{"id":537837,"date":"2026-07-07T17:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537837\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:50:15","slug":"this-race-car-is-made-from-plant-fibers-volcanoes-and-seawater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/537837\/","title":{"rendered":"This race car is made from plant fibers, volcanoes, … and seawater?"},"content":{"rendered":"

That process also avoids the use of shielding gases in smelting, and Faulks says that for casting, Lola uses a shielding gas that isn\u2019t environmentally damaging.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the bodywork; in the 1960s, Lola used fiberglass, as carbon fiber hadn\u2019t yet caught on. Now, it\u2019s using a new composite it developed itself. \u201cIt\u2019s a combined fiber system with basalt outer layers, flax inner layers, which is acting kind of like an Aramid, and then a PFA resin system that\u2019s derived from sugarcane. So rather than just being a material, it is a system that you can go make parts with, and we\u2019re running this on cars now,\u201d Faulks said.<\/p>\n


\n \"Lola
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

The T70S\u2019s cockpit is snug.<\/p>\n

\n Lola Cars\n <\/p>\n

\n The T70S\u2019s cockpit is snug.<\/p>\n

Lola Cars<\/p>\n


\n \"Lola
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Velocity stacks!<\/p>\n

\n Lola Cars\n <\/p>\n

\n Velocity stacks!<\/p>\n

Lola Cars<\/p>\n

\n The T70S\u2019s cockpit is snug.<\/p>\n

Lola Cars<\/p>\n

\n Velocity stacks!<\/p>\n

Lola Cars<\/p>\n

Other natural fibers have been incorporated into race car bodywork before. In 2008<\/a>, the Eco Racing team used hemp fibers in its diesel-powered sports prototype, and more recently, a Swiss company developed Bcomp, which is heavier than conventional carbon fiber but with a fraction of the carbon footprint. Lola\u2019s natural composite system isn\u2019t intended for structural use, unlike Bcomp, but it outperforms fiberglass in tensile strength and stiffness. In addition to body panels, Lola will use it for interior trim and seat backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe really fascinating thing is that we\u2019re taking body work off this now and we\u2019re building cars with it, and the quality of the body work in terms of finish, stability out of the tooling, et cetera, is so far beyond an original GRP. We have an original Lola T70 at Lola that we can compare the two of them, park them side by side, and panel gaps and stability of panel and everything is so, so much better [on the T70S],\u201d Faulks said.<\/p>\n

4,643 kg CO2e<\/p>\n

According to Lola\u2019s lifecycle analysis report<\/a> on the T70S, its efforts have reduced the car\u2019s carbon footprint by 54 percent compared to one manufactured with traditional materials. In the end, the T70S\u2019s cradle-to-gate footprint is just 4.6 tons of CO2e.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That process also avoids the use of shielding gases in smelting, and Faulks says that for casting, Lola…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-537837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}