BAR's 555/Lucky Strike livery

[Born Racer]

I recall that when BAR launched their first car with the two tobacco brands featured split down the middle, there were many comments regarding it being ugly, or looking ridiculous.

Was I one of a few who thought this an absolute masterstroke?!

As a response to the FIA telling them that each car must resemble the other, it was an ideal solution. It obviously wasn't meant to look beautiful, but it was a neat, almost cheeky answer to the regulations. In addition, the whole saga must have generated more publicity and any casual TV viewer would have paid extra attention to the unique car.

And that zip down the middle!

[Logrence]

No, it was just ugly.

And ill-advised.

[Stephen Green]

I have to admit that I rather liked it and thought the cars looked pretty good. The PR people really did a good job on that one IMHO

[sonic]

It weren't pretty - but it was a nice idea

I think BARs liveries have been consistently creative - esp their use of Davidsons 3rd car last year, and their naming of everysingle team memeber on the inside rear wing endplates.

[Born Racer]

And ill-advised.

What do you mean?

[TomS]

was it something that they knew was going to be banned by the FIA but they knew would generate lots of media attention?? If not then yes it has to be ill-advised (they should have known the rules before sorting liveries etc) but it was a creative solution that surely created more media attention than any other livery on the grid

[captain crunch]

The '99 BAR had the best color scheme of any F1 car ever. Full stop. No idea why they would have anbandoned such an original concept, I loved it.

[Dixie Flatline]

As I recall, it was an idea imported from CART, where teams can run cars in different liveries to double sponsorship.

The FIA canned it.

As a compromise, BAR ran the 555/Lucky Strike on either side of the car, probably to satisfy the requirements of BAT, who still wanted to get their brand names well-recognised.

I have a minichamps model of the BAR 01 Supertec. I have to say, it is visually striking.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Dixie Flatline

As I recall, it was an idea imported from CART, where teams can run cars in different liveries to double sponsorship.

I'm not sure that it was taken from CART because it had happened in F1 before, although it wasn't common place.

I think it was the desire to homogenise F1 a bit to add to it's professionalism. In some ways I find this a shame. For instance it is a little dull that all GP programmes are the same no matter what GP to - it is just a slightly different stylised picture on the front

[Logrence]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

What do you mean?

It was this smart-arse, arrogant approach to F1 that held them back for so long - Bernie Ecclestone really wasn't amused, it wasn't until Pollock and the like were gone that BAR could ever be taken seriously.

Like Jaguar, BAR came along and told everyone they could take over the world - it got people's backs up, and this livery business was just the entree in an interminable long and rather dull meal.

[ensign14]

The rules were changed almost to spite Pollock...if he had been a bit less in-yer-face they would not have bothered.

The 555 livery was wonderful. The Strike livery appalling.

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by AdamAshmore

I'm not sure that it was taken from CART because it had happened in F1 before, although it wasn't common place.

I think it was the desire to homogenise F1 a bit to add to it's professionalism. In some ways I find this a shame. For instance it is a little dull that all GP programmes are the same no matter what GP to - it is just a slightly different stylised picture on the front

I defer to your greater knowledge, but as I recall, Pollock himself said he wanted to take this from CART.

[GTRMagic]

The Gauloises sponsored Ligier team did something similar though, they had one car painted in their traditional livery, and another quite different, with Martin Brundle aboard, with more resemblance to their ciggie pack....

McLaren did it with their Marlboro Lites cars with Keke Rosberg too

[pD F1]

It looked strange, one side had a different colour scheme to the other. It was also a very poor car, maybe its pace was decent, as JV showed in Barcelona 1999, but the reliability was to be honest beyond belief, it was that bad!

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

The Gauloises sponsored Ligier team did something similar though, they had one car painted in their traditional livery, and another quite different, with Martin Brundle aboard, with more resemblance to their ciggie pack....

McLaren did it with their Marlboro Lites cars with Keke Rosberg too

Both of those were done as one-offs, or at least very occasionally.

Which is different from doing it full time.

[ACE Motorsport]

I loved that double colour scheme.
I have a model of it on my book shelf.
And I would love to buy a set of those overalls too.
Any ideas?

[EERO]

Interesting concept, horribly executed.

[Mr V]

It was the only thing that BAR could do to save face at the time, they had come in saying that they were going to run dual liveries, something thats not permitted in the rules and their lead driver (at the time) had spent the last couple of years (preceding 1999) openly critisizing the FIA, it was never going to happen.

The result - a horrible looking car, on one half at least, however, i do have a bit of admiration for BAR for doing it.

[Jordi]

Both were some of the best liveries ever. Boring instead were the cars from 2000-2002, all we saw was white dullness on the BARs.

The Lucky Strike livery was innovative. It was a splashing design, far more splashy than the Toyota is.

[TheNewBob]

At least BAR and Jordan were willing to be original on their car design. I happen to think every BAR livery has been either truly awful or very dull. Plus Jordan's last 3 efforts have been pretty tedious.

But modern day liveries have been so boring. Look at Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Sauber, Minardi... everyone recognises them as soon as they see them, so the continuity is there, but they're not exactly mind-blowing liveries.

Love them or hate them, at least BAR had a go and came up with something original.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by TheNewBob

But modern day liveries have been so boring. Look at Ferrari, McLaren, Williams, Sauber, Minardi... everyone recognises them as soon as they see them, so the continuity is there,

Call me dumb if you will, but in this day and age of sponsership, isn't that the point?

[Rennen]

Actually I must own up!...when I was first introduced to Greg Field BARs original team manager he told me of their dilema...how to show BATs two brands. Well folks it was ole Rennen (an ex signwriter and graphic artist) who came up with the dual livery! They came up with the Zip to hold both together (which I thought was abit tacky!)

Personnally I think the BAR livery is the neatest and most corporate scheme on the grid.
I've got one of their smart white anoraks...and I never tier of showing off how with a zipper here and a popper there the Luckies logos flap and tuck away to reveal the blank red non baccy bullseyes! (sad huh!)

Yeah I thought the 555 Shanghi livery was very smart...and weren't the BAT marketing people clever to predict to their Chinese conterparts that their '555 car' would be fastest in Friday practice!!!....Hahahaha!

[Jordi]

Well Rennen, well thought. I don't think there was any other way of doing that, featuring the two identities clearly than how it was done.

I also think this year's BAR has lost a little bit of it's appeal. I think the scheme looks too much cluttered, as opposed to last year's clean one, which was an evolution of 2003. I did buy a BAR shirt, I like the red-olive-white-black combo, just not in the new car.

[TheNewBob]

Mr V - yeh you have a well made point - it is the entire point... but didn't people instantly recognise something like Jordan's '91 and '97 efforts much more and much more adoringly than some of the dreary colour schemes we have seen of late? You can recognise the car, but there's no heart and spirit in the colours... particularly the Williams and on occaisions McLaren

[WebberForWDC]

Originally Posted by Mr V

Call me dumb if you will, but in this day and age of sponsership, isn't that the point?

NO, if you produce a new livery there are extra publicity advantages... You can launch the livery seperate to the car.

Or not having the same livery makes people think your new car is more different (like the cries of It's the same car! for Ferrari whereas Sauber only looks different round the side but has new paintwork on the rather not radical nose... and people were screaming how radical it was.)

There are major merchandise advantages in mercho driven series like NASCAR or V8SC.

There are many different ways to design stripes in the same colours, having a new livery adds to the sense of freshness of a new season... and allows for that season to develop more of it's own identity.


It's 100% positive to have a new livery for a new season.


At the very least the new livery should be a little different and have new detailing, like Rossi's Yamaha, the BARs, the more silver McLaren sidepod, the "redder" Toyota etc, the sharp new Focus WRC livery etc.