If you are one of the lucky persons who experienced racing in the 60s and 70s, then the colors orange and pastel blue will always attract your attention, no matter where they are put upon, house, clothing or even a barge! This is because they are the colors of associated with Gulf Racing. Teams such as Gulf JW Automotive were famous in the late 60s for their phenomenal wins.
Recently Classic Driver gathered the best Gulf Racing cars of all time from the RofGo Collection. For starters, RofGo Collection houses some of the best Gulf Racing cars that ever existed. It was commissioned by German race enthusiast Roald Goethe who was an avid fan of the sports in those days. When his business became successful, he started planning on making his dreams come true.
He approached Adrian Hamilton to enquire about a former JWA and Ex-Works Team Gulf-liveried Ford GT40. Adrian who had experience in collectibles for over 40 years made it possible for him to acquire it. Adrian later convinced Roald to start a collection of these Gulf cars and two years down the line, the collection was immaculate!
These are the cars that Classic Driver choose as the greatest of all time from the RofGo Collection, they are four in total.
1. Ford GT 40
This was the first car of the collection and bears the chassis number 1084. The car finished fourth place in the 1968 Spa 1,000km. The Ford GT40 is known for its sheer performance in motorsports having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times in a row- 1966 to 1969. It is powered by various Ford V8 engines with different displacements, the Mk I, Mk II and Mk III variants were build in England while the Mk IV was build in the US.
2. Porsche 917K
This particular racer was driven by Richard Attwood and Herbert Müller in the 1971 Le Mans but lost narrowly to its counterpart, a Porsche 917K in Martini livery. The Porsche 917K were based on the 917 racecars and one of the 9 variants of the 917. The 917K were famous for winning the 1970 and 1971 World Sportscar Championships. The 917K pictured here utilized altered tail and shark fins to reduced drag and maintain down force. It has close to 620hp.
3. McLaren F1 GTR
Amazingly, the RofGo Collection has seven of these McLaren F1 GTRs. These are race versions of Gordon Murray’s masterpiece- the McLaren F1. It was Ray Bellm alongside team managers like Ray Bellm and Thomas Bscher who persuaded Murray to build the GTR. He agreed and went back to the drawing board.
In 1995 the first batch of McLaren F1 GTRs appeared, they took part in BPR Global GT Series, FIA GT Championship, JGTC, and British GT Championship but most famous during the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans where they won flawless. In 1997 the “Long Tail” was introduced in order to comply with new FIA rules. Automatically its competitors like the Porsche 911 GT1 and the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR had met the requirements.
The Long Tail variant now had longer nose and tail, wider wing for maximum downforce and wider wheel arches for maximum grip by the wide track tires.
4. Aston Martin DBR9
This was the final selection by Classic Driver from the RofGo Collection. As you can see, it still has the dust from its previous race. This is one of the two DBR9s in the collection and the dirt you see was from its two previous wins of 2007 and 2008 GT1 class wins in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Aston Martin DBR9 made debut in 2005, based on the road going DB9 car and built by Aston Martin Racing. It’s career ended in 2011 when FIA abolished the GT1 class.
[Via Classic Driver]
