Lola T400

The Lola T400 was a Formula 5000 racing car, a completely new design that was strikingly different from the T300, T330 and T332 that came before it. Developed after the great success of the T332 in the 1974 season, it was described by development driver Frank Gardner as the most sophisticated Formula 5000 car built so far. Designer Eric Broadley adopted a rising rate suspension with rocker arms and inboard springs at the front and rear, and moved the radiators in front of the rear wheels as part of the mandatory deformable structure. The design baffled teams at first, and the top US teams went back to their T332s, but it later won races in Australia and the United Kingdom. Fourteen T400s were built.