Broadley launched Lola with small front-engined sports cars before branching into Formula Junior and Formula 2. A pivotal early moment came when he designed the Ford V8-powered Lola Mk.6 coupe, which attracted the attention of Ford and contributed ideas that fed into the development of the Ford GT40. Broadley freed himself from that arrangement after a year and returned to building his own cars, going on to produce the highly successful Lola T70 sports-racing car, which competed in the World Championship for Makes and the Can-Am series through the early 1970s.
Lola resisted making a works Formula One entry for many years, preferring instead to supply chassis to independent teams. Its first F1 foray came in 1962, when it provided Lola Mk4 cars to Reg Parnell's Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team with John Surtees and Roy Salvadori as drivers. Surtees claimed pole position on the car's World Championship debut, though outright wins in Grands Prix eluded the team. Lola stepped back from F1 after two seasons.
In 1967 Lola assisted Honda and John Surtees in constructing a new F1 car. The resulting Honda RA300 — known internally at Lola as the T130 and dubbed the "Hondola" by the press — used a 1966 Lola Indianapolis monocoque as its basis and was sufficiently competitive to win the 1967 Italian Grand Prix.
Graham Hill's Embassy-backed team commissioned the Lola T370 for 1974, which formed the basis for the Hill GH1 developed in-house in 1975. That programme ended in tragedy when Hill and several team members were killed in an air crash in November 1975.
The Haas Lola F1 programme of 1985–86 was funded by Beatrice Foods and run by Teddy Mayer, with Alan Jones and Patrick Tambay as drivers. Though the car was designed primarily by Neil Oatley and bore little of Broadley's direct input, it carried the Lola name due to Haas's role as the company's US concessionaire. The project struggled with engine, sponsorship, and reliability problems and folded after 1986.
The Larrousse & Calmels outfit raced Lola-based machinery from 1987, initially with Cosworth power and later Lamborghini V12 engines, scoring useful results with Éric Bernard and Aguri Suzuki. A constructor-points controversy in 1990, where cars were entered as Larrousses but were technically Lolas, cost the team its entire Constructors' Championship tally.
Scuderia Italia turned to Lola for 1993 using the T93/30 with customer Ferrari engines. The pairing of Michele Alboreto and Luca Badoer struggled to qualify regularly; the team's best result was a seventh place by Badoer at the San Marino Grand Prix. Scuderia Italia withdrew before the final two rounds.
Lola's own works entry finally came in 1997, a year earlier than originally planned due to pressure from title sponsor MasterCard. The cars arrived in Australia without ever having been tested in a wind tunnel. They were dramatically off the pace — no quicker than Lola's own Formula 3000 machinery. MasterCard withdrew its backing after just one race, and the entire company subsequently entered receivership. It was rescued by Martin Birrane.
Graham Hill won the 1966 Indianapolis 500 in a Lola. Al Unser took the 1978 Indianapolis 500 in a modified Lola chassis. Lola committed fully to CART and IndyCar racing from 1983, with Mario Andretti driving for the new Newman/Haas Racing team. The marque triumphed at Indianapolis again in 1990 with Arie Luyendyk. A prolonged rivalry with Reynard saw Lola gradually lose ground in CART through the mid-to-late 1990s, though the marque remained the sole chassis supplier in Champ Car until the series adopted a spec Panoz chassis in 2007.
Lola also dominated the Can-Am series when it was revived in the late 1970s using Formula 5000 cars as a base, winning five consecutive championships.
After limited success in 1960s Formula One, Lola became BMW's works team in Formula Two. When Formula 3000 replaced F2 in 1985, Lola produced bespoke designs and enjoyed considerable success competing against Ralt and Reynard. In 1996 the International Formula 3000 Championship became a spec series using the Lola T96/50, a contract renewed in 1999 and 2002 before GP2 displaced it. Lola also won the contract for the A1 Grand Prix series in 2005, building 50 identical Zytek V8-powered cars for the national franchise teams.
On 16 May 2012 Lola entered financial administration and ceased trading on 5 October 2012 after no buyer could be found. Some assets were acquired by Multimatic Inc. and The Carl A. Haas Automotive Company. In June 2022 Till Bechtolsheimer purchased the brand, trademarks, intellectual property, and the Lola Technical Centre including its wind tunnel. In March 2024 Lola announced a return to single-seater racing in the Formula E World Championship as a powertrain supplier in partnership with Yamaha, entering as the Lola Yamaha Abt Formula E Team with Lucas di Grassi and Zane Maloney. The team claimed its first podium at the Miami ePrix in its debut season.