Ten New Supercars that Look Great with Old Liveries

In the past, many race cars wore liveries that stood out and identified themselves as unique representations of a team’s support from its sponsors. Today, many of them stood the test of time, remaining popular even today with current supercars and hypercars, giving the appearance that it can be driven to the track (while catching many glances from passerby) and brought back after a day there like its predecessors did. Here are ten liveries that endured throughout motorsport’s history, now placed on some of the fastest road cars of today.

1. 2017 Ford GT (Gulf Oil Livery)

Gulf Oil’s famed livery dates back to 1967, when Grady Davis, the vice president at the time, entered his own Ford GT40 (number 1049) as an independent entry, finishing the car dark blue with an orange stripe. When Ford U. S. A. left sports car racing and the CSI reducing Group 6 prototype endurance cars’ displacements to 3.0 liters, John Wyer, who was key in the GT40’s inception, decided to let the car race at Le Mans as a Group Four sports car, with J. W. Automotive Engineering taking over the team’s management and renaming the cars Mirages. Sponsorship would come from Gulf Oil, prolonging the nascent livery’s life span.

The blue we recognize in the current livery isn’t that of Gulf’s indigo, but rather that of powder blue, with Davis doing so because he believed the lighter car was more exciting in combination with the Marigold Orange, forming an equiluminant livery of complementary colors. After sponsoring the Mirages, Gulf would go on to sponsor Porsche’s 917K’s, which forced the colors deeper into the annals of history, a point evidenced by the fact that many teams, including Aston Martin Racing, to name one, still use the Gulf livery on their cars.

2. 2010 Lancia New Stratos (Alitalia Livery)

The Alitalia Rally Livery debuted on the Lancia Stratos, The Stratos HF would wear this livery while winning the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975, and 1976, with its potential being halted when the Fiat group stopped supporting it andw declared the 131 as its successor. Winning its last race at the Tour de Corse in Bernard Darniche’s hands in 1981, its livery would be known well throughout the rally world, with its dynamic, angular lines following the wedge’s contours and utilizing the red and green of the Italian flag on a white background.

The man responsible for this design is Walter Landor, a German designer who, with his agency, created many iconic designs for many important businesses and organizations. His creation of the Alitalia logo was directed by a mission for a modern graphic that could be adaptable to many kinds of aircraft. While it is disputed if Landor himself designed this car’s adaptation of the livery, its simple, striking use of an “A” with the Italian flag’s three colors on the car is not. The design makes the car a proud representation of Italy and its potential as a powerful player in motorsport, especially at its peak in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and in today’s world, many people take pictures of the car because of its striking appearance and how it forms such a symbiosis with its livery to create a car that appears to have more angles than it actually does.

3. 2011 Porsche 911 (997) GT3 (Martini Livery)

Matini Racing began swathing white cars with red, dark blue, and light blue stripes in 1968, showing their sponsorship for many cars with their legendary livery. They first sponsored an Alfa Romeo ST Tronica in 1962 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, but only the words “Martini Racing Team” indicated their sponsorship. In the former year, Paul Goppert, the head of publicity and advertising for Martini Germany, asked Hans Dieter, an endurance race car driver who ran an Opel dealership, to add some colors to the car, along with the Martini logo.

April would reveal the fruit of Dieter’s labors in the form of the now-recognizable Martini livery on a Porsche 910 raced by Scuderia Lufthansa Racing, and from this, a partnership would spark between Porsche and Martini, with many Porsches, including the 917, 936, RSR Turbo, and 936, blasting past other cars in a red, white, and blue blur. After supporting Porsche, it would add its stripes to Lancia’s Monte Carlo, LC1, and LC2 in tarmac racing, also coloring their rally cars (and Porsche’s) as the livery became increasingly recognizable. Such contour-following stripes would go beyond these race cars, adorning touring cars in DTM, powerboats in their respective world championship, and Williams Grand Prix Engineering’s Formula One cars since 2014.

4. 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo (John Player Special Livery)

The black and gold used by John Player Special was first applied to Lotus’s Formula One cars in 1972 on the Lotus 72, which would bring Lotus many wins due to its advanced design for the time. Along with the blistering performance from this machine was a livery to match it. Formed between John Player Special and Lotus, the livery would be remembered by many due to the likes of Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, and Ayrton Senna propelling it to victory through the use of aviation-inspired technology. So famed was this livery, a limited series of Lotus Elises, known as the “Type 72,” was available from Lotus in 2002.

Going beyond its classic applications in Lotus’s cars, which ran until 1986 with the 98T, the livery was also used with JPS Team BMW’s cars in the Australian Touring Car Championship, which lead to a series of 323i’s being produced with the livery’s colors in 1981 and 1984, along with sponsoring Norton motorcycle racing from 1971 to 1974 and from 1988 through 1991. Lotus returned to using a derivative of this livery that also used red accenting when it was active in Forumla One (with notable drivers Pastor Maldonado, Kimi Räikkönen, and Romain Grosjean in the driver’s seats) from 2012 to 2015.

5. 2015 McLaren P1 GTR (Harrods Racing Livery)

Harrods Racing would be proudly represented on McLaren’s F1 GTR race cars, which would go on to dominate Le Mans in 1995 in the hands of Derek Bell, Justin Bell, and Andy Wallace. The specific example that wore it in the race, chassis number 06R, received third place and had one of the longest racing careers of all of the F1 GTR’s, winning many races after Le Mans. Its main livery was a yellow body with a green stripe down the center, a simple but effective and recognizable color scheme that gave large amounts of space for advertising, which was relatively minimal, allowing the large expanses of yellow to occupy one’s vision.

Concerning the car that made this livery famous, it would win three races and finish fourth in the teams championship. It would also be upgraded to the GTR’s 1996 specification and race in the BPR in that year, winning one race and scoring eighth in the championship. After finishing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1996 in sixth place, it would be sold to Martin Vehle Racing, challenged in the FIA GT’s races in 1997, and owned by David Clark, the former Sales Director of McLaren’s road cars. It was converted to a road car, but it retained its elegant color scheme, with it being recalled with the McLaren P1 GTR’s rendition of the Harrods livery.

6. 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale (McLaren-Marlboro Livery)

Regarded to be one of the most dynamic liveries in motorsport, the red stripes are crisp and straight, giving way to a white background, and this sharp image, also being one of the simplest, started to gain recognition in 1974, when McLaren adopted it when Marlboro sponsored the team. The first car to adopt it, the McLaren M23, would operate under the Marlboro Team Texaco, Yardley Team McLaren, and Scribante Lucky Strike Racing teams, with the former two teams eventually merging, creating Marlboro Team McLaren. From there, the company would inspire a new generation of McLarens; such was the influence, an altered form of its chevron can be spotted in the McLaren logo.

Successes from Fittipaldi would be continued when James Hunt took the wheel, gaining 75 points along with Jochen Mass in 1976 and winning second place in the constructors’ championship. The livery would continue to be featured under Ron Dennis’s leadership, with Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet revealing it to be the face of an almost unstoppable competitor: the McLaren MP4/4. Even though the livery was originally McLaren’s own design, other teams, including Ferrari, would be sponsored by Marlboro, which would allow them to use derivatives of that livery or make one that was slightly related to the original livery.

7. 2015 Ferrari F60 America (N. A. R. T. Livery)

Rosso Corsa was reserved for Enzo Ferrari’s Scuderia, but an offshoot of this stable of prancing horses, the North American Racing Team, used the United State’s racing colors as their identifiers. The stylized blue on a white body with a single Cunningham race stripe running down the center was simple and elegant at the same time, and in this livery, John Surtees would win the 1964 United States Grand Prix and that year’s championship for drivers despite Italian authority telling Ferrari to avoid allowing the N. A. R. T to race, further increasing its significance. Additionally, he would allow the team to run again in that year’s Mexico Grand Prix. The Ferrari 158 that Surtees piloted to victory would become an example of what was possible from the American team, and their cars sported a unique hue of blue that went with that country’s colors.

The N. A. R. T. would take their greatest victory in 1965, when a 250 LM entered by them won the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. It was a proud day for the team, but a bittersweet one. Ferrari’s final victory at the track, and N. A. R. T.’s only outright win there, was scheduled on the eve of Ford’s. Due to the GT40’s domination, the team wouldn’t be able to find success. Later successes would be found in the 1967 and 1973 24 Hours of Daytona, where Pedro Rodríguez and Jean Guichet would allow the team to win third and second place respectively, and the team would race until 1982. In the way of road cars, the N. A. R. T. only had the 1967 275 GTB/4 N. A. R. T. Spyder named after it, but it was a convertible edition of the 275 GTB/4 requested by team founder Luigi Chinetti. Only ten would be delivered from Maranello, with this gesture being echoed in the F60 America above, with it wearing the same deep blue that its ancestors had.

8. 2015 Ferrari F12 (250 GTO Livery)

The 250 GTO had several diverse liveries, but one of the most interesting of them has to be this one. The body, painted in Argento Auteuil, has a Modena Yellow stripe running across the hood (from the left front wheel to the right front wheel), and in front of the stripe is a white roundel that can accommodate a racing number if one wishes to include it. Known as chassis number 4153, Lucien Bianchi and Georges Berger would win the 1964 Tour de France with it. Taking this win, it would compete in a large variety of motorsport, including, but not being limited to, endurance racing (it would take fourth place at 1963’s 24 Hours of Le Mans), hill climbing, and rallying. From 1966 to 1969, it raced within Spain, and after its racing in the 1960’s, its current owner races it at many historic events to this date.

Ferrari’s treasured heritage is taken very seriously; it’s only used the “GTO” badge on two other cars, and only one of them, the 599 GTO, shares the same livery with it. The F12berlinetta has been seen sporting the livery, but it can’t be seen as a true GTO because of the lack of that badge. Despite this, its looks evoke a history of what can be seen as Ferrari’s greatest road-handling triumph, one that would go on into alluring many people into falling in love with it and paying many millions of dollars for an example. To some people, this livery looks simplistic and does not portray much, but to others, that one line represents six years of racing for Ferrari, a period that garnered much interest not only for this one model, but for the brand as a whole.

9. 2015 Aston Martin V8 Vantage N430 (British Racing Green Livery)

Quite possibly the oldest livery in this list, its origins date back to 1902, when Great Britain decided to enter the Gordon Bennett Cup. Due to the Union Jack’s colors being used by other teams (red went to the United States, white went to Germany, and blue went to France), a different color had to be chosen, and Selwyn Edge’s Napier (which won that year) was painted olive green, with green being used in British engineering, primarily in trains and machines. After hosting the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup at Athy in Ireland, Britain would use Shamrock green, which would later evolve into British Racing Green, which isn’t one specific hue, but rather a spectrum of dark and rich hues of green.

Bentleys would wear them during the Interwar period of Grand Prix racing, crushing every competitor at Le Mans until 1930, Jaguar would win with the D-Type in 1956, Aston Martin would successfully lead throughout the 1959 race, winning with Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori in the cockpit, and Brabham and Lotus would send two green machines, the BT24 and the 49 respectively, into Formula One. The color would return in 2000, draping Jaguar Racing’s Formula One cars, and Bentley would return to Le Mans from 2001 through 2003 with their Bentley Speed Eight. Aston Martin would also return to this color, using it on their DBR9, and it would appear in Formula One again when Team Lotus (under Tony Fernandes’s direction, I have no direct relation to him) entered the T127. Such is the legacy of this color, many British sports and luxury cars have it as a paint color, and it’s a fairly popular, transitioning from a solid color to a metallic paint due to the small amount of solids offered today.

10. 2014 Porsche 918 (Red 917 Number 23 Salzburg Livery)

Another fantastic livery, and a personal favorite, the 917 entered by Porsche Salzburg in 1970 is resplendent in red and wonderful with its white accents. The wavy lines, following along with the car’s contours, give an illusion of motion even at a standstill, and it would become synonymous with victory in the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans. When John Wyer’s Gulf team worked on a revised rear end to solve the 917’s handling issues that plagued it the year before, two variants of the rear end were produced, with them being a long version (the Langheck) and a short version (the Kurzheck). The latter, known as the 917K, had improved handling over the 917L, but the latter was able to reach greater top speeds due to its lower drag coefficient from its tapering tail.

The number twenty-three car, which didn’t use the 4.9 liter flat-twelve that was coming into use, but rather the 4.5 liter variant, however, would take victory in 1970. Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood would bring the car from twenty-third place in the standings to first place, being a victory worth celebrating for Porsche after second place was claimed by a Langheck in the psychedelic blue and yellow livery from Martini, which was controlled by Gérard Larrouse and Willy Kauhsen. The car that wore the above livery would set a precedent for Porsche at the Sarthe, with them going on to take sixteen more victories at Le Mans (including 2015). Its heritage, highly revered by Porsche, continues to exist in several liveries, including one that was tailored specially for Mark Webber’s 918 (in the above photo), and a variation that uses its red with white lettering that reads “Porsche Intelligent Performance” following the car’s curves like the lines of its forerunner forty-six years ago. Even today, heritage is held close to many manufacturers’ road cars, with it recounting the past and inspiring the future in motorsport.

What’s your favorite livery? Are there any other modern supercars that look great with old liveries? Comment below; thank you in advance!