Lova

History

Lova was a Belgian car built at Leuven (Louvain, Lovanium in Latin so the name). The constructor Jef Dujourie first built a 500 cc racer and took part himself in Belgian hillclimb meetings. He built his first Formula Junior in 1960 and the car was tried by André Pilette in October on race at Monthléry. It was a front-engined car powered by DKW. The car was totally uncompetitive so the second car was laid aroud a rear-mounted DKW engine.

In 1961 the Lova were driven by Willy Vroomen, a Duchman living at Antwerpen, and Jean-Claude Franck, a young 21-year man from Louvain. In the GP des Frontières at Chimay, Vroomen finished 17th and one but last, Franck was a non-starter. In 1962 the DKW was replaced by a Ford Holbay in the Franck’s car. Franck finished 9th (once again, one but last) in the GP des Frontières.

In 1963 Jean-Claude Franck found a more competitive car – a Cooper MK3A – and left the Lova to his fate. He surely was right as he finished 3rd of the GP des Frontières.

Those informations are from Chimay Le Grand Prix des Frontières 1960-1973, by André Biaumet (part one is 1926-1959).

The Lova DKW was already totally outpaced in 1961, then was entered in 1965 at Grand Prix des Frontières* by Roger Beguint, a garagist

*This might have been an F2 event.

So, unlike the entry on the Junior site, it would appear that the car was not built by Willy Vroomen (is that not the coolest name for a racing driver?), but may well be his chassis. Willy was something of a “name” driver in the Low Countries in the post-war years. I’m not aware of a Lova 500 but Jef Dujourie’s name has come up driving Cooper 500s around 1954-55. The lowline, Lotus 49 style shape really looks far too modern – surely 1965-66 ish – though the suspension looks classically 1958-62. So I’d be a close to certain those aren’t the original panels.

Duncan Rabagliati has done a considerable amount of research into the Lova he says that there were at least 3 Lova FJ 1.0 F3 cars

For more general info on Lova, please visit this website; https://lov.be/artikels/lova.html