Livery - I don't get it

I think a large part of livery was to separate the comp cars from the street version AND from other racers. Before entering a race, it's a bit like war paint before going into battle while also expressing your own individuality. Plus adding different colours and shapes adds contrast to a pretty boring colour in some cases.

I like the livery pre sponsorship advertsining as by then it was pretty professional with race versions having less and less resemblance to the road cars.

Plus it's just fun and quite artistic which gives these cars another dimension to enjoy.

 

The question is if the livery is underneath or above the clear coat. I can't imagine there was a tailor made department doing livery underneath the clear coat back in the day. But I could be completely wrong.

 

If you've never been to an endurance race you can't even try to understand why the cars have very unique and different livery. It's so that the crews in the pits and the folks in timing and scoring don't lose track of the cars. Without it you'd never be able to keep track of the cars going by, since sometimes they're beside or in a gaggle of cars as they pass the timing and scoring position. Numbers are nice when they can be seen, but the crews and timing and scoring persons get to know the cars by their livery and their numbers and it's a huge help to keep it all sorted out. Remember there were often several cars that were, other than their livery identical at each race and the livery was really the only way to tell them apart as they came by in traffic when it's hard to see the numbers.

Just as important at the painted livery is the layout of the marker lights on the car which the crews try to make unique to each car for the same reason in the dark of night numbers were hard to see in the first place, and the layout of the lighting helps the crews and timing and scoring to keep track of their cars.

For these reasons the livery is an integral part of each race car. That's how it looked at the time and those who want to restore the cars to how they were in period try to get the livery right too.

And yes a P4 or GTO in livery surely isn't as nice looking as it is in normal paint, but that's what it looked like when it was raced, so that's what a lot of owners want.

 

I don't think they had clear coat back then. I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, but I think it was probably all single stage paint back in the day.

 

Correctamundo... All the livery was painted on in single stage paint. Remember that these cars were done back in the day in lacquer which dried, cracked, crazed and faded.. But the good news it was easy to touch up and blend so if you damaged the finish you could spot paint it, rub it out and get back on the track.

The only thing that was close to clear coat was clear lacquer and it cracked and crazed in short order. You would see it sometimes over candy colors on show cars, but if it got much sunlight it would craze into a mess.

Today's finishes have noting in common with what was done back in the day.

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

My SWB 2735, was delivered straight from the factory to Le Mans in 1961 in its Rob Walker Blue with the White Noseband and Roundels for Moss and Graham Hill, (driving in this instance, for NART). This was the way the factory acknowledged the order and the way it left the factory. Race no 18 was added to the SWB for its showing at Le Mans, thereafter different numbers were added for different races. These numbers would be applied with a paint wash, that would later harmlessly be washed off.

Today I carry the No 7 on the car and like BIRA, Solofast, PSK and others, that is the way I think the Moss '61 TT winner should be represented, complete with its Le Mans night lights on the rear roundel, as raced by Moss in all his outings. The blue stripe on 2819 and the number 14 is what makes it to my eyes, distinctive as the GT winning car in the 1961 Le Mans and immediately sets it apart from any other silver SWB - and I welcome the fact that at a glance, I would be able to see that I had just seen such an important car, should it have passed me by.

To me the competition livery is an essential part of a car's history and whilst in certain circumstances it may not always be beautiful, in the case of pretty much every TDeF, SWB, GTO, Daytona etc etc i know of, I think it actually enhances their overall appeal

Clive Beecham

 

Sorry, I mean 2689 for the silver SWB. d'oh!

 

Clive,
You have a really nice ride!

Congratulations for that SWB!!!

 

I used to feel that the cars needed to be as they left the factory, but as I have grown older and more connected to the Ferrari world I have come to respect and love the liveries much more. Its that connection to history that should not be lost.

Just my .02.



PDG

 

Excellent commentary.

 

That's exactly what we did w/ 0556(0446)MD. When it was about 6 months old, it won its class, fifth overall at the GP of Venezuela, so that's the livery it wears today. Luckily, sports racing in 1955 was in the pre-sponsorship era, so other than the number and the SF shield, it is/was unadorned. We have a color picture of it being tested at the Modena Auto/aerodromo when it was brand new w/ no number, but in French Racing Blue w/ the white roundels - its original paint job. It didn't get its SF shield until it was traded back in to the Factory, before it was shipped over to Caracas as one of the Works cars.
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A really great and historic car. Fantastic.

 

I agree 0556(0446)MD is just beautiful today but you will notice the number 8 is not at the good place (higher originally) for example.

There are plenty of others restored cars which are beautiful in real but with many errors. The first that comes in my mind is 0026/M (Touring Le Mans Berlinetta) restored like the 1950 Mille Miglia victory but (sorry to say that) with several errors. No one cares but that hurts me...
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Unfortunately, we did not have that photo when we were restoring the car. In fact, I think the only pics we had during the restoration from that race were the color shot of Harry Shell from the front and a tiny b/w one of Castellotti from the driver's side leading de Graffenried's 0446(0556)MD 735S. Since 2008, we have received four other great shots, including the one above.

 

Cyril I totally agree

 

Love the racing livery on cars which have been raced with that livery during their "active" time. But in general I'm not a friend of duplicating racing livery on a car which was never used in competition....


Saluti,

Jürgen
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…one more...

Love the colour combination, are there some more details availabe on this specific car?


Saluti,

Jürgen
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Thank you very much Wayne, phantastic pictures!


Saluti,

Jürgen

 

Love the black soot!