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Eric Broadley MBE (b. 22 September 1928) is a British entrepreneur, engineer, and founder and former chief designer of Lola Cars, the motor racing manufacturer and engineering company. He is arguably one of the most influential automobile designers of the post-war period, and over the years Lola has had a hand in many high-profile projects in Formula One, IndyCar, and sports car racing. Broadley sold Lola to Martin Birrane in 1999.

Eric Broadley trained as an architect in the late 1940s, and after completing his studies took a job as a quantity surveyor. In his spare time Broadley was heavily involved in motor racing with the 750 Motor Club. In common with the majority of other competitors - including Colin Chapman, Frank Costin and Brian Hart - he built his own cars around Austin 7 chassis, using home-made and proprietry parts. His first car, the Broadley Special, was built to comply with rules governing the "Ford Ten Special" class, using a 1172cc side valve engine, originally introduced for the pre-war Ford Model C.

The Broadley Special was an instant success, winning a number of local and national events in the UK. On the back of this record Broadley immediately began to design a chassis to accept a more powerful Coventry Climax engine. This car, with its up-to-the-minute space frame chassis, was to be come the Lola Mk1; named after the lyrics of a song from the contemporary musical Damn Yankees: "whatever Lola wants, Lola gets". Although, as Broadley freely admits, the Mk1 was too powerful for his level of driving skill[1], in 1958 he became the first man ever to lap the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in under one minute. This level of success soon attracted the interest of other motor racing privateers, and Broadley and his cousin were prevailed upon to build three further copies of the Mk1 chassis. Lola Cars had been born.

Setting up shop in West Byfleet using £2000 of his own savings, Broadley's Lola company produced over thirty more of the Mk1 sports car chassis, with ever improving results on the track. Despite its limited experience, in 1960 Lola produced its first single-seat open-wheeled model: the Lola Mk2, for the Formula Junior category. Performance was promising rather than electric, but Broadley quickly followed up with the mid-engined Lola Mk3. As with the Mk2, the Mk3 showed some promise, but consistently finished behind contemporary Lotus and Cooper models.

On the back of his initial success, in 1961 Eric Broadley was approached by Reg Parnell to design and build a Formula One chassis for his Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team. The Lola Mk4 was driven to pole position in its first ever race, the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix, by future World Champion John Surtees. However the car failed to finish, and performed only adequately for the remainder of the 1962 Formula One season. However, Broadley and his team at Lola had made their mark.

• People: Eric Broadley. GrandPrix.com. Retrieved on March 4, 2007.
• Lola: The Story. LolaHeritage.co.uk. Retrieved on March 4, 2007.

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