From: pete@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport
Subject: Re: Lola chassis ID's
Date: 20 Nov 92 13:19:56 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England

Anthony Doig (ajd@DIALix.oz.au) wrote:
: Hi,
: 
: How do Lola make up the model ID numbers for thier chassis ?  For example,
: what does "T91/01" mean (do they have the 'T' ? - I can't remember).
: 
: A wild guess - the '91' part is the year.
: 
: What does the rest mean ?  It seems like they use the same numbering system
: for all their chassis (Indy, F3000, etc).

I'll make this a bit more general, since the schemes for several
manufacturers might be of interest in this group:


LOLA
----

Lola have had at least four designation schemes, which makes it particularly
fun for history freaks.

The first one was a straight mark number -- this was phased out some time in
the sixties.

Then there was the straight Tnnn form of designation where nnn increased
with time, so most of the 60s/70s cars were numbered roughly consecutively.
Thus T70, T130, etc. were just arbitrary numbers.

Then they adopted a very complex system where the first digit was
formula, the second was the basic design and the third the revision,
increased by 2 for each version -- e.g. T640 was their fourth Formula Ford 
as I remember, and T642 was the first revision of it; T770 was an F2 or F3
(can't precisely remember) and T772 a revision. T900 was the last Indycar 
with that designation; T950 was an F3000 adaptation.

Finally Lola adopted the modern system of TYY/MN -- YY is year, M is the
formula, N is the revision -- so T92/00 is the Indycar, T92/50 the F3000,
etc. 


MARCH
-----

Very straightforward type numbering, of the form MMN, where MM was the year
and N was the formula. Letters used were 1,2,3 (obvious), 8 (FF), 7
(Can-Am), G (GpC), C (Indycar), etc. etc.


REYNARD
-------

Similar to March, MMN with MM the year and N the formula. 3 for F3, D for
F3000, H for Atlantic, F for FF, etc.

RALT
----

Quite complex. RT1 was the initial F3 and F2 design, RT2 an F2 car, RH6 the 
Ralt/Honda F2 car which went through several sub-designations.
RB20 was the first F3000 Ralt, the B standing for Bridgestone; subsequent
F3000 Ralts have used the RT2n designation -- we're currently at RT24.
RT3 was an F3 car, this later gave birth to RT30, which gave rise to the RT3n
series -- next season's car will be RT37.


LOTUS
-----

Type numbers increasing with time; roman up to X; Seven and Eleven
always spelled out, Arabic after the 12 -- see Crombac's book for most
of the types.  Occasionally different racing and production cars shared
type numbers -- the ``named'' production cars also have type numbers,
which are seldom used. The system re-unified recently; this explains some 
of the jumps in the sequence of F1 cars. (although some interesting holes
are explicable by things like the Indycar to have been run by Winkelmann in
the Eighties...)

Pete
--
*Peter Fenelon -- Research Associate -- Software Safety Assessment Procedures*
Dept. of Computer Science, University of York, York, Y01 5DD (+44/0)904 433388
EMAIL: pete@minster.york.ac.uk `There's no room for enigmas in built up areas'
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport