The regulatory restructuring that reshaped sports car racing for 1972 created distinct opportunities at two displacement levels. While Lola's three-litre T280 targeted the World Makes Championship against works factory opposition, the T290 was aimed at a separate European two-litre class populated largely by private entrants. Eric Broadley recognised that this market would demand a straightforward, accessible car, and designed both models around a shared philosophy: an aluminium alloy monocoque chassis with profiled fibreglass bodywork, developed by Marston as chief designer with input from Head and Barnard — both then young engineers who would later build distinguished careers elsewhere.
The T290 used the same fundamental aluminium monocoque construction as the T280, sharing a similar overall architecture but with a rear subframe added to carry the suspension, compensating for the lower structural rigidity of the smaller four-cylinder engines generally used in the two-litre class. Unlike the T280, the T290 retained outboard rear brake discs mounted at the wheel hubs rather than at the differential. Suspension at both ends used deformable wishbones, with upper longitudinal arms at the rear. The car could accommodate several different four-cylinder engine options, most commonly the Ford Cosworth BDG and related derivatives.
The T292 arrived for the following season as an upgraded version of the original T290. The aluminium monocoque frame was carried over largely unchanged. The most meaningful mechanical revision moved the rear brake discs from the wheel hubs to the differential output, reducing unsprung weight and improving handling. Aerodynamically, the nose was lengthened and a fixed rear wing added. One T292 was built with a three-litre Ford Cosworth DFV V8, producing approximately 445 horsepower, but the series remained primarily a two-litre endeavour. The T292 sold almost thirty examples, representing a meaningful commercial success for a specialised racing car of its era. Many existing T290 chassis were retrospectively fitted with T292 bodywork.
For 1974, a T294 variant was introduced equipped with a BMW M12 engine. Despite the upgrade, the T294 could not match the pace of the Renault-powered Alpine A441, which dominated the European two-litre class in 1974. When the series was cancelled after that season, Lola suspended T290-family production. The programme resumed in 1976, continuing through subsequent model designations: the T297 appeared in 1978, the T298 ran from 1978 to 1980, and the T299 competed in 1981.
The T290 family achieved its most prominent individual success in 1973, when driver Chris Craft won the European title in the two-litre sports car category driving a T292 equipped with a 275-horsepower Cosworth BDG engine. The large total production of T290-series cars meant that examples competed across an unusually diverse range of events and national championships throughout the 1970s, from the main European two-litre series to smaller domestic competitions where the car's relatively accessible price and straightforward design made it an attractive choice for private teams.
The longevity of the T290 programme — spanning nine years of active model development between 1972 and 1981 — reflects both the durability of the original design concept and the consistent demand from the customer market that Broadley had identified when commissioning the project.