Lola T280

[Michael Oliver]

Hi Alain

I have found several new photos of the Takahara car and two more of the Gaspar car, also spoken to Jeremy Lord re his car that he raced in 1974 in the UK. He sold this in mid- to late-1976 to a guy who raced in the Interserie. This may or may not be Jorg Zaborowski, who appeared in the Mainz-Finthen round of the Interserie in October 1976 and, IIRC, finished 10th.

I have been discussing this with Jeremy Jackson and we have a feeling that this car was HU03, which appears to have returned to Ecurie Bonnier (who were European Lola agents at the time) from Gaspar (either directly or via Takahara for 3 races in Japan - not sure at present) for the 1973 season.

We think that Rouveyran bought HU01, also from Ecurie Bonnier (e.g. the de Fierlandt/Larousse 72 Le Mans car) early in 1973 but are not sure exactly where it went from there. Rouveyran died in July 1973 and the next time a T280 turns up in international competition (apart from the Lord car) was 06/04/75 Dijon 1000kms and this was the car of Michel Degoumois/Jean Belin. As we know Lord still owned his car, this suggests it must have been HU01, unless there was an HU04... In the Autosport report of the race, it was described as 'tatty' which might be a good description of a car which had been in storage for 18 months to two years!

Do you have any way of contacting Rouveyran's family? The only people of that name I can find run Rouveyran's Tyres which sounds right as I know that Daniel R. was a garage proprietor. It would be really interesting to know what happened to the Lola after he died. Maybe Francois Migault might know, as he appears to have known Rouveyran, as he drove his March 721G in late 72 and then co-drove with him at Dijon in 73. Does anybody know how to contact him?

Any comments?

Cheers

Michael