Lola Ultimo by Studio Michelotti
Car of the Day #240: 1981 Lola Ultimo by Studio Michelotti – Race Face
I've written about the Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti before, and I enjoy revisiting his work. Michelotti never stopped doing what they loved to do, and the firm was always up for a challenge — two qualities I find admirable.
Consider the Meadows Friskysport, DAF Kini beach car for the Dutch royal family, the beautiful Matra Laser, and the Ferrari 365 GTC/4 beach car are all striking designs…so why isn’t Michelotti a car enthusiast household name?
michael banovsky
michael banovsky
Here’s a supercar, based on a Lola.
I haven't yet written here about UK racing and sports car car constructor Lola. Established in 1958, the company is a mere six years younger than Lotus Cars — but without much of the investor drama or whatever it is that Lotus has been busy with every decade or so.
UK is the nation of race car builders, and Lola has been there from pretty much the start, focused almost exclusively on making cars that win races. If you want to go racing even now, in many places where race cars are sold there will be a gently used (read: once-mangled) Lola chassis to fit any class you can afford to run in.
Lola’s marquee design, the Lola T70 was the car that helped to retire the increasingly uncompetitive Ford GT40, and was even put into service near the end of its life in Can-Am competition.
(Movie buffs will also know that the T70 was in two huge films: most of the cars wrecked in Le Mans were T70s dressed up to look like Porsches and Ferraris; and was also used in George Lucas' first feature film, THX 1138.)
By the late 1970s, turns out, both Lola and Michelotti found themselves with a bit of free time. While very busy in the 1960s, as mass production started to infiltrate automakers (who also increasingly brought car design in-house), coachbuilders such as Michelotti were left with fewer and fewer contracts.
Similarly Lola, who'd dominated the short-lived Formula 5000 and was subject to auto racing as a whole losing manufacturer support in the wake of the 1970s oil crisis. What to do?
Apparently commissioned by a wealthy Canadian client, the Ultimo is based on the Lola T70…racing car…albeit fitted with an 8.2-litre Chevrolet V8 engine. Sources peg its output at 625 horsepower, with a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint in about three seconds. Top speed was claimed to be 312 km/h (193 mph).
The bodywork was aluminum and steel, with the front and rear sections made with reinforced fiberglass.
