Roger
27 Apr 2001, 10:29
I’m sure some of you will be able to help me out – I’m building up a collection of pictures of ‘strange’ F1 cars; that is, both ‘normal’ F1 cars appearing in strange, un-typical liveries, and F1 cars which just look, well, strange.
I guess I must miss all the weird and wonderful colours of the private entrants of the 70s. Anyway, here is a list of some more recent pictures which I recall seeing, but don’t have. Please post any shots of these, or others of a similar nature:
Bridgestone test car
This should be a fairly easy one, as there were lots of photos around at the time. You know, the Ligier with the orange/white paintwork, as driven by Damon Hill. (was it just a Ligier, or was there an Arrows too?)
Michelin Test Car
Even easier, as this was very recent, and there were pics in Autosport and several French magazines. It’s the one with the big Mr Bibendum logo I’m looking for, not the plain white one which appeared in 2000. (Got several pics of that).
Middlebridge Benettons
My memory is a bit hazy on this, but as I recall, round about 1987 or so, Middlebridge tried to enter a couple of Benettons in either the Italian or Belgian GP (?) The entry was turned down (presumably because this was long after the time when private entrants had effectively been barred from F1), but I’m sure Autosport had a picture of the cars. I recall that they were 2-tone (split down the middle in BAR style), possibly black and white. (Or maybe it was just a black and white picture I saw).
McLaren launch car
Before the West colours were finalised, the MP4/12 was launched in orange livery. I have one (rather poor) photo, but there were lots published at the time.
Other launch/pre-season colours
BAR
Everyone remembers this – the BAR launch of the car in 2 separate liveries. But has anyone got a photo which clearly illustrates the all-over Lucky Strike and 666 liveries?
Lotus
Bad memory time again, but after the loss of Camel sponsorship, wasn’t the next Lotus launched in ‘replica Lotus 25’ colours? – green with yellow stripe?
The white McLaren(s)
Senna testing the Mp4/9 Peugeot?
The black Ferrari
I know nothing about this except that Minichamps produced a model. Presumably all cars look like this originally, but any photos?
Honda
I’ve got several shots of the 1999 car – one set of the all-white Barcelona version, and others of the red and white But somewhere in the back of my mind are memories of another Honda test car from much earlier in the 1990s
Bravo
I’m probably wrong on this, because I have one story about Bravo which is illustrated by a photo of an Andrea Moda, and from not long afterwards, a photo of a Simtek 941. Did the Bravo ever exist to the extent of having its photo taken?
(ditto Durrango, Ikuzawa etc. Did any of the planned 90s cars ever exist, apart from the Dome and the DAMS?)
BOSS cars
To their credit, most owners of historic F1 cars tend to keep them in near-original colours, but what about the not-quite-historic, not-quite-current cars which ran in the BOSS series? I seem to have missed out on this series completely, and apart from shots of Sarah Kavanagh’s very nice red-and-white Jordan, nothing.
I guess I must miss all the weird and wonderful colours of the private entrants of the 70s. Anyway, here is a list of some more recent pictures which I recall seeing, but don’t have. Please post any shots of these, or others of a similar nature:
Bridgestone test car
This should be a fairly easy one, as there were lots of photos around at the time. You know, the Ligier with the orange/white paintwork, as driven by Damon Hill. (was it just a Ligier, or was there an Arrows too?)
Michelin Test Car
Even easier, as this was very recent, and there were pics in Autosport and several French magazines. It’s the one with the big Mr Bibendum logo I’m looking for, not the plain white one which appeared in 2000. (Got several pics of that).
Middlebridge Benettons
My memory is a bit hazy on this, but as I recall, round about 1987 or so, Middlebridge tried to enter a couple of Benettons in either the Italian or Belgian GP (?) The entry was turned down (presumably because this was long after the time when private entrants had effectively been barred from F1), but I’m sure Autosport had a picture of the cars. I recall that they were 2-tone (split down the middle in BAR style), possibly black and white. (Or maybe it was just a black and white picture I saw).
McLaren launch car
Before the West colours were finalised, the MP4/12 was launched in orange livery. I have one (rather poor) photo, but there were lots published at the time.
Other launch/pre-season colours
BAR
Everyone remembers this – the BAR launch of the car in 2 separate liveries. But has anyone got a photo which clearly illustrates the all-over Lucky Strike and 666 liveries?
Lotus
Bad memory time again, but after the loss of Camel sponsorship, wasn’t the next Lotus launched in ‘replica Lotus 25’ colours? – green with yellow stripe?
The white McLaren(s)
Senna testing the Mp4/9 Peugeot?
The black Ferrari
I know nothing about this except that Minichamps produced a model. Presumably all cars look like this originally, but any photos?
Honda
I’ve got several shots of the 1999 car – one set of the all-white Barcelona version, and others of the red and white But somewhere in the back of my mind are memories of another Honda test car from much earlier in the 1990s
Bravo
I’m probably wrong on this, because I have one story about Bravo which is illustrated by a photo of an Andrea Moda, and from not long afterwards, a photo of a Simtek 941. Did the Bravo ever exist to the extent of having its photo taken?
(ditto Durrango, Ikuzawa etc. Did any of the planned 90s cars ever exist, apart from the Dome and the DAMS?)
BOSS cars
To their credit, most owners of historic F1 cars tend to keep them in near-original colours, but what about the not-quite-historic, not-quite-current cars which ran in the BOSS series? I seem to have missed out on this series completely, and apart from shots of Sarah Kavanagh’s very nice red-and-white Jordan, nothing.

