Gulf at Le Mans 24h

A short video showing Gulf branded sports cars, from the Ford GT40 to the Aston Martin DBR9. Soundtrack courtesy of Radio Le Mans. View the movie on the homepage in a larger screen in Windows Media Player, click here.

A short video showing Gulf branded sports cars, from the Ford GT40 to the Aston Martin DBR9. Soundtrack courtesy of Radio Le Mans.

Ever since Gulf Oil supported the Ford GT40 sports car in the 1968 Le Mans 24h race, the blue-and-orange colours have become a crowd favourite. Over the last 40 years several different car designs have carried the Gulf brand. A review of these is shown on this page. Gulf has been associated with some of the more famous sports car manufacturers. As well as Ford, these include Porsche, Audi, McLaren, Mirage, Zytek and most recently, Aston Martin

Of course, these cars are assembled and maintained by teams of dedicated engineers who rarely get the credit they deserve. The fame usually accrues to the drivers, and over the years such famous names as Jacky Ickx, Stefan Johansson, Derek Bell, Jo Siffert, Pedro Rodriguez, Paul Belmondo, Jackie Oliver, Lucien Bianchi, Bruce McLaren, David Brabham, Darren Turner, Antonio Garcia, Harald Frentzen, Karl Wendlinger and Andrea Piccini.

The visual appeal of the colour combination (a Gulf Trade Mark) has been one of the main factors driving the popularity of Gulf in sports car racing – and the cars are also a favourite of many professional sport photographers – precisely because the colours are so striking!