Lola Cars introduced the T70 in 1965 as the successor to its Mk6 design. The car was built around an aluminium monocoque chassis and was typically powered by large American V8 engines, making it well suited to the high-speed, high-displacement rules of the Can-Am and North American endurance scene. The T70 achieved strong early results, with the Chevrolet-powered variant winning five of six Can-Am races in 1966 and John Surtees taking the championship that year.
The T70 line progressed through an open-topped Mk2 Spyder, a Mk3 coupé, and finally the refined Mk3B. When the FIA restructured sports car regulations for the 1968 season — limiting prototype engines to three litres — homologated sportscars with engines of up to five litres were still eligible provided at least fifty examples had been constructed. The T70's production numbers allowed it to continue competing at the highest level alongside the Ford GT40 under this rule, even as newer purpose-built prototypes eventually superseded it.
In North American competition, the T70 achieved its most significant endurance result in January 1969, when a Sunoco Lola T70 Chevrolet driven by Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons won the 24 Hours of Daytona outright. The pair bested a field that included multiple American International Racing T70s powered by small-block 302 cubic inch Chevrolet V8s. The Daytona victory stood as the T70's most prominent outright win in long-distance racing.
In European competition, the Chevrolet-powered T70 was less dominant. The grade of fuel permitted under ACO rules for events like Le Mans differed significantly from the aviation-grade fuel allowed in American racing. Running on commercially available pump fuel with a lower octane rating caused detonation-related engine failures, limiting reliability and performance. An Aston Martin-powered coupé was entered by Lola for Le Mans in 1967, with Surtees among the drivers, but the Aston Martin V8 engine failed early due to insufficient development resources.
A T70 Mk3B driven by Mike D'Udy set a South African land speed record on 13 January 1968, recording a two-way average of 191.80 mph on a public road section of the R45 between Vredenburg and Hopefield in the Western Cape — a record that stood until 1988, when a 224.30 mph two-way average was set by an Audi 5000CS.
During the production of Steve McQueen's 1971 film Le Mans, T70 chassis were used as substitutes for the Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512 vehicles that appear in crash sequences. A T70 coupé also features briefly in George Lucas's debut commercial film THX 1138 from 1971, presented as a futuristic vehicle.
The T70 was replaced in the Can-Am series by the lighter Lola T160. In 2005, Lola Cars announced a limited continuation programme to build authentic Mk3B coupés using original specifications. Seven examples were completed before Lola Cars ceased operations in 2012.
Multiple specialist manufacturers subsequently produced replica versions. British company Broadley Automotive built T70 Mk3B replicas using original moulds and drawings, and these cars were granted FIA Historic Technical Passports, allowing them to compete alongside original chassis in the FIA Masters Historic Sportscar Championship. Other replica builders have operated in the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa, and Switzerland.
In modern historic racing, the original cars demonstrate notably strong reliability, aided by parts quality and fuel specifications unavailable during the T70's original competitive era.