While it is disputed if Landor himself designed this car’s adaptation of the livery, its simple, striking use of an “A” with the Italian flag’s three colors on the car is not.

His creation of the Alitalia logo was directed by a mission for a modern graphic that could be adaptable to many kinds of aircraft. The man responsible for this design is Walter Landor, a German designer who, with his agency, created many iconic designs for many important businesses and organizations. Winning its last race at the Tour de Corse in Bernard Darniche’s hands in 1981, its livery would be known well throughout the rally world, with its dynamic, angular lines following the wedge’s contours and utilizing the red and green of the Italian flag on a white background. The Alitalia Rally Livery debuted on the Lancia Stratos, The Stratos HF would wear this livery while winning the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975, and 1976, with its potential being halted when the Fiat group stopped supporting it andw declared the 131 as its successor. After sponsoring the Mirages, Gulf would go on to sponsor Porsche’s 917K’s, which forced the colors deeper into the annals of history, a point evidenced by the fact that many teams, including Aston Martin Racing, to name one, still use the Gulf livery on their cars. The blue we recognize in the current livery isn’t that of Gulf’s indigo, but rather that of powder blue, with Davis doing so because he believed the lighter car was more exciting in combination with the Marigold Orange, forming an equiluminant livery of complementary colors. Sponsorship would come from Gulf Oil, prolonging the nascent livery’s life span. Automotive Engineering taking over the team’s management and renaming the cars Mirages.

left sports car racing and the CSI reducing Group 6 prototype endurance cars’ displacements to 3.0 liters, John Wyer, who was key in the GT40’s inception, decided to let the car race at Le Mans as a Group Four sports car, with J. Gulf Oil’s famed livery dates back to 1967, when Grady Davis, the vice president at the time, entered his own Ford GT40 (number 1049) as an independent entry, finishing the car dark blue with an orange stripe.

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