The 13 best racing car liveries

Rothmans

Some of these are pretty obvious, many are from substances now frowned upon, certainly in terms of advertising them to the masses. The Rothmans livery fits in both of these categories.

It first really made its name swathed across Porsches in various worldwide competitions. Obviously there’s the 956 and 962 racers at Le Mans and the rest of the World Sportscar Championship scene, but it would also be seen on Porsche’s efforts in rallying with 911s and the 959 having a go at the Dakar rally.

But, it wasn’t just a 1980s fling that Rothmans and motorsport shared. In the early 1990s the chance to sponsor the top team in Formula 1 came up as Williams shed its Camel/Canon livery that had seen so much success. Rothmans stepped in to fill the void and were rewarded with two more F1 drivers’ crowns for Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.

It is, like most in this list, great because of its simplicity. White on top, blue down the bottom, and red and gold stripes in between. And whenever a sponsor takes all the car, that just makes sure it looks even better. So beloved was the Rothmans livery that Porsche brought it back (minus the words) for Le Mans in 2018.

Castrol

While many sponsors are known for supporting one, or maybe two forms of motorsport, Castrol has had its fingers in many, many livery pies. Castrol has sponsored: Touring Cars, Australian V8 Supercars, Le Mans cars, IMSA racers, Japanese Super GT cars, DTM machines, and rally cars.

Perhaps its most famous connection has been with Toyota. Think of a Castrol livery and we bet you either think of a Corolla dominating the WRC or the TOMs Supra that raced in Japan’s Super GT championship.

Perhaps confirming that there is a rough “rule of three” in good liveries: three colours or fewer, the Castrol livery’s mix of white, red and green has been nuanced in many different ways, from straight edged on a Ford GT to the swooping lines of the rally livery. But each stands out, and the simple single word “Castrol” in red stands proud.

NewMan

Quite the opposite to Castrol. The NewMan livery wasn’t found in multiple championships, it wasn’t even seen on multiple cars. NewMan sponsored a Porsche 956 that won Le Mans and, as far as we are aware, absolutely nothing else. But, and here’s what gets it on this list, NewMan’s yellow, white and black looked even better on a 956 than Rothman’s blue, red, gold and white.

NewMan was a French clothing firm most famous for its jeans and joined the ranks of motorsport sponsors in 1983 by partnering with Joest, which ran a Porsche 956 in the World Endurance Championship. The car, chassis 105, finished third in the championship in 1983, but it was in 1984 that its iconic status was confirmed, with victory during a race in which the factory Porsches were absent.

For 1985 Joest bought chassis 117, a 956B, and won again, still bedecked in that wonderful yellow, white and black livery. When we saw it at SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard in 2020 we at GRR couldn’t help but fall in love. And, it chalks another mark for the rule of three.

Red Bull

Controversial this might be, but we think Red Bull deserves a place on this list. Not necessarily because it’s that good a livery aesthetically, but simply for longevity and consistency of design.

In order to be a classic livery you need a couple of things, and consistency is one of the key properties. People who view the car need to be able to instantly recognise what they are looking at. The blue, yellow and red of a Red Bull livery, and especially its leaping bull logo, are one of those combinations that inspires instant recall. And while it’s most famous for F1, it’s been seen on everything from rally cars to DTM, drift machines to sportscars. If there’s a racing series that hasn’t somehow seen a Red Bull livery, we’re yet to see it.

Marlboro

Naughty sticks have begot a lot of the truly great motorsport colour schemes of our times. And Marlboro’s simple orange and white is one that has stamped its authority on both sides of the pond.

For those in F1 circles it is the McLaren/Marlboro partnership that endures – although Ferrari’s tie in with the American cigarette company lasted longer – and in its time Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna all took F1 titles. But if you look to America, Marlboro is most closely associated with Penske. Though the 1990s and well into the 2000s Penske sported an almost identical livery to that you’d see on a McLaren.

Mostly it consisted of two orange stripes/chevrons sandwiched by white stripes. But there were some variations. Take Tomi Makkinen’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, which took the Finn to WRC titles in a completely red get up. Marlboro later switched to Peugeot in rallying bringing an equally assaulting setup to the list. The fact that we all know cigarettes are not a good thing means we’re unlikely to ever see another Marlboro livery. But boy were they good.

Pink Pig

There is a racing car that is only known by its livery. In fact if you asked the average motorsport fan to say what the Porsche Pink Pig was they’d probably struggle to tell you. If you’re interested it’s a Porsche 917/20, and a car that to all intents and purposes is a bit gopping. Rumour is that so ugly was the 917/20 that the reason it got its iconic livery was that Martini – then a sponsor of Porsche – refused to put its colours on such an ugly car.

Whether that’s true or not, we’ll never know. But instead Porsche popped a vivid pink outfit on the 917, covered in the different cuts of meat you found on a pig – a reference probably to how ugly the car underneath was – and an icon was born. Sure the 917/20 was a bit rubbish as well as ugly, but it looked ridiculously cool.

So cool, that in 2018 Porsche resurrected the livery, put it on a 911 RSR that raced at Le Mans and won the GTE class. And then brought it to the Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard for some pretty meaty burnouts. Because a good livery doesn’t necessarily need a sponsor.

BMW M

As showcased by BMW’s ability to keep racing with its three stripes, no matter which company wanted to also sponsor the car.

Originally a bit of a fix to keep a sponsor happy – the blue is BMW, the red its sponsor at the time Texaco and the purple just something in between – it is now the very symbol of BMW’s sportiest cars, whether they be racing machines or not. M stripes in motorsport have been seen everywhere – wherever BMW decides to go – and have proven versatile, working on a white or black background.

Corporate identities can be ruinous for good motorsport liveries, as showcased by many, many teams today (hello Porsche 919 and Audi R18) but if they work well, it can become an enduring legacy, like BMW’s M stripes.

Jägermeister

There’s something about slightly illicit substances that makes their schemes very appealing. Tobacco created some iconic designs, even cigarette papers (Rizla) got in on the act. Slightly naughty magazines (don’t google Penthouse boys and girls) and even prophylactics have sponsored F1 teams.

So, of course, alcohol manufacturers have made some stonkers. Bud Light and Budweiser are givens, but we think it’s that German maker of herbal digestif rocket fuel – often partnered with Red Bull – Jägermeister, that has created the most iconic. An even simpler formula here than our rule of three, just take the extremely Germanic lettering of Jägermeister’s corporate font, and put it on top of an entirely orange car. Done.

Just like some it has adorned many types of racing car. Mostly sportscars from the 1970s and ‘80s, but it has even been seen in F1 from time to time. It’s simply the vivid nature of that orange and the stark lettering that makes Jägermeister’s colours look so good on a car.

Gulf

It had to be somewhere. Every maker of oil products has sponsored racing teams. From Shell to BP, Total to Motul. But none has made a livery quite as standout as the light blue and orange of Gulf.

We haven’t checked but we’re pretty sure that there has been a gulf-liveried car racing somewhere in the world every year from their early forays in the 1960s until the present day (whether sanctioned or not). It’s a scheme that has not been tampered with, unlike many. A single orange line down the middle and blue either side. Some have changed the shades, mostly of the blue, but other than adding or removing the black line that separates the colours it has not changed in the last six decades.

You’ll remember it for 917s, or maybe Ford GTs, but it’s also been on Oak Racing LMP2 cars, Aston Martin GT cars and most recently a McLaren F1 car. It’s harder to find a car that isn’t improved by a Gulf livery than one that is.

John Player Special

Many of the colours in this list have been repeated time and time again, very successfully. But, and we’re sorry Radford, no one has yet managed to make the black and gold look as good as John Player Special did back in the 1970s-‘80s with Lotus.

So central to the team that technically the racing entity was named after it, JPS’s simple gold lettering on black is so well loved that you only need to say the letters “JPS” and everyone knows what you are talking about. Players actually joined the F1 game with its Gold Leaf brand, which was the first proper sponsorship to adorn an F1 car, also with Lotus. But it was the second foray, with the deep black of JPS, that really made a mark. The JPS livery debuted with the Lotus 72 in 1972 and remained on every Lotus F1 car until the 98T in 1986.

While Players still exists it’s not a very big, er, player in the itself not as big as it used to be Tobacco market any more, but the appeal of its colours lives on. Many still try to replicate it, but every single attempt has somehow not been quite right, normally it’s the wrong form of yellow/gold. Showcasing that imitation isn’t always flattering.

Martini

Another maker of mind-altering beverages, Martini has sponsored many racing teams, mostly Italian, over the years. From Lancia in sportscars to Alfa Romeo in touring cars, the Martini stripes of blue and red have adorned many, many racing machines.

Those two colours, much like BMW’s M branding, have been paired with various bases. White is the usual ­as Porsche, Lancia and Alfa Romeo used, but at Brabham the base was red for a while and some GT cars have paired it with black. Once it even completely mixed things up and went blue and green on a couple of psychedelic Porsche 917s, but Martini managed to make even that work.

But it’s the simple stripes on white that are the best. A colour scheme that managed to make even the less-than-pretty F1 cars of 2014-2016 look half decent when it was splashed over a Williams.

UFO Jeans

A bold choice which hasn’t been seen on many racing cars, but one that we’re particularly fond of at Goodwood. You’re most likely to have seen UFO Jeans name splashed across a BMW, either a 535i racing at Goodwood or a big 3.0 CSL, but they always follow the same pattern. Concentric circles of red and blue, and the three letters UFO on the side in blue.

The scheme was once also used, slightly shonkily, on a Capri, but it’s those BMWs that are the ones we will always remember. UFO by the way does still apparently exist, although the quality of its website will no doubt showcase why it doesn’t have “motorsport sponsorship” cash any more.

Falken Tyres

We’re going to end with a properly modern take on the livery icon. Falken tyres isn’t a storied brand of automotive history, in fact it was founded in 1983 and didn’t arrive in Europe until 1988. But through a vivid colourscheme and clever sponsorship of motorsport, its worldwide cache has grown.

Even in this company the recipe is simple, turquoise and blue. Turquoise at the front, into blue at the rear, and they match somehow. But you absolutely won’t miss it, and that’s what means you’ll remember it. It has been seen mostly on GT cars, cars which have won at the Nürburgring 24 and Spa, and most recently on drift cars, especially memorably on our good friend James Deane’s stunning Eurofighter E92 BMW.

Since it began sponsoring cars Falken has resisted pretty much any reworking of its livery, which serves to make it stand out in the world, and means that you know exactly what you are seeing when you see those two colours smashed together. It’s a modern masterpiece.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.