50 Greatest Race Car Liveries

[Lights Out]

On the list, I love the Apple Computer livery (#33), and the BASF livery (26). Awesome, both of them.

As for NASCAR, it's gotta be Derrike Cope's neon green flame livery from 2002:

...or his Skittles livery from 1997:

[BigShoop]

#1 If you don't know what a livery is, then look it up, but please don't show your ignorance by saying, "WTF is a livery?"

In America, we don't call a paint scheme, a "livery". As in, like no one.

If that's what they call it in other parts of the world, great. But where I'm from, I've never heard of it. And clicking the link gave me nothing but a bunch of ridiculous looking cars on page 1, so I didn't go any further.

#2 Please don't show your age of 12 years old by saying, "I've watch x amount of NASCAR races and play x box never heard anyone use livery before." Yes, there is more racing than NASCAR.

There are more racing series than NASCAR....and not one of them that I've ever watched uses the term "livery".

#3 Don't think because you know or use the word "livery" that you are more intelligent than someone who watches NASCAR.

Absolutely.

#4 Please don't come out of the closet by telling everyone how "gay" Jeff Gordon's Rainbow Warrior paint scheme is. It's good you're coming out of the closet, but let's not use a 15 year old cliche statement, plus there are probably 1,000 more mature way to come out of the closet than using the immature Jeff Gordon's Rainbow Warrior scheme is "gay".

Exactly.

#5 About half those paint schemes don't even belong on the list. I'm sorry by that Camel jeep... WHAT?! Oh and Richard Petty's blue superbird? WHAT? And this coming from a Petty fan. Oh and let's not forget that silver Porsche... those aren't great at all, they are just plain. If you want to talk a classic Petty scheme, it's the 72 or 76 STP schemes, or even the 84 scheme he won race #200 with. Where are the great John Force schemes? Where are the great dragster schemes or even a great scheme like the current Mercedes-McLaren.

Agreed.

[spyboy1]

There's easily a few omissions from the list that I would have included in a heartbeat.

Renault 1978 A442B

IMSA Red Lobster March 83G - the single greatest blend of car shape to sponsorship paint job in the history of motorsports.

Racing for Holland Dome 101 (each rectangle could be purchased separately in a grand sponsorship scheme)

NewMan Porsche - back to back Le Mans winners "New Man" reads the same even when flipped upside down in case of a bad crash by the way.

There's hardly anything more iconic than Lotus' British Racing Green with it's yellow stripe. This one is on a Lotus 49

Le Mans is always a great place for one off experimentation, such as this WR from 2002 with the fireworks on it in the days before the full wrap technology was so readily available.

Still, the author knows his stuff and had many must-haves on his list. Perhaps some were the right sponsor on the wrong car shape, like the Rothmans not being the Porsche 956 or the Martini not being the Lancia LC2, but the BASF BMW M-1 shows he knows what he is talking about, as does #19 and #18.

Then again, #25 is just a Viper painted solid red. What's so great about that?

[BigShoop]

As for the actual list, I think it would be more accurate if it was the "50 Liveries That are Near and Dear to the Author's Heart". When you make a "50 greatest" list, you might want to include all of the iconic paint schemes FIRST, and then you can mix in all the others.

Obviously, this person is a European racing fan, with the over-saturation of rally and sports car....which is fine. But if you're going to include a sprinkling of the "other" racing series, the least you can do is rank them somewhere close to where they belong, in comparison to the others on the list. ie: Dale Earnhardt #27 vs a 1-year scheme, driven by a great driver...who drove it to 2nd place ranked #26.

Where are the Indy car schemes? Penske, AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, etc...

Others have mentioned the NASCAR guys left off: Pearson, Waltrip, Allison, Yarborough, Gordon...

Someone mentioned John Force...what about someone like a Don Garlits or a Don Prudhomme?

There's the dirt guys...Steve Kinser's old Quaker State 11, or some of the old school USAC cars

[BrandMooreArt]

we dirt trackers just call 'em paint schemes!

i guess we all have different taste, but that list was pathetic. ive been around racing my whole life; heres some of my favorites

scott bloomquist

billy moyer

jeep van wormer

steve kinser

joey saldana

frankie kerr (image dosnt do the red justice. it was BRIGHT!)

roger penske scheme

earnhardt '84ish

[BrandMooreArt]

im going to go ahead and keep this going if ya dont mind . . .

USAC Mopar cars

anything Petty has driven

chub frank

Kodak cars

sammy swindell

donny schatz STP

[andrewharrington]

#3 Don't think because you know or use the word "livery" that you are more intelligent than someone who watches NASCAR.

I think vmd9 assumed that 'livery' is a term used by people who want to sound smarter than those who use the term 'paint scheme.' I don't think anyone ever explicitly stated that 'paint scheme' was a term only used by unintelligent NASCAR fans.

[OpaqueChicken]

In honor of #2 livery on the list:

[cubbies06]

Great topic and follow-up pics....

[lost_limey]

I'd have ranked the old John Player Special Lotus liveries well above any F1 Ferrari livery, and I say hat as an enormous fan of F1 in general, and the Scuderia in particular. Especially when paired with the yellow helmet that belongs to one of the top 5 F1 drivers of all time* like in the picture below.

* Schumacher, Prost, Senna, Clark & Fangio in some order (not gonna rank them though)

[pheer]

I'm pretty sure every guy on here who was alive in the 70's probably had some form of toy car with the John Player Special livery. Also one of my favorite giant plastic Indy cars was in the Tom Sneva Texaco setup. It's funny what topics like this bring back to your mind!

[lost_limey]

I don't know about every guy from the '70s, but the earliest toy car memories this guy from 1981 recalls is his 'Pole Position' Scalextric set that had a JPS Lotus and Contemperaneous Scuderia Ferrari F1 cars (with the logos switched, as you couldn't have tobacco advertising on kids toys in the UK...)

[Matito]

In honor of #2 livery on the list:

That makes me cry.

[pheer]

Yeah, that heritage GT was wrecked by a tuner who was "driving it like a grandmother"....

[RuffDawg]

I'd have ranked the old John Player Special Lotus liveries well above any F1 Ferrari livery, and I say hat as an enormous fan of F1 in general, and the Scuderia in particular.

Agreed... the JPS scheme typified class, IMO. Along with F1, they joined the Australian touring car scene in the late 80s sponsoring a BMW team... this one's a 635csi but they later moved up to the more competitive M3:

Anyone notice how cigarette companies always seem to turn out the classiest liveries ("paint schemes" for my fellow Americans)? Here's another one:

RIP, Greg Moore.

[BigShoop]

As an American racing fan, my list will only include the series that I'm familiar with...which is exactly what the original poster did.

Honorable mentions

Because a) the site wouldn't let me post more than 10, and/or b)because they never had the same paint scheme for any substantial length of time:

Bill Elliott 1985 Coors(a), Kenny Bernstein Budweiser King(a), Harry Gant Skoal Bandit(a), Don Garlits black/gold Swamp Rat(a), John Force(b ), AJ Foyt(b ), Mario Andretti(b ), Bobby Allison(b )

10

Probably the greatest modified driver of all-time, Richie Evans.

9

Relatively consistent over the last 15 or so years. Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

8

Even if you know nothing about Sprint Cars, you should know who Steve Kinser is, and you should know that he drove the Quaker State 11.

7

Jeff Gordon, rainbow warrior.

6

Rick Mears. Everyone has seen this photo.

5

Cale Yarborough's Hardees 28.

4

Numerous drivers drove Junior Johnson's 11 car, most notably, Darrell Waltrip.

3

With or without Marlboro, Team Penske has remained consistent...and therefore, easily the top Indy Car choice.

2

Easily the most popular driver in my lifetime. "The black 3" is iconic.

1 and 1a

I refuse to separate them, just as they refused to separate themselves...finishing 1-2 more times than any other 2 drivers, and they finished their careers 1-2 in career wins, 1-2 in career poles...the greatest rivalry in the history of NASCAR: Richard Petty and David Pearson.

[sc49erfan15]

Not only because my favorite driver (Ricky Rudd) had his best years in the Tide Ride, but because someone else mentioned it - I'd like to nominate...well...the Tide Ride. I thought it was awesome and slightly unique in Nascar how the driver, number, and team changed but the paint scheme stayed the same.

Darrell Waltrip (1987-1990)

Ricky Rudd #5 (1991-93)

Ricky Rudd #10 (1994-99)

Couldn't resist this picture...

Scott Pruett (2000), Ricky Craven (airborne in the #41 in the above picture - 2001-04), Bobby Hamilton Jr. (2004-05), Travis Kvapil (2006)

And because a) I have one more image left to post and 2) this is a sports logos site...I give you: when Tide mixes with Tide - ran at Talladega in 2000

[BigShoop]

. How did I forget the Tide ride?!

-feeling shame-

[BrandMooreArt]

excellent last 2 post guys

[GFB]

Some of my favorites...