(Photos at bottom of the post)
1978 LOLA T492
Chassis # HU36
Engine #: Titan 78083
Hewland #: H9-892
Price: $42,000
This car is part of Carl Haas’s initial order for Sports 2000 cars ever imported into the USA in 1978. In ’78 Haas ordered 4 units of the T492, this car was sold to Mr. Bollinger and had the desirable Titan engine, the car was first raced in May of 1979. The car has its original log book and has full documentation on the ownership history. When I bought the car in 2010 it had been sitting since 1993, as we all know, unlike wine, race cars do not get better with age. I undertook a 2-year complete and total restoration of the car where we fully dissembled the car, the engine, the gearbox and the tub. I took my knowledge accumulated over 30 years of restoring race cars to make this one perfect. I spared no expense and have had a wonderful time racing the car. Unfortunately, my daughter is going off to college and in the future, I will need to funds to cover the cost of her schooling.
The T492 is an elegant and beautiful car, I have been racing it in major vintage races like The Hawk and Daytona Classic 24 as well as running with the very active VS2NA group on the east coast. This is a great group of guys that always have a deep field of cars. My car has been fast and competitive even with the new cars. The 492 handles well but also has a much smaller frontal area than modern cars so I was very quick at tracks like Elkhart, The Glen and VIR. During my 8 years of ownership, I have continued to upgrade and develop the car to be as beautiful and competitive as possible.
The car is absolutely race ready, we could put gas in the car, bleed the brakes and race tomorrow. The annual tech is done, the belts are new OMP Hans style, fire system is up to date, the battery is charged, and ready to go. It would be impossible to find a finer more sorted concourse race car on the market today.
Rebuild work
Tub
New plating on all steel parts on the tub
New roll over bar with new cross brace for seat belt mounts
New forward-facing roll bar stays
New outer tub skins
New purple rivets from the UK
Rear sub-frame was media blasted, repaired and powder coated in the original Lola gray New skid plates
New front lower a-arm dust boot system
All bulkheads have new nickel plating
Addition of rearward facing roll bar stays to strengthen the chassis
Paint
I made a new nose and tail for the car as the original body work was too bad and heavy to restore
Body work was done by Motorsports composites based on molds that I purchased (they do not go with the car)
The paint was done by State of Mind customs in Michigan. This is a high-quality concourse type paint job. The work and finish are outstanding and very durable. The fit on the bodywork is virtually perfect.
Engine
Engine has 2 race weekends since a full rebuild by Steve Knapp at Elite engines. In the initial rebuild we used all the best parts including the new rods and new forged pistons. Anyone who raced with me will assure you that the engine is very strong. In a draft at Daytona our top speed was 157mph!
Light flywheel
New single plate clutch (2 races)
Dry sump tank converted to AN fittings
New Mocal oil cooler
New Stainless-Steel exhaust header with fitment for a supertrap muffler is necessary
Brakes
Major upgrade to the front brakes based on development from the Kohler guys
New Willwood 4 puck calipers
New hawk brake pads
New vented floating rotors with alloy hats
Media blast calipers
Gold irradiate coating
New caliper hardware
New brake piston seals
New bleed nipples
New brake pad cotter pins
2 new brake master cylinders
New clutch master cylinder
New clutch slave cylinder
Powder coated hard brake lines
RaceParts brake bias adjuster
All new Aeroquip fittings
New crush washers
New banjo bolts
New Aeroquip flexible lines
Suspension
All suspension disassembled
Stripped
New polished nickel plating
All new rod Aurora rod ends
All new AN jam nut
4 new radius rods
New spherical bearings in upper and lower a-arms
Uprights
Disassembled and crack checked rear uprights
New di-chromate coating
New wheel bearings
Rear hubs have new Kephos coating on hub and CV mount
New inner hubs on rear uprights, 4 new CV joints
Front uprights
Disassembled
Blasted and Kephos coated
New brake rotors
New front hub hardware
New inner and outer bearings
Gearbox
Fully disassembled
Main case media blasted
Rebuild by gearbox boffin Averill Racing Stuff
6 worn studs replaced
New REM polished 10:31 ring and pinion
New pinion bearing
Reverse lock out was rebuilt
New shift fork for 1st / 2nd and 3rd /4th
Shift forks reset
Shift detents reset and new springs installed
New reverse idler gear
New stub axel AN hardware
New CV boots
New input shaft seal
Reinforced clutch lever arm
All new hardware
New clutch throw out actuating shaft bushing
New throw out bearing
Car has 4 gears in it and comes with 8 additional gear sets
Water system
New alloy radiators
New water pipes
All new blue Samco hoses
Dash board systems
All new dashboard
New RaceTech gauges
New RaceTech electrical tach
Momo steering wheel with RaceTech splined quick release hub
Oil system
New 19 row Mocal BSP oil filter
Electrical
New rear brake lights and rain lights – original Lucas OE units
New lighting rubber mounting system
New professional wiring loom by RGE (Ray Grienkie). This wizard is the engineer who created the wiring systems for Champion Audi as they ran the R8s in IMSA.
Car is also wired for optional headlights for endurance racing
All switches are the highest quality aircraft type with top quality “Terminal Supply” ends on each wire
Fuel System
Rebuilt fuel cell by Fuel Safe
New access plate
New fuel cell foam
New fuel lines
New fuel test port
New fuel pump
New fuel filter
All new fittings
Spares
Original radiators
Rear A-arm
Radius rods
2 additional sets for Revolution wheels (3 total sets)
24 spare lug nuts
Rain tires
Engine spares – Head, intake, carb, cap, rotors, belts
Brake pads Headlights for endures
Rear hub
3 brake rotors
Notebook with all vehicle info and set up docs
Original factory diagrams (chassis, suspension, water, oil, electric)
Original log books
Gearing for most race tracks (Midwest and east)
Hewland gearbox manual