SUPERCAR teams have wheeled out some really cool retro liveries in recent years, particularly at the Sandown 500 in Melbourne.
Whether there’s a retro-themed round this year remains to be seen, however the V8 Sleuth team sat down this week to ponder some of our favourite retro liveries from the teams.
In no particular order, these five sprung to mind …..
DJR Team Penske – 2018 Sandown ‘Sierra’ livery
30 years after Dick Johnson had won his third Australian Touring Car Championship at the wheel of the turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth, DJR Team Penske adopted this cool Sierra-inspired livery for the Sandown 500.
The red livery and gold wheels instantly created a striking connection between the Falcon FG X and the Sierra of yesterday.
Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat steered car #17 home to finish fourth while Fabian Coulthard and Tony D’Alberto finished seventh.
Speaking of these cars, the 1:18 scale models are available to buy via our mates at Motorfocus – click here to order the #17 car now and click here to order the #12 car now to add to your collection.
Garry Rogers Motorsport – 2018 Sandown ‘Torana’ livery
Sadly GRM is no longer involved in the Supercars Championship, however they have wheeled out some sensational retro liveries in recent years.
It’s hard to pick which of theirs is our favourite, but we’ve opted to the 2018 Garth Tander/Chris Pither Commodore ZB (available here as a 1:18 scale model car) based on the Torana A9X that Garry drove at Bathurst 40 years earlier in 1978.
Triple Eight Race Engineering – 2008 Vodafone ‘Red Dust’ livery
This one is from before the days of ‘retro’ round where TeamVodafone (as they were known then) wheeled out two sensational-looking Falcon BFs in Darwin in 2008.
OK, so these don’t fit the mould of ‘retro’ round liveries, but they were one-off and cool and we wanted an excuse to run a photo of one of the cars!
The design aimed to raise awareness of the work that Red Dust Role Models do with disadvantaged indigenous youth in remote Australia.
The livery was created by Aboriginal artist Raymond Walters Japanangka, an indigenous Red Dust Role Model. Vodafone’s usual ‘rocket red’ was replaced by earthy tones and circular patterns to create something very special.
The livery was only used for that single round – at Hidden Valley in Darwin – in 2008.
The model cars of this livery have become very collectable, order the 1:18 scale version here.
Prodrive/Tickford Racing – 2016 Sandown, Supercheap Auto ‘Ellery’ Falcon
Chaz Mostert and Steve Owen wound the clock back 14 years when they rolled out in Steve Ellery’s old colours on their Supercheap Auto Falcon FG X in 2016.
A livery based on Ellery’s Supercheap Auto Falcon AU from the 2002 V8 Supercar Championship Series, it served its pilots well and they finished fifth and first Ford home.
Tickford/PRA has had a range of great retro liveries over the years but the fact they put Mostert behind the wheel of one of Ellery’s old AU Falcons on the same weekend was very cool – so that gets this livery over the line with us!
You can add this car to your collection in 1:43 scale here too.
Brad Jones Racing/Team CoolDrive – 2018 Sandown B&H livery
Tim Blanchard and indeed BJR – who run his entry in the Supercars Championship – have always hit the ball out of the park when it comes to retro liveries each year.
We particularly loved the Benson & Hedges-inspired CoolDrive Auto Parts Commodore than ran in the 2018 Sandown 500.
Not only is it a well-known livery from the B&H BMWs that raced in the early 1990s, but there was a nice family tie up given Tim’s father John raced one of the yellow Bimmers in the 1993 season as Tony Longhurst’s teammate.
