The Racing Livery: Gulf VS MartiniDecor Girl

Gulf and Martini are two of the most recognized color schemes in motorsports. Both have been around for years, both have been on the podium and both have their fans. We thought it’d be fun to compare the history of these two famous motorsports racing liveries.

Gulf Racing

Although the history of Gulf with racing extends back into the 1930s, the famous light blue and orange color scheme made its first appearance in 1966 on a Ford GT40 owned by Grady Davis, vice president of Gulf Oil. He began a nine year partnership with John Wyer which brought Porsche 917s into the fold and between the two models they achieved victory at Le Mans three times as well as three World Championship titles. It was the Porsche 917 in Gulf Livery, Steve McQueen immortalized in the movie LeMans. A Mirage Ford won Le Mans in 1975 sporting the famous Gulf livery. Also during this time, late 60s / early 70s Gulf sponsored Bruce McLaren’s Formula One, Can-Am and Indy cars. In the 1990s the Gulf McLaren F1 GTR had success. The 100th year of Gulf Oil brought the blue and orange another win, this time with an Audi R8 at the European Le Mans Series.

In recent history the iconic Gulf livery is worn by Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and McLaren World Endurance Championship cars. While Porsche has not given the public an option for Gulf Racing colors on contemporary models, we’ve seen a number of enthusiasts wearing the distinctive blue and orange on their cars.

Martini Racing

Italian distiller Martini & Rossi began official race car sponsorship in 1968 with the Porsche 910 raced by Scuderia Lufthansa Racing Team. Technically they had the name “Martini Racing Team” written on a Alfa Romeo in 1962 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, not as a sticker or logo. Technically it did not become legal for non-race related advertising to be on cars until 1968.

Color Scheme: White, silver, or red bodied cars with dark blue, light blue and red stripes.

In the 1970s the Martini livery skyrocketed to the world stage with its successful partnership with Porsche. Porsche werks cars, wearing Martini Racing Team colors won at Le Mans three times during the decade. Additionally, a Martini 911 Carrera RSR won the Targa Florio by surprise in 1973. During this decade many Formula One cars (Brabham, Alfa and Lotus) also wore the Martini colors, though not as successfully as the Le Mans Porsches. The 1980’s brought in the brand’s sponsorship of Lancia in sports car racing. Martini appeared again with F1, briefly in 2006 with Scuderia Ferrari and later in 2014 and 2015 with Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

Rally car racing has offered the most consistent appearance of the Martini colors, most notably on numerous Lancia models and later on Ford’s World Rally Team.

In 2012 the Martini livery appeared on the new Porsche 918 Hybrid Prototype and later became available on select Porsche models so avid fans could drive around in their favorite livery.