Lola T90/00 (IndyCar)
The Lola T90/00 owned the 1990 CART season: 12 wins from the year including Arie Luyendyk's record-speed Indianapolis 500, and Al Unser Jr's first championship — the high-water mark of Lola's American open-wheel empire.
History
By 1990 Lola had displaced March as CART's dominant customer constructor, and the T90/00 was the dynasty's peak expression: a honeycomb-composite monocoque with carbon upper structure, double-wishbone pushrod suspension, and configuration flexibility — high-downforce kit for streets and road courses, low-drag superspeedway trim with revised geometry — that let one chassis fight everywhere from Long Beach to Indianapolis.
Most front-line teams ran it with the Ilmor-Chevrolet 265-A turbo V8 (735–800 hp): Galles-Kraco carried Al Unser Jr to his first CART title with six wins, Doug Shierson Racing's Luyendyk won the Indianapolis 500 at a 185.981 mph average that stood as the race record for over two decades, and customer T90/00s filled grids deep into the midfield — 12 wins from the 16-race season.
Surviving chassis are now premier vintage-Indycar property: documented by Lola Heritage's records, campaigned in historic CART/Indy demonstrations and US vintage open-wheel events, with Indy-connected cars (the Shierson winner is museum property) at the collector summit and 'ordinary' race chassis offering genuine 800 hp ground-effect-era IndyCar ownership at a fraction of F1-equivalent money.
Palmarès
1990 CART champion (Al Unser Jr, Galles-Kraco, six wins); Indianapolis 500 winner 1990 (Luyendyk, Shierson) at a record 185.981 mph average; 12 CART race wins from the 1990 season across works-supported and customer teams; continued customer wins into 1991 as updated T91/00s took over the front.
What to check before you buy
Lola Heritage's type records authenticate chassis numbers and histories — start there, because period teams swapped tubs and identities across seasons. Verify which engine the car carries now: period Ilmor-Chevys are lease-legacy rarities, and most vintage runners use Cosworth DFS or later rebuilds — legitimate, but priced differently from an original-spec package. Check honeycomb tub condition (delamination and crash repairs need specialist inspection), turbo-era fuel-system health for methanol use, and running-support realities: a T90/00 needs Indy-literate crew, and cars sold with spares and data from the US vintage scene are worth their premium.
Did you know
- Luyendyk's 185.981 mph average at Indy 1990 stood as the 500's race record until 2013 — set in a customer chassis anyone could buy.
- The T90/00's superspeedway kit changed suspension geometry to lengthen the effective wheelbase — one tub, two aerodynamic personalities.
- 1990 was the summit of Lola's customer model in America: within six years Reynard's arrival and works politics ended the Huntingdon marque's CART dominance.
In the marketplace now
View all →No exact Lola T90/00 (IndyCar) listed right now — here is closely related machinery on the market.
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