History of a Lola T492 Sports 2000 chassis?

[S griffin]

Love the pictures. Really shows your journey through the years

[911thillclimber]

2025 is finally here, and some thought is needed to prepare the car for the first meeting in mid April.
Never leave things to the last minute, bound to trip up!

Seat belts.
One of my pet hates in competition for my class (and others) is the belts are dated, generally with 4 or 5 years 'life' before you HAVE to change them.

I have scrapped about 5 sets of belts at around £300 a set with this car, but if I have an old 1973 911 on the hills the original fixed lap belt is fine as long as it will pass the MoT.

So, suddenly in late December '24 my belts have become dangerous and have to be changed.
I've used them 180 times for around 40 seconds each time,

I've used them for 2 hours...

Anyway, have to comply or i do not race this year.

The old Sabelt set were very awkward to link together before the run. They are 6 point belts and were designed for single seat formula cars. The crutch straps were separate and had to be looped through the shoulder straps to the buckle.

Never got on well with them and once the belt came loose screaming up and around Prescott a few years ago at 80+ mph in a sweeping bend.
Exciting.

Time for a change to correct this and decided to go to TRS, a supplier I have used in the past.
I wanted to avoid the 'custom made' route and found their FIA approved Caterham 6 point very close a fit for the Lola.

The crutch straps are coupled to the belt release buckle, no loops, the 2 side lap straps click into the buckle as do the shoulder straps.

The straps are all 2" wide so fit the Hans helmet restraint arms a treat.

The lot should couple together quickly, adjust quickly and become comfortable quickly!
I contacted TRS and spoke to Patrick who was great.
He fully understood all the points i made and confirmed the sizes in general of the Caterham design, but wanted a sketch of my Sabelt harness 'as installed/adjusted in the car' just so the factory could be sure it would all work out.

I sent him my quick rough sketch now the Sabelt set was out of the car.

24 hours later he confirmed everything was good and I chose the usual blue colour and paid him £360 which inc VAT and postage an about 10 days delivery.

The belts would be labeled to be valid until the end of 2030; probably after I've retired from this game!

5 days later a rather light shoe box arrived and the belts inside.

I quickly adjusted the straps one by one to be the same as the Sabelt items and refitted the seat.

Got in with suitable clothing and the Hans on my kneck and all straps pulled up beautifully and released with such a nice smooth action.

Fabulous!

Nice to see that a UK company can give this level of service, accuratly and exceed my expectations.
Made in the UK too....

What's next?

An oil change.
Fresh slicks.
Down to McClurg Motorsport for a front end tweek (ride height) and a chassis look-over as the front tyres are 20 mm smaller in diameter than the now unavailable current tyres.
The current tyres are 4 years old and started to feel sketchy late last year.

[Mike Harte]

I'm pleased that you are happy with the new belts, Graham, and fully understand your's and others' irritation about belts, racing suits and helmets being lifed.

However, I sort of appreciate why the FIA and national bodies have gone down this route. Whilst your belts may have only been worn for around two hours over the last 5 years, other people may have been wearing theirs for the equivalent of days and may have been used in serious shunts. Same for Helmets, too but not to sure about racing suits.

So it would be impossible to determine who would need to change theirs; far easier to just demand that every competitor should change after 5 years regardless of wear and tear. Les Leston would have been rubbing his hands in glee back in the day if this had been implemented when I was racing.

[midgetman]

Suits are not lifed in the same way, Mike, the oldest can legitimately be 25 years old. Helmets expire when the international standard runs out, that could be 10 years.

Strangely there is a derogation for cars in the road going class that do not have to have FIA safety equipment, so my ZR has an old seat and MiniMM's expired belts! (Both of which seem much sturdier than than the standard Rover items)



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[911thillclimber]

This all puts pressure on those entering the sport.
The wider entry costs are now quite high even if starting in a standard car like an MX5, cheapest helmet, overalls and gloves.

The only bit of attire not yet dated are shoes.

I guess most sports seriously entered are expensive.

[MGDavid]

and we haven't touched on fire extinguisher systems yet ! I've become totally confused by the changing rules on pipe sizes, number and placement of nozzles, and whether pre-existing systems are still OK or does everything need ripping out and discarding?

[Gerard C]

Forgetting about fuel cells, seems that aluminium home made ones are no more accepted. And if you compare aviation and motorsport, the same FT3 or équivalent is not covered during the same time.

[Plantagenet]

Originally Posted by 911thillclimber

I guess most sports seriously entered are expensive.

I do think our sport is head and shoulders above nearly everything though, esp at an amateur level.
I started racing 2017. Have stopped this year. Everything has gone up significantly since I started - belts, suits, helmets, extinguisher. Entry fees....simply bonkers - £595 for silverstone national, arguably the poorest track in the UK!!!!! (HSCC finals 2024). I genuinely don't think it has been more expensive (in real terms) that at any point since WW2.

I do think MSUK need to think hard about this and understand that there is a world below professional motorsport. Could they have a more pragmatic approach to things like FIA standards for club level series. In fact, for a while, we did indeed allow a relaxed extinguisher criteria (vs FIA). We'll see...

[911thillclimber]

Yes, and some years ago head of MSUK, Derek Richards talked about 'grass roots' motorsport needing some easing on these things.

However, nothing except maybe some discounts at Halfords etc.

This year;
Licence: £150
Championship registration: £80
Seat belts: £360

Entries: £200 per weekend, that's 5 runs of around 45 seconds average, all of 3.3 minutes of track time.

We do 10 events, so £2000 entries.



You can't count 'misc' of fuels, food etc, but around £1000.
We do not stop over anywhere for the meetings.

But, of coarse, I don't HAVE to do this, so all I can say is it is pricey against time on track.

I'm 73 very soon, and recon the trailer faffing about will stop me, but will carry on as long as I can, 34 years so far.

As to fire ex systems, thankfully hillclimb cars do not need them but I have a hand held one to hand.

It will be very hard to put this car down.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by Plantagenet

I do think our sport is head and shoulders above nearly everything though, esp at an amateur level.

Same sad situation here. Not only entry fees went skyhigh together with racing licence but the time on track becomes ridiculously low, when a sprint used to last almost 45 minutes its now 25 if no RF happens and includes SC, SC's and FCY when the race director likes to have fun. Free practice becoming mandatory, of course the costs have exploded too.

[midgetman]

I scared the bejaysus out of a young driver's potential sponsor last week. Quoted 25k per year in junior karting.

Motor racing has always cost the same. Everything you have and just a little bit more.

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[911thillclimber]

It could certainly get out of hand.
My engine rebuild, all DIY cost £10K for 80 bhp more...
This car has cost a lot over the years, but the last 5 to 8 years have been low cost except the engine.
A pro build would have been around £22K 2 years ago.

If I wanted to try to go faster then a modern car would be needed (assuming I could drive it faster) so that would be around £30 to find on top of the possible £30K the car might be worth.

It would still mean i would/might be 1st in my Class's Championship, so in fact no gain at all.

I would rather have 10 European road trips instead!

Good bit is that we have great friendly weekends while competing and my wife gets a lot out of it too; she really likes motorsport (!).

Rising costs were discussed many times last year and will be so again and again.

I'm happy where the car is and our level of rewards for the efforts and the costs incurred, but they could be reduced in many ways.

That is not going to happen.

[911thillclimber]

Had a reply from MSUK safety dept.
I asked if the two or one lables being hard to read/hidden due to the seat etc could be a problem at scutineering.
Yes, the Scrute has the right to demand to see all lables so the seat would have to come out for that.

Not wanting to risk that 9a real pain) I will open out the side appertures of the seat sides to give some visibility.
Will have to add thickness to get a bit of strength back into the areas.

Job for next week.

Have started to re-floor the trailer. The centre cover boards have finally reached 'awful' so another awkward job to be done soon.
15 bolts all rusted solid....lovely.

Still, they have lasted 14 years outside uncovered, so pretty good I think.