When it comes to race car liveries, it appears best and iconic are fairly interchangeable words. From Sunday’s question of the day, seeking your input on the best liveries in racing, it quickly became apparent that you cannot have one without the other. Many of the top 10 liveries selected to be shared this week further prove this point.
What I was most surprised by was that your recommendations weren’t all cigarette-sponsored cars. There were a handful of cigarette-ladened mentions, as well as a theme of oil-backed liveries like Pennzoil and Castrol. Another interesting observation was that most of these cars also raced in the 20th century if you can believe it, so thank you for supporting my ongoing theory that liveries have lacked since the turn of the century. Seriously, the most recent livery suggested was Josef Newgarden’s PPG-themed Indy car that debuted in 2022. It was one of very, very few mentioned that ran after the year 2000.
With that in mind, maybe today’s racing teams should step up their design game. Race fans truly love a good throwback scheme, but we need original liveries that live on in notoriety in another 20 to 40 years, much like the ones listed here today. Maybe that’s another question to posit for the future as well. But for now, I present to you, the best liveries in racing.
1988 Benetton B188
I’ve always been partial to the 1988 Benetton B188. It screams “1980s!” and I love it.
From ZenMaster
Castrol Liveries
Castrol looks good on everything.
AND
I’ve always been partial to the old Castrol livery that Toyota ran on their Class a rally cars. Simple, yet distinct, even at a distance
From Ziggy Stardust and JaredOfLondon
The GM Goodwrench Service livery on Dale Earnhardt’s No. 3 car
I personally think the GM livery on the black 3 car was the best!
AND
Likewise, the original silver version they did was among the first and best “Special paint schemes.” It was such an event.
NASCAR’s sort of exited this conversation because way too many cars change sponsors and liveries on a weekly basis. You’d notice which ones sort of just became normal and which ones still stood out after weeks and weeks of viewing – and when they did something… anything… other than the usual it was a Big Deal. You had to buy that die cast.
From24C8Zo6 and DungBeetle62
Marlboro
The Marlboro liveries in Indycar were always spectacular. They were super clean, matched the product packaging, and the changes over the years were subtle because they were smart enough not to mess with a good thing.
From MustangIIMatt
Renown Mazda
Renown. The 787 was a badass and this livery was the icing on the cake.
From PontiacAttack
Porsche’s pink pig
Porsche pink pig
From Very Stable Genius, as well as DieselWagonGoon and M B
Jordan 191 7up livery
The Jordan 191. The green livery echoed Eddie Jordan’s Irish heritage and complimented the car’s clean elegant lines.
From PhilRoastBeef
Sleek in silver with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1
Some of the silver McLarens were great.
Music Teacher 17
Alitalia
Somebody beat me to the Martini racing Livery, but a close second to me is the Alitalia Livery.
AND
This is the quintessential rally livery to me. Also, kid me loved G1’s Wheeljack because of this.
From monsterajr1 and PontiacAttack
