Racing Liveries Aren't Cool

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 04/12/2020 at 18:59 • Filed to: None

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I don’t understand the appeal. What in this world is made better by covering it with advertising?

Gulf is maybe one of the most famous liveries that exists, everything has been seen in that soft blue and orange. But of course they have, Gulf made disgusting profits off pulling money from the ground at great cost to the planet and all of us. They could afford to throw enough money to have their name painted wherever they wanted. With racing liveries, they’ve managed to spend enough money to convince the world they’re good, even if they’re The Bad Guys.

And yes, I love burning oil as much as anyone here, but the companies that produce it are not doing their part, and are all the richer for it.

This may be subjective, but how is the painted up version better? Surely the pure version, with all design details and functional aero on display to the world, is easier on the eye. There’s an argument to be made that those who prefer the Gulf version are brainwashed, by the racing and the Le Mans, and the false association of Gulf with this awesomeness. Such brainwashing and base association is exactly the point of marketing - here’s young people enjoying a Coke in the sun, here’s a handsome man in a suit driving a Mazda, here’s a fast racecar with Gulf written on it. Associate, associate, associate. And liveries at their core are nothing more than marketing.

Another example, the Toyota GT-One. Ah, what a surprise - also funded by the fat cats selling the demise of our planet. I’m sensing a theme, and not just that the silky curves of this car are better viewed when not sullied by advertisements.

I understand that there’s a historical aspect to it - like it or not, certain historic races were won by Gulf cars, these are iconic moments in time. But recognize that rich companies paid a lot of money to slap their name on an iconic moment, to extract an ROI off people like us. The companies are not to be celebrated, and if you’re paying MSO to paint a modern car in Gulf colors, you’re doing the marketing for them. You’re the victim.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:03

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Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad

not for canada - australian in disguise > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:11

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I’ve seen some bad takes but this takes the cake.

The trend seems to be that the worse a company is, the better their liveries are. Hence why F1 livery quality went down so much when tobacco liveries went away.

smobgirl > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:12

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Without that marketing, there is no racing. 

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:13

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Sponsors pay for the racing, so if you want to go racing, your going to need sponsors. How do sponsors get ROI on racing? Advertisements. How do you ensure that people see your advertising? Put it on the racecars. And instead of just writing your name on the racecars and calling it a day, why not go the extra effort and make the full car your advertisement? If you’re gonna go through all of that effort, why not make it look good, eye catching and memorable? Such is how the Gulf, Martini, Marlboro, Red Bull, Mobil, Good Wrench, and 7up liveries were born.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:14

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While liveries do start off as a form of advertising in the larger sense, it is also that paint scheme and sponsorship that made it possible for a lot of cars to be raced. Especially for companies and teams that could not have continued a racing career without the extra capital. Sure a clean 917 or single color F 1 car is neat to behold (mostly because wow, looks so different because of the single color), but they have no heritage or special meaning to anyone that way. The liveries on a car show off its true colors in the world and racing fans want a part of that. You sit and root for you favorite team and see the painted up Gulf Porsches racing, so you paint you fun day car the same way. Nothing wrong with that, showing off a bit of yourself and the things you like.

If you don’t want to paint a livery on your car then don’t and if you bought a race car and wanted to race it, then sure change up the livery, that is your choice since the colors likely won’t also be your sponsors, but people buying old race cars want a piece of that history that comes with the racing under those colors. Think about Lotus and John Player Special, there is no way that Lotus could have afforded racing without them and today those are some of the coolest race cars available . Myself being a Corvette racing guy would LOVE a yellow C6Z because one of my favorite race cars is the C6.R GT1 and I would love to have my little piece of that where  I can.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > not for canada - australian in disguise 04/12/2020 at 19:18

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Jason Spears > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/12/2020 at 19:23

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Even at the club level, it costs money people might not have to put on races and participate in them. Hell, even sim racing rigs can cost what you might pay for a real entry level race car .

not for canada - australian in disguise > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 04/12/2020 at 19:26

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The 2000-2004 Jags are still some of the best looking F1 cars ever made. I really wish Jag would come back to the sport, but they’d probably go with the blue / black livery they use in Formula E instead of BRG. Which is a great looking livery, but it doesn’t exactly scream Jaguar.

Here’s hoping when Racing Point become Aston next year they adopt a British racing green scheme instead of just keeping the pink and blue BWT colours.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:31

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This is a good take - some of the iconic liveries are fantastic in their own right, but we shouldn’ t forget what behavior was behind the paint job. In some cases there’s nothing to be ashamed of there, in others not so much.

As to no sponsorship no racing, there was racing before corporate sponsorship, the budgets were just smaller (or it was an ego battle between the tycoons behind the same corporates, but at least they weren’t using it to push their wares).

And some of the paint jobs from those days were equally iconic, if simpler.

Noodles > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:31

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You might be wrong.

Some are cool.

And some are lobsters.

Some are ham.

But they're all delicious

Jim Spanfeller > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 19:43

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I just don’t like it when racing liveries look cluttered. Th e worst offenders in this case are NASCAR... All those things look ugly. Th e G ulf livery at least sticks to a couple colors and a simple but elegant design. It looks good as a design. Too many multicolored rectangles all over a car just looks like crap, though. Racing liveries can be good or bad, but they’re not all bad like you say.

Dusty Ventures > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 20:55

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I would argue that, if nothing else , a racing livery is cool if you can remove the logos themselves, leave the colors, and it looks good. Gulf to me is a good example. That McLaren is stunning in it without the gulf logo, or even any numbers, anywhere to be seen on it. Other examples: the Martini stripes, the green and yellow of Lotus, the Shelby blue with twin white stripes, the Renown Mazda, most BMW art cars, the Porsche red with white lines coming off the headlights.

kanadanmajava1 > smobgirl 04/12/2020 at 20:56

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Th ere used to be government sponsored racing.

Nauraushaun > smobgirl 04/12/2020 at 21:01

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Without ads there are no TV shows, no Youtube, no Jalopnik. Even so, they’re easily the worst part of each heavily detract from each.

The difference is that people get excited about the advertising in racing. Nobody is putting fake ads in their home movies or fake billboards on their houses, but people are paying to paint fake advertising on their cars.

Advertising isn’t cool, liveries are advertising.

Nauraushaun > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/12/2020 at 21:03

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It’s a necessity, yes, but it’s not cool. It’s like internet advertising - we take it if we have to, but given the choice we’d reject it every time.

Except people are enthusiastic about car advertising. It’s the same thing.

Nauraushaun > CaptDale - is secretly British 04/12/2020 at 21:09

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I wish it were more like football, where you’re rooting for the colors if your favourite team, and your favourite team has colors.

In racing you’re rooting for the colors, not of your team, but of some company somewhere. The drivers, cars and teams aren’t tied to that color and didn’t choose that color, it’s the color chosen by the marketing team of the rich man paying the bills. Any allegiance you feel for the color scheme is manufactured, misplaced and malicious.

I understand to a degree the historical significance. But in other ways it’s like saying you’d love to have a poster of the ads that run on your favourite website. Any correlation you’re making between the race car and the colors of the company behind it is being used against you.

Nauraushaun > Noodles 04/12/2020 at 21:09

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Some are cancer sticks

Nauraushaun > Dusty Ventures 04/12/2020 at 21:13

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I disagree. The McLaren, even without Gulf logos, is using Gulf colors and helping to sell the Gulf brand. They even got permission from Gulf, who I’m sure were only too glad to let someone pay thousands of dollars to paint a very expensive car in an advertisement for their company.

Even with just the colors, you’re a victim to the marketing.

I don’t mind company colors. A racing green Jag, a silver arrow Merc, a green and gold Lotus or a BMW in the M colors. A car proudly displaying the colors of its manufacturer is one thing, it’s another to display the colors of the rich oil moguls footing the bill.

I’d probably give a pass to a car showing the colors of some charity. I’d never put the colors on my own car, but at least if the cause were noble....

Nauraushaun > Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen 04/12/2020 at 21:16

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some of the iconic liveries are fantastic in their own right, but we shouldn’t forget what behavior was behind the paint job

That was so well said.

And I do agree that a car displaying manufacturer colors is a beautiful thing.

Discerning > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 21:18

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I agree with your main point. I think the cars look much better with a good paint job vs. the liveries. The first thing I always do to me race cars in Forza is to remove the liveries.

Others bringing up that sponsorships are necessary for racing aren’t wrong. But they’re missing the point that the cars look better without the liveries and I agree with your conclusion that there might be something else going on with those who prefer the livery look.

Then again, I can’t understand how people wear shirts with branded graphics on them either. Why on earth would I want to advertise for Nike? Yeesh

Full disclosure: I don't own any graphic T's other than those I've collected for free at IMSA races. And I only wear those around the house.

Discerning > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 04/12/2020 at 21:22

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I don’t think those look good. I think it would look much better with a simpler paint job and no numbers or logos.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 21:33

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Well that’s where you’re also wrong. A great livery, such as the ones that you are lambasting complete the look of the car.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 21:35

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Football team colors are also liveries.

Nauraushaun > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/12/2020 at 21:37

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They are. But unlike racing liveries, they’re for the team, not part of the ads.

Nauraushaun > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/12/2020 at 21:38

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Why doesn’t your road car have a livery? Is it also incomplete? I think a flat red GT-One is as complete as it needs to be.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 21:40

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I’ll agree with you up to a point: liveries on street cars are bad and dumb. Race cars, sure, whatever.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 21:47

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Wrong again. Those team colors are also used for advertising. You know where teams get a good chunk of cash from? Merchandise. Guess what that merchandise has all over it? Team colors and logos!

Back to racing, you’re anti secret advertising, yet every car racing has the manufacturer’s logo or colors on it. Why? For the exact same reason, it’s all advertising! Motorsports for the automaker’s exists solely as advertising. Any R&D or technology that comes from Motorsport is just an added benefit that is then used for, oh no, more advertising!

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 21:50

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My road car does have a livery, and it also has corporate logos on it. Corporate logos from companies that have horrendous reputations for the earth and people’s health. 

SpecsGTP > Nauraushaun 04/12/2020 at 22:33

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Well, the Gulf colors get used on everything and that diminishes the artistic value of of it but without Marlboro writing that big fat check for the GT-One, the car may not have been racing that year.

Racing is a ridiculously expensive sport. Comparing it to football is like comparing apples to birthday cake: both are sweet but very different. What does it truly cost to have two teams chase a ball around a field with a refs watching? In racing the cars , tires, fuel, track time, transportation, and prep is prohibitively expensive.

Sponsorship helps to pay for something that we enjoy watching (or participating in). I’ve been watching motorsports for over 30 years and have never thought of smoking cigarettes even though Marlboro sponsored Schumi’s Ferrari, or that Camel sponsored IMSA, or even that Winston Cup was Winston cigarettes.

Take most of today’s F1 car and dress them all in the same full black and anyone that wasn’t a hardcore fan couldn’t identify all 10 correctly. The colors are part of the identity, just like the sponsorships that they carry. Target Chip Ganassi Racing was huge because Target threw huge money to the team and they had some pretty good designs:

Those horrible corporations have lots of dollars for marketing and design firms to co me up attractive designs, all of which are run by people who earn their living because of motorsports. “Evil” corporations aren’t evil; I’ve never once been forced to purchase gasoline, or required to buy tobacco, guilted into guzzling liquor, or sucking down greasy cheeseburgers. We have free will and make decisions, positive or otherwise, so let the cars be pretty and may the sponsorships be plentiful.

Nauraushaun > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/13/2020 at 04:11

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I make a distinction between a manufacturer advertising itself on its car, and the space being sold to whatever company has the cash. You may not

Nauraushaun > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/13/2020 at 04:13

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In that case you’re in a tiny minority. Most people accept corporate logos, if not the colors themselves, as a necessity in racing that has no place on the road.

Indeed if nobody is paying you to show those logos, what’s the point?

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/13/2020 at 09:07

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Does your car have badges on it from what ever company made it?

Nauraushaun > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 04/13/2020 at 19:58

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It’s hard to get upset about that when it’s true of every car that’s literally ever been built. Hardly the same thing

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Nauraushaun 04/13/2020 at 20:02

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It’s quite literally the same thing.