Everyone knows that great GT racer of the sixties, the Ford GT40. But does anyone remember the car that made it possible, the Lola Mk VI, or GT as it was more commonly named?

In the early years of that decade, makers of GT racers were slow to follow Formula 1 in designing mid-engined cars and Eric Broadley, founder of Lola Cars, decided to give it a try. The result was the Lola GT, the car that caught everyone by surprise in 1963. It was so good-looking and promised great performance too.

Lola entered it late for Le Mans that year and their rushed preparation meant that it failed to make the distance, although it was running amongst the leaders when it broke. The potential was obvious and we looked forward to the car challenging and perhaps beating the dominant Ferraris.

But it was not to be. Ford wanted to have a go at Le Mans and were working on a mid-engined design; but, when they saw the Lola, they dropped everything, bought the car and the services of its designer. Out of that deal came the Ford GT Mk I, a car that owed much to Broadley’s Lola GT. And the Mk I evolved into the GT40, of course.

So we never found out how good a racer the Lola would turn out to be. But it remains one of the prettiest cars ever to see the light of day!

Christie’s are going to be auctioning one of the only two 1939 Auto Union D-Types in the world. It is expected to fetch the highest ever price for a car of any sort.

The D-Type was Auto Union’s response to Hitler’s demand that German cars be unbeatable in racing. I’m sure we all have seen photographs of the rear-engined monster, a car so ferociously difficult to drive that only the truly talented (and brave), like Nuvolari and Caracciola, could drive it.

But what a gorgeous monster it is! As I mentioned in a previous post, its looks were to influence the design of the Audi TT Coupe, a distant inheritor of the Auto Union legacy. Like the Mercedes offering of the time, the D-Type met the challenge of racing with oodles of power but at least the Auto Union engineers made the fight against Alfa Romeo a little fairer by choosing a configuration for the time that made the car almost a death trap!

So, if you have a few million to spare, remember to put your bid in early.