Livery Updates – Supercars Darwin

A few updates for Hidden Valley this year, including some lovely indigenous themed liveries for the race at the top end.

Up first, the newly progressive Holden brand is ‘supporting diversity’ with its indigenous themed livery. With traditionally earthy colours, along with Aboriginal inspired art work all over, it’s a very unique style of livery, one which we haven’t seen much of in this category. I have a feeling this will become even more popular next year, similar to how the AFL’s indigenous round has become a big thing in recent years.

Garry Rogers Motorsport has also gone the way of indigenous art, but here adding to their usual blue and white livery. They’ve done this cleverly, filling the blue sections with multicoloured (but mostly blue) artwork, adding some nice textures to what is usually a solid blue. Wouldn’t mind at all seeing this used on other occasions!

Le Brocq is the latest wildcard to enter the championship, with his first drive outside of the enduros. His Nissan Altima is sponsored by gogetta, which for those didn’t know (like me) are a rent to own equipment company.

The livery itself is multicoloured, featuring mainly black and lime, but also with blue and orange flashes. I feel as though just having one of those last colours would have been enough. The design is very jagged and angular which my preference so I’m quite indifferent to this. Looks at home on the Nissan though.

Lastly, Cam McConville made a surprise comeback with LDM this week and in doing so, brought green highlights in place of the usual orange thanks to Gemini. It works very well as a substitute and against my traditional thinking, it’s quite refreshing to see the same design in alternate colours like on a livery like this.

Livery Updates – Supercars Winton

A few new liveries this week, including two of the new wildcard entries for Winton.

A couple of mandatory livery changes to begin with; Percat first up. This week we see Freightliner, a supporter of BJR for a few years now, as the main sponsor on the #8 car. A great combination of colours, similar to Reynolds’ Penrite machine, with a bit of grey in the mix. Some nice, sharp and aggressive lines giving the Commodore a great look.

New colours again on Todd Kelly’s Altima, this time a deep blue for trucksales. I’ve got a fairly strong dislike for the clashing blues on this car, but it is what it is,

Macauley Jones was one of the wildcard entrants today, in his DrillPro sponsored Commodore, run by BJR. A rather basic livery in some standard colours, with a lot of white making the livery look a little boring. Some simple details here with a thick blue line all along the bottom of the car and along with the red Payce moustache, it creates some nice confusion considering this isn’t a GRM entry!

Shae Davies is a second wildcard at Winton in his Nissan Altima. An interesting design here sponsored by Loco Energy Drink, with some vibrant light blue and red bringing some life to the black and grey. It’s a nice black diagonal strip across the side, although I wish there was less grey, considering the other vibrant colours available on the car. While it’s good to see a new livery on the grid, it isn’t very memorable.

James Golding is also a wildcard entry for Winton in the #31, although he sensibly racing in a standard GRM livery.

Livery Updates – Supercars

A couple of livery updates for this weekend’s race at Barbagallo, let’s take a look at them.

Holden have decided to promote equality once again, this time with a pink and purple livery. It’s a very basic two tone effort, split in the middle with a simple gradient. The only other details are translucent gender symbols spread over the car. Interesting colours I guess, but doesn’t look like they spend too long designing this. Perhaps a go to when they can’t find a paying sponsor?

Another Holden change with Alex Rullo’s car sponsored by Strike Drilling for this round, as well as some Lift logos on both LDM cars. Same design with yellow instead of blue on the #62, although it’s not as visually pleasing this way.

Yet another carsales brand on Todd Kelly’s car this weekend, partsales being promoted on this occasion. As above, it’s the same design, but in a unique lavender colour, which at least is a break from the usual.

Livery Updates – Supercars Catchup

So I’ve slacked off a little after hours spent on the round-ups, so let’s take a look at some of what I’ve missed, starting with Percat, who will seemingly be changing sponsors each round.

Holden used Percat’s car to push some social responsibility during the Australian Grand Prix, painting the #8 in rainbow colours in support of marriage equality. It was a simple and very colourful design and didn’t look awful, passing as a decent art car. I have to say I’ve attempted this many times in the (distant) past to varying levels of success.

Come Symmons Plains, it was Biante on the side of the car, with something a little more subtle. Traditional white, red and black in a standard but pleasant design.

Then for Phillip Island, Hare & Forbes jumped on board, with something a little less uniform. A few too many colours on this livery, without much design to go with it. The number of slapped on logos can’t be hidden with the plain white, and is easily the weakest of the four efforts so far.

Back to Albert Park and Tekno unveiled this monstrosity. This is the definition of why putting a logo on an already established livery can go wrong. Horribly matching colours, especially on the bonnet with the EDG sky blue directly on the Woodstock red *shudders* with what was already a below par livery. I can only imagine they were short on time finding a sponsor for the non championship round.

Conversely, a livery on short notice can work well, given enough care is given. Lift sponsored Taz Douglas’ LDM car for the Australian GP and turned out an agressive, quite striking yellow and black livery. No real complaints here with all the colours working in unity, and all the jagged bits of yellow looking great. Shame it only stuck around for one race! However, it was promptly replaced with the same RMA livery as on Rullo’s car, which is also good.

Another piece of good news was RBRA touching up their F1 inspired livery. The Holden logo has now changed to white, which is a great move, considering it was somewhat lost in it’s previous form.

The Penrite Erebus also has a new look, with Enviro Box (not Castrol for once) bringing some green to the party and ruining the beautiful uniformity that was. That said, it’s not nearly as offensive as it could be and is a much more manageable shade of green in comparison to Castrol.

Lastly, Walkinshaw have struck a deal with Boost Mobile, to turn James Courtney’s Commodore orange. The design hasn’t change, but the new colour does provide an easy way to distinguish Courtney and Pye. Can’t say this is better or worse. Black and orange go very well together, so no real complaints here.

Round-Up – Supercars 2017 Field

One round down and here we are looking at this year’s liveries. There’s some good, some bad and not much ugly thankfully. Let’s get straight to it.

Brad Jones Racing

First cab off the rank is a beauty! With Percat now at his new home at BJR, Clipsal have come along to sponsor the car for the aptly named Clipsal 500.

Some great colours here in white, red and a very strong purple. While white is the main colour, it is complemented by the bright red that really pops, and the unique purple that suits the others so well.

The design is simple; the red and purple spikes framing the Clipsal logo nicely, ensuring that the car doesn’t look too white and plain in the process. Whilst this isn’t typically my kind of design, I like the fact that it’s uniform and uses the colours well. Would have been good to see this in more than one round!

★★★★

 

Freightliner are back, this time with Tim Slade at the wheel, and have gone the Force India route: lots of silver. I’m glad they’ve moved away from the standard red and black, but this isn’t better. The front of the car looks nice enough, with the bright white and silver spread evenly across the bonnet, complemented nicely by the bright red streaks and looking uniform.

However, the Freightliner logo is where most of the issues lie. Firstly, it’s a silver logo on a silver background. With a dark outline that it has, it can’t stand out. This would have looked better on white. Secondly, the shape of the logo means it is evenly outlined by the silver/red at the front, starting strong but breaking away in the middle, creating an uneven look. Finally, instead of keeping the entire side section silver with a red outline, as you’d assume it would be from the front, they’ve mixed some red into the middle section just in front of the rear wheel, causing the Frieghtliner logo to run over multiple colours and leaving the livery to look like a bit of a mish-mash. Originally gave this two stars, but it looks good from certain angles that I can’t nitpick from.

★★☆

 

CoolDrive Racing

This livery is definitely weaker than its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean it’s a poor effort. It’s just a far simpler design, with last year’s secondary blue as the main colour, although the two blues don’t match as well in this orientation.

Negative’s aside, I like the simplicity and the fact it doesn’t look cluttered, but it is missing the wow factor. Certainly better than your average livery.

★★★

 

Erebus Motorsport

Erebus have gone with a paler yellow/gold this year and looking back at last year’s livery, it’s a bit of a shame, as that strong yellow was very nice! Colour aside there have been significant changes for the 2017 livery. There’s a lot less going on overall, but there’s beautiful piping on the front and rear, along with some other red and gold bits on the bonnet and bumpers. They probably could have gone without the latter, as they are only on the front. Could have been a mean look, but instead the generic bits on the bumper don’t follow the shape of the car and just look like they’re filling space.

The side of the car is simply a giant Penrite logo, tilted and cropped. Rather plain, but not a bad look. Just feels like it’s missing some piping on that part of the car to match the rest of the livery.

★★★★

 

Dale Wood has moved to Erebus and brought GB Galvanizing with him. This livery is very similar to the one raced toward the end of last year at Nissan and is a pleasant look. It’s great to see that grey can be used well, in this case a dark shade and matte paint. It’s paired well with the white, especially on the splitter and above the intake, giving the car a nice milk moustache.

The red parts are a little out of control and would have looked better if they weren’t so erratically designed. Can’t complain much about this at all though, just wish Haas could make grey look this good.

★★★☆

 

Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport

Debuting this year at just 16 years old, Alex Rullo is the youngest driver in the championship’s history, and the first born in the 2000s. Controversial driver choice aside, the Repair Management Australia LDM has got a number of things right.

While black is the main colour, it’s really the high-vis orange that takes center stage on this livery. They both work well with the blue, in a design that is wonderfully jagged, compared to Wood’s livery above.

It’s just a nice livery overall, although perhaps something could have been done, such as some texture on the black, to keep the base from looking so plain. The livery is certainly missing something, but I can’t put my finger on it. It’s too bad Castrol has to come along and ruin the colour coordination, as it does on a number of liveries this season.

★★★★

 

With Taz Douglas standing in for Matt Chahda while LDM figure out they driver issues, the sponsors are similarly temporary, so there’s not much use in analysing this all black livery.

 

MEGA Racing

Jason Bright has moved back to Ford with Prodrive, driving the Mega Bulk Fuels Falcon in 2017. While it’s great to have two cars with purple liveries on the grid, one is clearly better than the other. The colour combination here, albeit dictated by sponsor Mega, is weak. The purple and blue aren’t vibrant at all, and don’t really go well together. Thankfully they don’t actually connect at any point on the car, as that could have looked awful.

Interestingly, they’ve gone with an asymmetrical colour scheme, with purple on the left front and blue on the right, and the opposite on the rear.

However, that’s not quite enough to bring life to this livery. The design is very simple, with just one section of blue and one of purple on each half, leaving a huge area of white along the side (which is great for Mega). With two dull, uncomplimentary colours, outlined by black to make things worse, this design just doesn’t do any favours for itself.

★☆

 

Mobil 1 HSV Racing

Holden has taken its official backing over to Red Bull, leaving Walkinshaw to fend for themselves. Thankfully they’ve got two very capable drivers in Courtney and Pye to steer them in the right direction.

As for the livery, they’ve gone dark and aggressive, with a mainly black matte paint job. On the other hand, the very bright red parts aren’t in matte, creating a nice variation in textures along the car, but also placed very aggressively. It’s a very strong design up until the front bumper, where it loses this aggressive look, adding a pointless pinstripe which doesn’t match the rest of the car, but that’s just a personal gripe of mine.

 

Can’t take away too many points for that though. The rest of the design looks great, especially the red flashes along the edge of the roof, windshield and bonnet. Mobil is huge on the side of the car, which works well enough in this instance, but Boost clashes a little with its orange. A very nice car to watch going around the track.

★★★★☆

 

Nissan Motorsport & Team Harvey Norman

Caruso’s Nissan this year is split into thirds, a bit like a Neapolitan ice cream, with red at the front, white in the middle and black at the rear. It uses a gradient, streaky and stripey design to blend the colours, with the side view the most rewarding. I like the top section of the car, which features black fading to white, but a sharp white down the side of the roof. Not a ground breaking livery but not ugly either – middle of the road.

★★☆

 

One of the biggest talking points at the beginning of the season was Simona De Silvestro joining the series as a full time driver. Her first hit out didn’t go badly at all, apart from being turned around while heading for the pits.

The livery is the same as Bathurst last year, apart from the more generic ‘Nissan’ colour palette. This wasn’t my favourite livery at the time and that hasn’t changed.

Some Nissan style stripey business along the side, but the front is the best looking section in my opinion. Simple, no-nonsense red and black, sharply split, following the shape of the unique Nissan grille.

★★☆

 

Preston Hire Racing

Preston Hire Racing already had one of the best liveries on the grid last year, so it was brave of them to make such significant changes. However, it’s totally paid off, designing another beauty in 2017.

This season, the car’s main colour is matte yellow, creating an inverted look to last season. The slightly pale yellow pairs perfectly with black, with all the logos slotting into the theme well, although I wish Fuchs could’ve gone with yellow rather than white to make an almost perfectly two-tone livery.

The main yellow and black sections folow the natural curves of the car beautifully, creating an organic base for the other small yellow and black protrusions and flashes. There are also some small red sections, adding a third colour which without sponsorship wouldn’t be necessary, but do look good and add a little something to the livery. The silver rims with black spokes are also a really nice touch.

★★★★☆

 

Red Bull Holden Racing Team

As mentioned earlier, Holden have jumped ship, joining the most successful team in recent history, and that’s a move that makes sense, to be at the top. However, with a team and brand as well renowned as Red Bull, I can’t imagine many people would be thinking about Holden as a main sponsor. I don’t know, I feel it would have made more sense to stick with their guns and be the straight up Holden Racing Team.

Red Bull have decided to emulate last season’s beautiful Formula 1 livery with a commendable effort of their own. They’ve used the matte navy and electric red paint and transferred it to Supercars with a suitable design.

However, I feel I have more gripes than likes with this one. The car looks confused and cluttered on the side, with the Holden and Red Bull logos fighting for space, leaving no room for an actual design. Whilst the Holden logo has taken the F1 style all red lettering, the Red Bull logo has retained the usual white outline which is baffling to me, taking away a sense of continuity in the design. I could only imagine this is to create a bit of differentiation between the Holden and Red Bull logos which could have been difficult to distinguish otherwise, but it just feels like they haven’t gone all in with the theme by doing it this way.

It’s still nice overall, the front looking pretty with the red splitter and piping on the grille, just few too any things that had be nitpicking.

★★★

 

Sengled Racing & carsales Racing 

How’s this for a confusing livery. Sengled stays on Rick Kelly’s car for 2017, with an overall design similar to last year, but what in the world is going on with that texture? Instead of the silver, there’s a weird ice or metal texture (I can’t figure out what in the hell it is), which looks absolutely hideous. This texture is also on some of the red parts, with the Sengled logo using a standard Photoshop filter for a 3D effect that I only ever used when experimenting with the program as a beginner.

An effort was made here, but this just proves that sometimes, simplicity is the best option. I was desperately close to awarding this abomination no stars at all and can only hope this was a Clipsal only livery.

☆

 

There are a few changes to the carsales Nissan for 2017, namely some larger areas of that lovely blue, which now covers the majority of the sides and top of the car. I can’t say it’s an improvement on 2016, but it’s still a good look overall.

The design is still distinctly Nissan with those jagged white lines parallel to the blue areas, although I am slowly getting tired of that ‘Nissan’ look, which thankfully has been broken up by Caruso’s new livery at least.

★★★

 

Shell V-Power Racing Team

All smiles at DJR Team Penske with the signing of young gun Scott McGlaughlin and having Shell on board for the entirety of the 2017 season. With this, one of my biggest annoyances of last season is gone! No more one livery fits all. What’s even better is that with Shell, one of the best colour schemes of last season is on the grid for good. Red, yellow and white go together very well, especially in this design.

I was initially a little disheartened when, after announcing a shortlist of liveries, they went with what is essentially last year’s design. However, part of the reason why I wait until Round 1 to do the round-up is to have a cooling off period, to ensure I’m speaking with my head and not my heart (well, not too much). I can now say I’m totally cool with their decision.

One of the biggest differences to last season is the red bonnet, which was white last year. While this makes the design simpler, it adds a further level of continuity and looks great with the bold red and attractively huge Shell logo. Apart from that, little has changed. One is the red boot, matching the bonnet. Another minor adjustment is the top yellow line on the side slimming toward the rear instead of getting larger. They’ve also added a nice touch, with the drivers’ mirrors and wings being yellow for Coulthard and White for McLaughlin.

★★★★

 

Supercheap Auto Racing

A refreshed livery for Chaz Mostert in 2017, with the majority of black seen last season making way for a lot more red. This leads to a great tricolour combination, looking a lot like Ingall’s Holden of a few years ago.

What’s presented is a beautifully complex design which unlike the Nissans, for example, connects large coherently jagged sections together, rather than dropping a bunch of odd lines all over the place.

Each coloured section is outlined by black creating great uniformity and separating the yellow and red well. Black is used nicely as a third colour for splitting the red and yellow and with flashes like behind the front wheels, but isn’t so strong in large sections such as the bonnet, where perhaps plain red would have been fine. I’m just happy to see Supercheap make changes on a yearly basis. Special thanks to Castrol and Ovo for ruining an otherwise completely uniform colour scheme.

★★★★☆

 

TeamVortex

TeamVortex looks refreshed in 2017 with a lot more white bringing a new look to the team. The famous teal is still around on a much smaller scale, interestingly textured for the most part. It’s actually a great pattern using three or four different shades of teal to spice up the livery. Take note Nissan, this is how you use textures without making the car look butt ugly.

The red stripe along the side of the car, as high as it is, squashes the Vortex logo a little too much and could have been avoided if the line was lower. On the other hand, the red and teal lines which start behind the rear side windows and finish on the bonnet look fantastic and frame the Caltex logo really well. Overall, I’m really glad to see this new take on the livery.

★★★★

 

TEKNO Woodstock Racing

With Darrell Lea not renewing their sponsorship and taking the Stix livery with them, Woodstock have come in with a red, black and white effort that I’m quite indifferent to. Three of the most standard Motorsport colours replace the exciting orange of 2016, but the design itself is what disappoints rather than the colours.

Red is mainly used on the front of the car, with some of this spilling onto the side, along with some white flashes. The Woodstock logo looks great on the side, but not so nice on the bonnet. I’m not sure why they felt the need to invert the colours, rather than just extending the black a little further out to accommodate the logo in its normal colours. It looks wrong in black with a white shadow, a red base. This might have needed a little less red, or at least some more love in the overall design.

★★

 

 

The Bottle-O Racing Team and Monster Energy Racing

The #5 is back and with it, another evolution of The Bottle-O livery. Bright green remains the overarching colour on the car, but I’m glad to see an increased presence of white this year. While I can’t be sure, it looks as though they’ve toned down the green a notch from radioactive, although I never had an issue with that colour.

The placement of the white makes it look like there is more of it than there actually is. It’s cleverly placed between the roof support, mirrors and in front of the rear wheel to open the livery up where it was quite dull last year with the large black sections. Speaking of black, it’s no longer matte this year, going against the grain, as the fad takes over the grid in 2017.

There’s still a few too many things happening on this livery, with the white and black sections not really speaking to each other, but still looks pretty good as a whole.

★★★☆

 

Waters is looking a new man in 2017 with two solid performances in Adelaide. His car too, is looking the goods. Gone are a the weird grey bits from last season and this results in a super clean livery.

It’s completely matte black, ensuring that all the logos, especially Monster, match well. Not too much more to say about this. You can’t screw up a livery if you don’t design one! All jokes aside, smart play for Prodrive. Even seemingly design-free cars like these take a lot of effort and sometimes keeping it simple is the best thing to do and lead to nice looking cars.

★★★

 

Wilson Security Racing GRM

A shake up at GRM means they’re racing two brand new Holdens, with Garth Tander at the wheel of the #33 after switching from Walkinshaw. At first I was surprised to see they’d kept the cyan colour on the car which was synonymous with Volvo, but I’m glad they have, because it is a great colour. On second thought, it appears they are still sponsored by Volvo trucks, so that might be the reason for retaining cyan. It also matches really well with white, black and red that is on the car, making this one of the most coherent four colour liveries I’ve seen.

The 2016 livery was already fantastic but this has to be just as good. Cyan is relegated to secondary status, with white evolving into the main colour. The black and cyan along the side fan out toward the rear, and whilst I’ve been largely against pinstripes lately, the black one on the side of this car actually looks pretty good.

The front of this car is also great, using the cars lines nicely on the bonnet and using the same design style as the side. The red headlights are neat and I don’t even mind the red Payce moustache. A+ for colour, design and sponsor uniformity.

★★★★☆

 

And that’s 2017 for liveries. A few different themes on the grid this year such like matte paint and different textures, but all in all  there’s a great mix of designs and colours. While they can’t all look good, there are definitely a few stunners in there. There are also a few wildcards this year, but I’d prefer to see them on track before analysing them. Now we can just hope for great on track battles, in what may be the last year of true V8 racing in Australia.

 

Bonus Awards

Almost forgot about this!

 

Best Looker Award – Preston Hire Racing

I was tempted to give this to GRM, but the canary yellow and black, presented in the largely two tone design has to be my favourite on the grid this year.

Least Attractive Award – Sengled Racing

Hands down. That texture is truly awful and ruins what would probably have been an average livery anyway.

Most Improved Award – Monster Energy Racing

With a lot of teams moving backwards, Prodrive have simplified and improved. Getting rid of the grey bits and green that didn’t match makes a world of different.

Biggest Nagger Award – Red Bull Holden Racing Team

The current F1 livery is superb, so there was potential for Red Bull Holden to do the same. It falls short on a couple areas, namely the outline Red Bull logo and bull, which is quite annoying. I wonder if they’ll experiment during the season.

It’s Time to Move On Award – Nissan

Their overall design theme is beginning to look tired. Let’s do something new in 2018 guys.

Potential F1 Livery Award – MEGA Racing

Poor colour choice and bland design. Belongs in F1!

 

 

 

Livery Lunches – 2017 Supercars Part 2

The Bottle-O Racing

I’ve increased the contrast and saturation in this image, as what has been released so far has been quite washed out. Looks like a lot more white this year after mainly green and black the last few. A nice change!

MEGA Racing

Brand new sponsor on the grid in Mega Energy, but boy is this livery poor. Horrible colours which don’t go well together (albeit forced by the sponsor logo) and a boring design accentuated by the large uninterrupted white section, leading to a livery that I wouldn’t even expect to see on a struggling Super2 (Development Series) team. How disappointing.

GoGetta Nissan

LeBrocq will be driving a Nissan in the Super2 series this year and will wildcard in a couple of Supercars rounds. A bright multicoloured livery thanks to GoGetta, but in an undeniably Nissan design. Perhaps one colour too many though.

Harvey Norman Nissan

Simona will be driving this mainly red Nissan full time this year. Looks pleasant from what we’ve seen so far and again, very Nissan.

Penrite Erebus

A bit of change here for David Reynolds. A lot darker this year with no real design on the side, just a giant Penrite logo. This is accompanied by a busy front section, and boy does the grille trimming look nice. Perhaps could have used a bit more of this trimming along the side, as it almost feels like two seperate liveries on the side and front. The gold looks a little lighter too which is a nice, subtle change.

GB Galvanizing Erebus

A matte grey design, but not a boring one! Quite full on with the different shades of grey, along with red and white forming a livery that wouldn’t be out of place on a modern racing helmet (busy and edgy). The design on the rear vaguely reminds me of Kimi Raikkonen’s helmet.

Garry Rogers Motorsport

Quite surprised to see GRM stick with the same colours in 2017, as a feel the whole Cyan colour scheme was very closely related to Volvo. That said, a lot more white this time around, and the blue still has significance with GRM’s long standing partner Valvoline.

Freightliner Racing

Freightliner have also lightened up this year, ditching most of the red and black in favour of white and silver. Looks refreshing at first glance, although the arched top of the Freightliner logo juts away from the shape of the design, which irks me. Will have to assess this further when more pictures are released!

Preston Hire Racing

A two tone livery here, utilising Canary yellow this year, along with black, in a simple, smart design. Very distinguishable from the Penrite Erebus too which is important. Two thumbs up.

Livery Launches – 2017 Supercars Part 1

The first few teams have come out to play in 2017, and have unveiled the liveries their cars will be racing in for the new season. Will keep these launch posts brief, elaborating further in the entire field reviews.

Red Bull Holden Racing Team

Triple Eight have taken inspiration from Red Bull Racing F1, using matte paint but looking a little messy with the addition of Holden.

TeamVortex

A new adaptation this year with a lot more white and a textured teal.

Team CoolDrive

The opposite for CoolDrive, with less white and a deeper blue as a main colour. A step down at first viewing.

Tekno

Will miss the orange of the STIX livery, as we have another red and black car on the grid, but you can’t blame Woodstock. Not too bad, albeit a little generic. The black Woodstock logo on the bonnet irks me.

Walkinshaw Racing

Mean looking black matte livery here, but the pin stripes along with the solid sections next to them annoy me the same way they did on the 2016 Ferrari. Mobil 1 is huge and too slanted? Surely it could have been integrated a little better.

DJR Team Penske

The Shell livery was one of their best last year, so I’m happy to see it return. However, they got a lot of people’s hopes up when they released their livery shortlist, disappointing a few with their decision. White bonnet is gone which makes the livery look darker, although the shade of red may also be a little deeper.

Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport

This will be a one off which is a shame! Nice bright white accompanied by a brilliant purple and vibrant red. A slightly retro look without feeling too generic.

Livery Updates – Supercars Retro Round Liveries

What a great initiative this is! The first round of this year’s Enduro Cup at Sandown has been given theme ‘Retro Round’. While spectators have been encouraged to dress up in the best retro attire, some of the teams have themselves created some ‘new’ liveries based on some old favourites.

Brand Jones Racing

#8

Team BOC’s retro livery pays tribute to Brad Jones’1991 AUSCAR machine. In plain bright red, the livery does well to match the feel of the original including a cool retro number, as well as the AUSCAR/NASCAR style front wheel arch logos. Top points for hitting the brief, but it’s very plain.

#14

Freightliner Racing isn’t based on a retro car, but is instead an original ‘retro’ design. It definitely gives off a 60s feel with the white, pinstriped section ending just in front of the front wheels, leaving the bumper and bonnet all in red. The old style logos really top this one off, although I wish the Freightliner logo was vertically centred.

DJR Team Penske
#17

This livery has actually been on my review list for a while now, but I never mangaged to get around to it! Thankfully for me, DJR Team Penske have gone ahead and recreated their 2003 (the 2000s are retro now oh boy) Falcon livery in what is a spot on adaptation. Driven by Steve Johnson and Max Wilson that year, the bright yellow design features a white section along the doors, outlined by thick red. At first glance it just look like an interesting spiked design, but on further inspection, the front section looks like a giant Shell logo placed on the bonnet, with the rear supporting the design theme.

Clever design work, a really lovely livery and replicated to an absolute tee. Only thing missing on the new version are the white wheels! I also thought it was semi-ironic to see American racing rival Haas as a sponsor on the 2003 version.

#66

On the Coulthard/Youlden car, DJR have attempted to recreate Penske’s 1972 Indy 500 winner, which was driven by Mark Donohue. It’s nice to see DJR Penske touch on both sides of the team’s history, but I have a couple of issues with this one.

Firstly, it’s difficult to transfer a single seater livery onto a sedan. Obviously I can’t blame the team for this, but I need to point out that it’s tough to make this one look authentic. Secondly, the yellow used here matches MightyMite, which is a much cooler shade than the warm Sunoco yellow, which is done out of necessity, but brings the level of authenticity down. Thirdly, the livery design itself is significantly different to the original. Where the 1972 version had lone pin stripes along the contours of the car, this weekend’s version has a thick double set of lines beneath the side windows, going against the original design. The number is nice, but I’m not sure why they felt the need to put it in a ‘retro’ circle when the original didn’t have one.

Apart from the blue, and the yellow wing/splitter sections, it’s unfortunately quite a poor representation of the original.

Nissan Motorsport
#23

Hard to judge this effort against the original 1966 Datsun due to the lack of and quality of images on the internet, but it seems as though Nissan have done a good job. With liveries very plain back in the day, Nissan have taken what distinguishing features they could from the original; the stand out red colour, as well as the black circle and white numbers, with the letter A next to them (this represents the class the original Datsun had raced in – thanks Jose for the info!). The tilted number/letter combo on the bonnet is great too.

In addition, there is a silver stripe along the bottom side of the car, perhaps mimicking the silver trimmings back in the day.

#96

I love how obscure a livery they have chosen to replicate here and brings hope for exciting new (old) liveries in retro rounds for years to come. Nissan have done a great job on this effort, with the mostly white car featuring a red and blue split section along the sides. The big yellow number is very NASCAR, as are the technical sponsors behind the front wheel.

Good to see the original GB Galvanizing logo used on the front bumper. Some good attention to detail here. Definitely fits the retro brief!

Wilson Security GRM

Despite the ongoing drama between Gary Rogers Motorport and Volvo, the team have decided to pay tribute to the 240T, which won the ATCC title in 1986. I have to say I’m a little surprised as to how well this has been transferred to the 2016 machine!

The four stripes in four different shades of blue start at the intake (unlike the original) and go straight along the side of the car, before jutting up and thickening, ending at the Wilson logo. Whilst Wilson Security have used their current logo (although it may be an old one that hasn’t evolved much, I’m unsure), Valvoline have used an old school one which is very nice to see. With the added red which didn’t feature on the original, as well as a few other liberties taken by GRM, it makes for an awesome take on a nice livery. I’d be quite happy to see this design stick around for a few more races!

Supercheap Auto Racing

Prodrive have gone back to 2002 for this livery and have done things a little differently in replicating the retro design, but with updated logos. They’ve done a superb job with this one, taking very few liberties (in terms of actual design) in recreating the original livery, whilst making it fit the new car very well.

The thing that jumps out initially is the brilliant vibrant purple that has been used. What an awesome colour; not used very often, but would easily look great over an entire livery. The purple, red and yellow combination is not one many would choose willingly, but given this round’s theme, it suits me just fine.

The design is rather simple, with the red and yellow sweeping up the side of the car toward the rear wing. The main excitement in this livery for me comes in the form of the two yellow sections coming from the headlights. What looks rather tame on the original is super aggressive on the tribute, as it’s been made to fit the new Falcon’s mean looking headlights very nicely.

What helps this livery work is the omission of the green Castrol section on the bonnet, who ironically sponsored the 2002 car, featuring in the very position it had been on Chaz’s 2015 car and on the other two PRA cars this year.

Erebus Motorsport
#90

The livery design on the Reynolds/Baird Erebus machine is not based off an old car, but rather has taken inspiration from main sponsor Penrite. Using a retro Penrite logos and colours from the 1960s, the livery pulls off a fantastic vintage look. It features a straight, main blue section along the side, with red and white stripes above and below the logo, following the lines of the car from front to rear.

This is all based off the old Penrite Oil cans and the bonnet shows this off best. I’d perhaps have preferred to see the thin red lines match up, possible connect better from the bonnet to the side of the car, but overall, the livery is fantastic.

#222 Lucas Dumbrell Motosport

LDM, for the Percatt/McConville machine, have replicated Phil Munday’s speedway livery from the 1970’s, using the long time supporter’s original logo and colours. Unfortunately I couldn’t find an image of the original livery.

While simplicity can work, it often comes down to the colours used to determine whether the livery is pleasant or not. In this case, the lovely green and contrasting white make the simple design shine. It’s just a thick green band wrapped around the car when it comes down to it, but the placement is great and with the lovely colour scheme it is very easy on the eye.

TeamVortex

Finally, TeamVortex haven’t based their livery on a real retro livery, instead using the old Caltex logo as inspiration. It is very basic and very similar to Nissan’s retro design in they are both basically simple red liveries, with a white line along the side of the car. The Triple 8 car includes some Red Bull branding on the front and rear bumpers. A basic design, but not exciting and also not ugly. I almost forgot about the Bright/Jones Commodore, so there you go, three plain red cars with different sponsors on them.

A great initiative by Supercars and while I’m not sure how many years it will carry on for, I’m sure we’ll all be excited to see what the team’s will decide to pay tribute to at Sandown every time.

 

Here are a couple of bonus liveries:

I was hesitant to include the Preston Hire livery because the only change they’ve made is plonking a giant ‘retro’ #18 across the front door and quarter panel. Perhaps that and the red and yellow off centre stripes along the top of the car, but I didn’t even notice that until looking at this picture! Nice to see they wanted to join in the fun, but seems as though they haven’t put in too much effort.

Not a retro design, but rather a livery update. Sandown saw Aaren Russell join Andre Heimgartner at LDM for the enduros and in doing so, bringing a new Fitness Plus livery to the grid. It’s a little different to the one used on the Erebus Commodore, with less white on this version, but does look like there has been a little less attention to detail. For example, the double logos along the side just look strange and with the black background, does give off the feel of a decal being slapped on the side of the car. I have an inkling this may be tinkered with further before Bathurst.

 

 

Livery Updates – Some (Mainly) Black V8 Supercar Livery Updates

A bit slow to punch, but here are the latest, mostly black V8 Supercars livery changes. Also, just thought I’d just mention that I’m aware the pictures are looking a little dodgy, can’t help the compression of the embedded pictures on this site, but if you click the on them, they should look just fine when expanded!

Nissan Financial Services on the side of Caruso’s car this week and another decent design for Nissan; black with red and white jagged bits. I like the look of the splitter in red and the boot in white, a cool contrast from front to back.

So another black, red and white car, this time for Shae Davies first race in the Erebus Commodore, although the more limited red and white look a little nicer than Nissan’s update in my opinion. Some nice subtle white and red line, all with purpose rather than being slapped on the car.

Not the first time MAN has been on the DJR Team Penske machines, but the first time with the red accent. Nice combination.

LDM have sorted out their sponsorship issues and have Repair Management Australia on the cars. Probably the weakest of the updates and the black cars overall. The design is a little odd to me; something about the line above the RMA logo throws me off.

And finishing with Super Black Racing, who have paid tribute to their late owner Tony Lentino with the above. Very sad for the team and especially his family, as he lost his battle with cancer at the age of 42.

Livery Updates -Nissan and DJR Team Penske

Nissan unveiled a new livery for Caruso’s Altima in Ipswich.

This livery promotes the Nissan GT Academy, bringing promising drivers from sim racing to real life Motorsport championships. It’s certainly one of the best uses of grey I’ve ever seen. The matte paint is accompanied by small flashes of regular shiny black, which have red and white strips within it.

The back is mostly black giving a more even spread of the matte and shiny textures. Lots of sharp edges on this design but still look well coordinated. Great looking car.

DJR have surprised the grid with another change.

I believe this is a return to a colour palette used before and it works well enough. I do miss the pink though!

Went through this last time, but LDM are all black at the moment. There’s something about all black liveries that just makes the cars looks awesome.

They should be boring, but end up looking great. Just need a couple more logos there for the team’s sake.