1963–64 Lola-Chevrolet Mk 6 GT

This stunningly beautiful car represents the beginning of the modern GT and will be extremely competitive in high-level vintage racing

by Thor Thorson

his groundbreaking Anglo-American competition coupe, with its two sisters, marked one of the most significant landmarks in the entire history of world-class endurance racing. This rear-engined Lola GT is the second sister of the original Lola-Ford Mark 6 GT, which competed at Le Mans in 1963.

That car’s evident potential persuaded the Ford Motor Company’s management—recently rebuffed in its attempts to buy Ferrari—to take on Lola founder Derek Broadley’s design as the basis of its epochal Ford GT racing program.

While that legendary four-time Le Mans-winning Ford program is so familiar today, here we offer something of a maverick daughter of that project. For while the original Le Mans coupe and its other sister car were absorbed into the Ford GT development program, this particular example had already escaped, having been sold to oilman-cum-racing team owner John Mecom Jr.

This is a magnificent mid-engined monocoque coupe with a fascinating...