HAPPY DAYS WITH ERIC AND CO

APPY DAYS WITH ERIC AND CO BOB MARSTON LOVED HIS TIME AT LOLA, EVEN THE SCARY BITS

CON AFTER SITTING DOWN to chat with Bob Marston, conversation turned to what it was like to work at Lola in new chief of Lola

its heyday. The new chief of Lola Heritage carved a career in motor racing and the aerospace industry, taking in Marcos, Cooper, Team Surtees, Lola of course, Royale and British Aerospace.

“Thinking back now Lola really was a great place to work,” says Bob. “Eric (Broadley) was terrific and in the 13 years we worked together we never had a cross word. The only time he got cross was the day after Jo Bonnier was killed (aboard a Lola-Cosworth T280 at Le Mans in 1972). It was understandable really. “Eric was the clever guy as far as I was concerned, he was the lateral thinker. He

would always come up with the concept of whatever it was we were going to build. He’d go off, work at home and come back with a quarter-scale clay model of the shape. I would then take that and produce all the body sections. We used to do everything by hand with full-scale drawings and I didn’t actually see a computer until I went to work at British Aerospace!

“Some of the best times were when we went testing. Once we were at Elkhart Lake in the US with the first Can-Am car I did, the 220. Peter Revson was having problems gaffing it into top (gear) so he said, ‘look, why don’t you jump in and I’ll show you’.

“We threw some overalls in and I sat on them on the chassis. There were no seat belts but I clambered in and he just took off round the old circuit. Down the straights he was saying, ‘look, look, it won’t go into top’. We were doing about 150mph or something and I couldn’t even open my eyes. I was hiding as low as possible. I just said ‘yeah, yeah I see’. I never did look!” Somehow I find it hard to imagine an Aston Martin mechanic jumping into the now-sidelined AMR-One to check whether Darren Turners claims of a faulty gearbox were true… (I)