For my Investigative Reporting project at the University of Florida, I investigated the brief history of Lolas, the effort that goes into building Lolas, and also what makes these cars so valuable and nostalgic.
I also investigated the story of my human element - Mac McClendon - the worlds most renowned Lola historian and restorer. Mac has an amazing story that I wanted to share with everyone.
He fought in the Korean War at the young age of 15, and then Vietnam. He received his degree in engineering and business, and began racing professionally in 1960.
Mac purchased all the official Lola tooling and machinery when Lola International had a financial collapse in the 1970's.
After Mac retired from professional racing, he got a job at Nasa thanks to his engineering background.
He retired from Nasa in 1991 and moved to Jacksonville, Florida with his wife Angie to continue his hobby of building Lola race cars.
Mac has been building and restoring the cars for 32 years.
I filmed and edited all of the interviews and footage from the car.
The video footage of the blue street legal Lola is footage that Angie's brother filmed (Angie is Mac's wife). His name is Mark Morris, and his production company is called Improds.
The footage of the Challenger space shuttle is from Nasa and CNN.
The footage from the "Most Interesting Man in the World" is from the Dos Equis Beer Commercial.
The documentary could easily have been done without the three accompanying clips, but I feel they added a demonstrative element to the piece.