By Norm DeWitt
In 1965, a new Indianapolis car took form in England. Jim Clark won  the 500 with the Lotus after two years of coming close. 
Based around the same Ford powerplant, the Lola T-80 was Lola’s first attempt at an Indy racer. Al Unser finished ninth with the car. Meanwhile, the Lola T-90 was being developed for Ferrari’s 1964 World Champion John Surtees to drive in 1966. Fate dealt a blow to those plans.
The legendary Lola T-70 sports car was also emerging onto the scene, but a suspension failure at Mosport in September 1965 left Surtees grievously injured, ending his 1966 Indy campaign before it began. As things turned out, Jackie Stewart led much of the 1966 Indy 500 in the T-90, before engine problems let teammate Graham Hill through to win. The next season brought the T-92, essentially unchanged from the 1966 winner.
“I had run the Foyt Lola in 1965, and in 1967 I drove the Lola,” Unser said. “It was in my younger days, I didn’t know much about what was going on, but I thought it (the T-92) was a great car, a real balanced car.” 
At Riverside in 1967’s season finale, Unser and Surtees were teammates in the Lola T-92, with Surtees qualifying fourth for his only Indy car start. However, there was another T-90-based Lola that Surtees had raced for the last two months, and that car was successful beyond all expectations.
“I only drove the Indianapolis car in one race, but I was supposed to drive it many other times,” Surtees said. “After I was injured, Graham Hill ended up winning the Indy 500 in what was to have been my car.” 
The 1966 Lola T-90 brought Indy glory to Lola. However, Surtees benefited in a most unexpected way. “It worked out because that Indy Lola was the chassis that formed the basis of the car I won the Italian Grand Prix with,” Surtees said.
The “Hondola” T-130 Lola (or Honda RA300) GP racer was an interim car that was born from the frustration of racing the overweight and unwieldy 66-67 Honda RA273 V-12 racer. 
The air-cooled V-8 car defined the term “problematic” and was still a year away from its disastrous debut in France. Something had to be done, so Surtees had Lola build a new GP car out of a T-90 chassis, grafting on the powerful V-12 Honda in a collaborative effort by the two manufacturers. 
Making its debut in the 1967 Italian Grand Prix, the race came down to a fight between Jack Brabham and Surtees. Brabham led through the Parabolica, but Surtees beat him to the finish, putting the T-90 Lola in the record books as the chassis design that won both the Indy 500 and a Grand Prix, a feat unlikely to be repeated.
Surtees’ T-130/RA300 Italian GP winner has a prominent place within Honda’s Motegi museum, and his Riverside T-92 racer currently graces the lobby of Lola Cars.