McLaren Orange

McLaren’s iconic orange paint was first seen on the McLaren M6A Can-Am racer in the 1967 season. Often colors chosen for racing cars have some nationalistic tie in or are a match to the sponsorship company’s color scheme, but this now unmistakeable orange paint was chosen simply to stand out better on America’s (then) new color televisions.

If that were the entire story one might question why orange McLarens are now so revered but it was the great success McLaren Racing’s drivers, Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, achieved with those cars that really made the mark. McLaren simply dominated the series capturing the Can-Am Cup 5 years running in subsequent versions. Through this success the vibrant orange paint became McLaren’s signature color and was also featured on the team’s Indy and Formula One cars into the following decade, scoring more and more victories.

In the mid-1970′s McLaren Racing entered into a sponsorship deal with Marlboro which necessitated a change from their trademark orange paint to the cigarette brand’s familiar red & white colors on their racing cars. As McLaren evolved into one of the premiere teams in Formula One this partnership in motorsport with Marlboro continued for nearly two decades and the orange cars were nearly forgotten.

By 1995, McLaren had moved beyond just being a racing car company, and a new division known as McLaren Cars Limited were building million dollar supercars known as the McLaren F1. Several of their customers, so impressed by the performance capabilities of the car, had pressured McLaren to build them a racing car variant of the F1 and thus the F1 GTR was born. For Le Mans that year seven F1 GTRs took to the grid and five of them completed the event finishing in 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th places.

Those results were a monumental achievement for a company whose products were making their first trip to the French circuit’s grueling 24-Hour race. McLaren chose to celebrate this result by producing 5 very special F1 road cars based on the F1 GTR which were given the name F1 LM. As a tribute to the great history of sports car racing that had built McLaren in the early years it was the company’s intention to have all of these cars painted in a hue very similar to those early orange Can-Am cars – a color they labled “Historic Orange”.

In the years that followed there have been other appearances of the flashy orange paint on McLaren’s racing cars. Pre-season testing for the 1997 MP4-12, which marked the change from Marlboro to West sponsors, saw McLaren take to the track in a full orange livery for the first time in over 2 decades. They repeated this for the 1998 pre-season testing of the MP4-13 and again in 2006 with the debut of the MP4-21.

Most recently we spotted the McLaren MP4-12C-GT3 donning the unmistakable Orange, called by some as “Papaya Orange” and now officially as “McLaren Orange” by McLaren Automotive.

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-of-San-Francisco.jpg

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-M6-GT1.jpg

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-Orange.jpg

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-F1-LM_1.jpg

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-F1-LM_rear.jpg

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-Mp4-GT3-rear.jpg

http://www.egarage.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/McLaren-MP4-HS.jpg

I wrote that. (http://www.egarage.com/car-profiles/mclaren-orange/) ;)

Wish I had been there to take any of the accompanying photographs.

>8^)
ER

Would you look at that! :rofl:

Nice to know one of "our own" wrote that. Any more stories on the Macs lined up for future editions?

Nothing specific in the works but with our shared connections to McLaren there's always a chance something will come up. I let the eGarage folks know that I'm always happy to assist whenever possible concerning McLaren-related topics.

>8^)
ER

Just noticed that McLaren Automotive shared the link on their own Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/mclarenautomotive) to nearly 18,000 subscribers. Neat! :)

>8^)
ER

There is another McLaren Automotive on Fb, it's a shame

Good find

First time when we saw this Papaya Orange Formula 1 McLaren in the tracks after those historic times were 1997 January if I remember right, January or February 1997. Hakkinen and Coultard drove the first laps, and later on, before season started, they launched the new McLaren brand color, silver with WEST main sponsor. :)

1974 M16C - Indy 500 winner.

http://www.stanleymotorcarriage.com/ToursShows/AmeliaIslandConcours/RutherfordMcLaren.jpg

Sami you are right. Here is the picture.

http://www.farzadsf1gallery.com/image_upload/mclarenOrangeMP4-12.jpg

Yep, and with this car; Hakkinen got his first victory in F1, Jerez where also J.Villeneuve got his world championship tittle! :) What a days those were!

Nothing specific in the works but with our shared connections to McLaren there's always a chance something will come up. I let the eGarage folks know that I'm always happy to assist whenever possible concerning McLaren-related topics.

>8^)
ER

Erik: I've always said you should write the definitive book on McLaren F1s. I envision a combination of Driving Ambition, McLaren GTR, GT Endurance and Le Mans, that details the development including LMs, detailed racing history, color changes, and street conversions. You could even have a small section of auctioned parts, authorized and unauthorized memorabilia.