010.
In the same time we saw Oreca become a LMP chassis builder after so many years being a team, and they estabilished themselves as one of the strongest builders today by not only bringing LMP1s or LMP2, but as well creating a spec-chassis, the Oreca FLM09, that became what we know today as the LMPC class, used only in regional series. By the way, Oreca guys have a liking for partnerships, first with Courage, and after with Peugeot, Toyota and Rebellion Racing. The last two ones are still active, with Rebellion being the latest link.
In the '10s decade, Porsche left its LMP2 program, giving total attention to GTs. Dome left the LMPs in 2008, but came back in 2012. Pescarolo had financial problems to deal with, and finally sold the rights of its 01 Evo model to OAK Racing, that had LMP1 cars initially, but remained only with LMP2 model, rebranded as Morgan. Oreca and Zytek followed the same steps, expanding their LMP1 and LMP2 programs but later remaining only with the LMP2s. All of these changes were motivated by the LMP2 cost cap, that heated the market to the lowest LMP category, making it popular with the lower LMP class teams.
Only Lola and HPD in fact had LMP1 and LMP2 chassis active, with HPD abandoning its LMP1 model in the end of 2013 following the end of the class in ALMS and Strakka Racing's priority to its new partnership with Dome. Lola ceased its operations due to financial problems, but there is a remaining Lola, rebranded as Mazda SDR-14 running with Speedsource in United Sportscar Championship. The LMP1 Rebellion Lola, well... Their destiny was told on the start of the post.
At the moment, HPD, Onroak and Oreca are building new LMP2 chassis to hit the road this year or in 2015, and Onroak and Oreca have model projects for the new LMP3 category, that will replace the LMPCs. Tiga and Pilbeam had plans too, but nothing new was seen since their announcements, as well the ADESS own project, and even SMP Racing announced that can run its own LMP replacing the Oreca 03s that are being used. If half of what's expected see the daylight, it would be good to the racing fans, as variety is always a good point in motorsport.
Photos: FIA WEC, GroupCRacing.com, motorsport.com, Wikipedia, Flickr, 24 Hours of Le Mans
Nowadays Lola was part of the group of companies that builds Le Mans Prototype chassis to customer teams, alongside with Onroak Automotive(branded as Morgan and Ligier), the previously mentioned Oreca, Zytek, HPD, Dome and ADESS AG(branded as Lotus), and they play an important part into endurance racing.
Without these customer racing programs, grids would be very small by the fact that not all teams can build their own LMPs from scratch and they always go after the cheapest solution with more benefits. Generally, the program would start with a home team, and if the program generates good results, they start to sell the chassis to other teams, and with a wide range of configurations that can be applied.
In the 90s, customer racing programs of the Group C era had Porsche, with their 962s as the main builder, with Spice and Courage Competition right behind. Some small programs appeared too, as the example of Lola, Dallara(branded as Lancia), Tiga and Debora. With new rules on effect, the Group C cars were gone, and Porsche focused on GT cars, Courage continued offering a customer program, but other ones made strong entries in the market, such as Riley & Scott.
The late 90s saw some customer teams running in significantly highlighted marquees, although they're a year past-spec, like BMW with its V12 LM. After that customer teams started using same factory spec chassis, as the example of Panoz, Cadillac and Audi. In the builders-only camp, that was the time when Reynard ceased its operations, and its 02S model had been acquired by DBA, Zytek and Creation, that made their own variations of the model, being popular with the last two ones.
2007 saw a major overhaul in LMP specs, so, to adapt to this new era, much of the companies simply updated their models to actual configuration, as well expanding their programs to the two LMP classes, LMP1 and LMP2. Lola, Zytek and Pescarolo were initial examples of this act, followed by Courage and Honda, but releasing new cars too. Later this time, Radical Cars and Porsche entered with LMP2 programs later, as the Porsche RS Spyder became famous to be on par with dominant LMP1 Audis in ALMS. Audi had a last customer program with Kolles, as they used the outdated Audi R10s in 2009 and 2010.
In the same time we saw Oreca become a LMP chassis builder after so many years being a team, and they estabilished themselves as one of the strongest builders today by not only bringing LMP1s or LMP2, but as well creating a spec-chassis, the Oreca FLM09, that became what we know today as the LMPC class, used only in regional series. By the way, Oreca guys have a liking for partnerships, first with Courage, and after with Peugeot, Toyota and Rebellion Racing. The last two ones are still active, with Rebellion being the latest link.
In the '10s decade, Porsche left its LMP2 program, giving total attention to GTs. Dome left the LMPs in 2008, but came back in 2012. Pescarolo had financial problems to deal with, and finally sold the rights of its 01 Evo model to OAK Racing, that had LMP1 cars initially, but remained only with LMP2 model, rebranded as Morgan. Oreca and Zytek followed the same steps, expanding their LMP1 and LMP2 programs but later remaining only with the LMP2s. All of these changes were motivated by the LMP2 cost cap, that heated the market to the lowest LMP category, making it popular with the lower LMP class teams.
Only Lola and HPD in fact had LMP1 and LMP2 chassis active, with HPD abandoning its LMP1 model in the end of 2013 following the end of the class in ALMS and Strakka Racing's priority to its new partnership with Dome. Lola ceased its operations due to financial problems, but there is a remaining Lola, rebranded as Mazda SDR-14 running with Speedsource in United Sportscar Championship. The LMP1 Rebellion Lola, well... Their destiny was told on the start of the post.
At the moment, HPD, Onroak and Oreca are building new LMP2 chassis to hit the road this year or in 2015, and Onroak and Oreca have model projects for the new LMP3 category, that will replace the LMPCs. Tiga and Pilbeam had plans too, but nothing new was seen since their announcements, as well the ADESS own project, and even SMP Racing announced that can run its own LMP replacing the Oreca 03s that are being used. If half of what's expected see the daylight, it would be good to the racing fans, as variety is always a good point in motorsport.
Photos: FIA WEC, GroupCRacing.com, motorsport.com, Wikipedia, Flickr, 24 Hours of Le Mans
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