Warwick Brown and the Wrightcars truck he used in New Zealand during his successful 1975 Tasman Cup campaign. He was the only Aussie to win the coveted series, shown here with Lola T332 Chev #HU27 at Pukekohe, where he won the NZ GP on January 12.
HU27 is the first T332 built, first racing in the opening Tasman round at Levin on January 6, 1974. Brown won the Adelaide 100 on February 24 and in so doing won the first of hundreds of in-period victories for the 332 and its many variants on every continent.
A very successful machine, Brown showed well in the US L&M F5000 championship in mid-1974 before coming home and proving the class of the AGP field before his Peter Molloy Chev broke a harmonic balancer. Then followed the Tasman in which he won two of the eight rounds in a very open year, five drivers won races.
This article is largely an assemblage of factory/Carl Haas T332 information accumulated by Australian racer/restorer Jay Bondini who owned, restored and raced two T332s: HU43 ex-Carl Hogan and HU37 ex-Sid Taylor.
The Lola T330/T332/T332C/T332CS/T333 as a series of ‘same chassis’ related models are right up there as a contender for the title of ‘greatest production racing car’ – where greatest is defined as the most wins relative to production numbers.
Others that spring to mind are the Bugatti T35/T37/T39 series, Ralt’s RT2/3/4/5, the McLaren M7/M10 series and McLaren M8/8A/12/8B/8C/8D/8E/8F and Ford GT40 Marks 1-4 and more. Oh yeah, not to forget Lola’s own T70 series…it would be an interesting list to create and debate. One for another time.
Only 10 carryover parts from other model Lolas. No surprises there albeit most of the T330/332s I recall seeing in paddocks were fitted with Koni double-adjustable alloy shocks not Armstrongs.
Jongbloed 15-inch rear wheels became the-go later in ’74 from memory. So too, did the Chaparral type all-enveloping engine cowl/airbox, that turned a stunning looking car into the positively sinful: the T332C followed.
$US3,650 for a new tub in 1974 is about $US26,000 today. I wonder how much a new monocoque actually costs now from Lola’s designated chassis maker (who owns those rights these days?) or your favourite fabricator?
Alan Jones in Teddy Yip’s T332C HU61 Chev at Riverside in 1976, the final year of the US F5000 Championship before changing to 5-litre central-seat Can-Am in 1977…and further Lola T332 domination.
Chaparral were the first to do the enveloping engine cover/airbox on a T332. Apart from the body changes, the oil tank was moved, the roll-bar mounting changed and a central post rear-wing adopted. The later 332s also had the FIA mandated roll-hoop over the dash which had the byproduct of providing a bit more chassis stiffness.
See the letter from Chaparral‘s Jim Hall to Eric Broadley via Carl Haas explaining improvements to their car raced so successfully by Brian Redman in 1974-75 that allowed Lola to ‘productionise’ them as the T332C for 1976. Fascinating detail stuff of all the one-percenters that made a topline well funded outfit like Chaparral so successful: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t332c/t332c.html
‘What are your three favourite racing cars Alan?’ I asked Jones at the Governor’s function before the 2023 AGP. ‘My F1 Williams FW07, the Lola T332, both the 5000 and Can-Am versions, and Alan Hamilton’s Porsche 935…’ was his response.
About says it all really, given his career spanned the mid-1960s well into the early-2000s and hundreds of different cars.
It’s not a factory drawing but is useful to show how wide and shallow the chassis of the T332 and T330 are. Note that, unlike the T300 chassis, the 330/332 used the engine as a semi-stressed member.
The flaw in the drawing – purportedly T332 – is that the rear suspension shows an inverted rear wishbone (T330) arrangement rather than the twin-parallel link set up used on T332s.
The combination of Lola Heritage’s website: T330 here: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t330/t330.html T332 here: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t332/t332.html and Allen Brown’s oldracingcars will keep you going for a while: the T330 is here: https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t330/ and T332 here: https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t332/
Credits…
Steve Elliot, Jay Bondini Archive, Dale Harvey, Chris Parker Archive, oldracingcars.com, Getty Images
Tailpiece…
Graeme Lawrence in the second T332 built, HU28, from Max Stewart in T400 Chev HU2 during the 1976 Peter Stuyvesant New Zealand F5000 Championship.
Just love Steve Elliott’s shot above – a corker! – but I have no idea of the circuit, help please Kiwis!?
Lawrence, the 1970 Tasman Cup winner aboard an ex-Amon Ferrari Dino 246T, fought out the 1975 Tasman with fellow T332 exponents Lawrence, John Walker (T330 HU23 Repco-Holden was rebuilt around a T332 tub) and Brown.
The battle went down to the wire at the final Sandown round where WB prevailed after Walker lived-to-fight-another-day with a monster first lap accident and Graeme had problems. John Goss won the race in his Matich A53 Repco-Holden.
Lawrence won the 1975 NZ Gold Star in this car and was always a front-runner in Australasian F5000. You can’t mention Kiwi Lola exponents without recognising Ken Smith, who won the Peter Stuyvesant Series, NZ GP at Pukekohe, and the NZ Gold Star in 1976. A big year! His mount was an ex-Chaparral/Brian Redman Lola T330/2 HU8. He may still be having the occasional Lola steer in his eighties!
Max Stewart was pretty-handy in Lolas too. In T330 HU1 he won the Australian Grand Prix at Oran Park and the Gold Star series in 1974, then took another AGP victory in the wet at Surfers Paradise the following year in the T400.
Afterthought…
The fact that the first and second T332s built were sold to colonials allowed me to make this piece Australasian centric, not that I need encouragement.
But how can you write something about Lola’s T330/332 without mentioning Brian Redman, King of F5000 in its latter era? Earlier Monarchs were, arguably, Peter Gethin and Graham McRae, the latter gets bonus points for doing much of his work aboard cars of his own manufacture.
It’s not that Brian was a Lola F5000 man early on either. He had success in McLaren’s M10 and M18s and did all the early development testing of the Chevron B24 in mid-1972 together with Derek Bennett.
But when he decided F1 wasn’t for him and made US F5000 his primary programme, his partnership with the factory-Carl Haas/Chaparral team yielded a trio of championships from their 1973-76 F5000 partnership – subsequent short Can-Am programme duly recognised. He raced Lola T330s in ’73 and T332s from ’74-76.
Redman didn’t give a yard away to any of the Formula One Johnnies he raced with in Scuderia Ferrari’s 1972-73 World Sportscar Championship campaign aboard 3-litre flat-12 312PBs: Ickx, Andretti, Peterson, Schenken, Pace, Reutemann etc. Surely Brian was the best driver outside F1 at the time? Bias duly declared…
Finito…
primotipo... 
I recall Brian Redman competing the F5000 series here in the early 70s, but driving a Chevron F2 car (2.0lt BDG Cosworth I guess). If there was ever a master-class in wringing the last bit out of a car against much more powerful machines, then this was it. I don’t think he won a race, but some seriously committed driving got him right up amongst the top guys. Full credit to a real racer!
As to Lola T300 series, I think at a time after they were defunct as the top class here, but became the thing for US CanAm, one Charlie Talbot bought up just about anything he could put his hands on, and assembled cars out of all sorts of loose ends to send to the US market. Most likely for relative peanuts at the time when compared to recent values, but probably seemed like all Christamases had come at once. I seem to recall he was repairing & even making tubs at home. He spent lots of time at PE’s welding & machining worn or broken bits. Was quite a capable hands-on type fellow & friendly as well….but always on a mission!
Vin,
Brian didn’t quite get to Australia but he did contest the NZ Internationals in a Chevron B29 BMW one year, ’76 from memory.I don’t think they wanted him in an F5000!
Chas Talbot certainly rebuilt a few Lolas, starting with his own car ‘in the day’. He bought a T332 from Jay Bondini a few years back so is still involved with them.
Mark
Mark,
So only the NZ leg series….the hype about Redman’s brilliant drives in that Chevron was so widely reported, I had totally forgotten that the traditional NZ/AUS series had split up and the whole troupe did not then come over this side of the ditch.
Glad to hear Chas Talbot is still around & involved. He must be getting up there in laps around the sun. At one stage he had a NZ-made Begg F5000, I think it was the car that was involved in the unfortunate Max Stewart incident, if memory serves me….
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