# Lola THL2

The Lola THL2 was a Formula One racing car designed by Neil Oatley for FORCE and was used by Team Haas (USA) Ltd. during the 1986 Formula One season. Two of the FORCE aerodynamicists who worked on the car during its countless hours of Wind tunnel testing were a young Ross Brawn and Adrian Newey. The car debuted at the 1986 San Marino Grand Prix and was driven by 1980 World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones from Australia, and his new teammate Patrick Tambay of France.
Like its predecessor, the car was called a Lola but its only connection to the famous Lola Cars was because of car owner Carl Haas' close association with Lola founder Eric Broadley, who was also named as chief engineer for the team in 1985.

## Engine and handling

The car was an evolution of the Lola THL1 which used the Hart 415T Straight 4 turbo. When the THL2 made its Grand Prix debut at Imola, it was powered by the new Keith Duckworth designed, Cosworth GBA, a turbocharged, 120° V6 engine badged and marketed as a Ford-TEC; the turbo engine was rated at about 900 bhp (671 kW; 912 PS). Although it was an improvement in power over the unreliable 750 bhp (559 kW; 760 PS) Hart engine (which was punching above its weight just to be in Formula One), the rushed and limited development of the V6 engine meant that Ford unfortunately lagged behind other engines in F1 in 1986 such as the reported 1,300 bhp (969 kW; 1,318 PS) bhp that the Lotus Renault V6 turbo had and the 1,400 bhp (1,044 kW; 1,419 PS) of the turbocharged 4-cylinder BMW engine. Continued development and testing meant that the engine started to become more competitive for the following season in 1987, but by the time this engine had made its debut in 1986, it was only a year between when Duckworth and Geoff Goddard started designing the engine to its first race; this is a very short time for a Formula One racing engine to be produced. They were some 4 months behind after some initial tests to turbocharge Goddard's old 4-cylinder BDA engine used in sportscars and lower formulae proved to be a failure (Duckworth had wanted to use the 4-cylinder as he believed they were more economical and compact than a V6. Goddard as Cosworth's Chief Engine Designer was not totally on-board with that idea, but still let Duckworth pursue it); and it was only towards the end of 1984 where funding was agreed to design the whole new V6.
This led to a frustrating season for both Jones and Tambay as the THL2 was generally regarded to be one of the best handling car of the season. Jones and Tambay were reported to have continually asked Duckworth to build special qualifying engines with more power like Renault, BMW, Honda and Ferrari were doing in order to be able to qualify the car further up the grid, but the requests were turned down. Duckworth, Ford and Cosworth all believed that their proven reliability record would hold them in good stead against their sometimes fragile opposition.
During qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix at the fast Monza Circuit, Alan Jones claimed to have had a heated discussion with engine designer Keith Duckworth about the need for qualifying engines. Jones claimed he was able to point out the "block of flats" rear wings run by Benetton (BMW), Williams (Honda), Arrows (BMW) and Ferrari, yet the slowest of them, the Ferrari F1/86 of Michele Alboreto, was still around 20 km/h (12 mph) faster in a straight line than the Lola's which were running the bare minimum wing settings for speed on the straights while still having some grip in the turns. With the lack of straight line speed, the closest time either driver could post to Teo Fabi's pole winning BMW powered Benetton B186 was Tambay who was 3.73 seconds slower. So down on top end power were the Lola Fords that they were actually slower at the start/finish line speed trap than the similarly underpowered 4-cylinder Zakspeeds and the Osella's of Piercarlo Ghinzani and Allen Berg with their ancient and underpowered Alfa Romeo turbo V8 engine. Despite this, Duckworth, Ford and Cosworth still refused to budge on qualifying engines.

## Racing history

In his original Formula One career from 1975–1981, Jones had taken 12 wins and was also the 1980 World Drivers' Champion. He had originally retired at the end of the 1981 season, but found he could not get F1 out of his system and had been looking to make a comeback since 1983 (indeed, he had raced at Long Beach and the 1983 Race of Champions with Arrows, but the money required to make a full time come back never came through). He signed with the team in early 1985 and was with the team from their debut at the 1985 Italian Grand Prix. Tambay joined Haas after two seasons driving for the factory Renault team (1984 and 1985), that followed one and a half seasons with Ferrari before that. Tambay had 2 Grand Prix wins to his credit, both for Ferrari in 1982 and 1983.
Both drivers had previously raced for Carl Haas in the Canadian/American based Can-Am series. Tambay won the 1977 championship for Haas before returning to Europe, while Jones joined Hass in 1978 and won the championship that year.
Jones only scored 4 points during the season and retired from F1 for good at season's end. Tambay only scored two points with 5th place in Austria. Tambay also departed F1 at season's end, as did the Lola Haas team following the withdrawal of their major sponsor Beatrice Foods. The THL2s best qualifying position was 6th by Tambay at the Hungaroring for the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix where the tight nature of the circuit meant a good handling car was more important than outright power.

## Complete Formula One results

(key)
| Year | Entrant | Engine | Driver | Tyres | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WCC | Pts. |
| 1986 | Team Haas (USA) Ltd. | Ford TEC V6 tc | G | | BRA | ESP | SMR | MON | BEL | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | AUT | ITA | POR | MEX | AUS | 8th | 6 |
| 1986 | Team Haas (USA) Ltd. | Ford TEC V6 tc | G | Alan Jones | | | Ret | Ret | 11 | 10 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 9 | Ret | 4 | 6 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8th | 6 |
| 1986 | Team Haas (USA) Ltd. | Ford TEC V6 tc | G | Patrick Tambay | | | | Ret | Ret | DNS | | Ret | Ret | 8 | 7 | 5 | Ret | NC | Ret | NC | 8th | 6 |
| 1986 | Team Haas (USA) Ltd. | Ford TEC V6 tc | G | Eddie Cheever | | | | | | | Ret | | | | | | | | | | 8th | 6 |