OVER the past decade numerous special liveries have been wheeled out for the Bathurst 1000 by many of the top teams, but only once has a tweaked design greeted the chequered flag in first place.

WORDS & IMAGES: Mark Walker

The mere fact you are reading this is the reason why teams change their liveries up – it’s interesting, people click on the stories and the teams get a free kick throughout the motorsport media, all for the cost of a set of stickers, which would otherwise be reapplied before the race regardless.

There are merchandise spin offs too, and model car companies love it, with the reasons behind the various changes over the years evolving as time has passed.

While the cars often look superb, for the most part, they haven’t assisted in on-track fortunes in claiming that elusive win.

Here we look back at some of the different liveries that have popped up on The Mountain – which one was your favourite? Hit us up on the socials @theracetorque!

2010

HRT really got the ball rolling in 2010, with their tribute to race winner of Allan Grice/Win Percy from 20 years earlier. While Garth Tander/Cam McConville claimed third, the sister car of Will Davison/David Reynolds was set to finish strongly until crashing late.

2011

The DJR cars received an update for Bathurst in reference to a pair of Jim Beam brands, although the cars finished 25th (last), plus a DNF when Besnard backed the silver Falcon into the Griffins Bend fence and caught fire.

Russell Ingall meanwhile celebrated his 200th event start in the number 200 car, which came home eighth with Jack Perkins.

2012

The 2012 race brought retro liveries into the spot light, with the event heavily marketed in celebration of the 50 years since the event moved to Bathurst from Phillip Island.

Of course now, the Sandown Retro round features throwbacks aplenty, with that event largely becoming the focus for old school schemes.

Craig Lowndes/Warren Luff sported a Peter Brock Torana inspired livery, which took them to third.

David Reynolds/Dean Canto meanwhile celebrated the 1967 win of the XR Falcon in the hands of Fred Gibson/Harry Firth with their throwback, which was carried to second place.

Interestingly, instead of a sticker job, the entire car was painted by hand.

The main FPR cars meanwhile channeled Allan Moffat (above & top), but could only muster finishes of 11th and 24th.

From Kelly Racing, the Karl Reindler/Daniel Gaunt car paid simply paid tribute to older liveries, while the Jack Daniels machines featured gold highlights. All three cars finished outside the top 15.

On race day, the James Moffat/Alex Davison Tru Blu livery was revealed, with the car coming home tenth.

Supercheap wheeled out another tweaked look for Bathurst, which Ingall and Christian Klein drove to ninth.

2013

The big throwback was the Chaz Mostert/Dale Wood DJR machine, which like the original article, was thrown at the scenery in a crunching shunt during the preliminaries.

On race day it finished 21st.

Scott McLaughlin/Jack Perkins meanwhile wore some metallic paint on their GRM Commodore, which finished eighth.

2014

Nissan Motorsport started to step up in 2014, with this effort in tribute to George Fury’s record breaking pole position Bluebird from 30 years earlier.

It was classified 15th on Sunday.

So close. This Navy inspired look from Red Bull Racing finished fifth and tenth, although both cars were in the hunt, especially car 1, which was passed for the lead on the last lap.

It wasn’t the same outcome as 1994 for this DJR Falcon – Steve Johnson wound up in the fence following a mechanical drama early.

2015

Michael Caruso and Dean Fiore once again had an historic Nissan look, with a tribute to Jim Richard’s 1990 ATCC winner.

Rick Kelly meanwhile promoted the zero sugar cola pre-mix JD cans. The cars finished 13th and 16th respectively.

HRT sported Chewbacca, amongst others on their Star Wars inspired themes.

The Dark Side finished third with Garth Tander/Warren Luff, while Perkins/Ingall were 11th, in a case of the Empire striking back.

2016

The Volvos continued their Sandown retro theme at Bathurst, while Mark Winterbottom’s Falcon celebrated 10 years of The Bottle-O in the sport.

Two of the three were in the dead car park before the finish, the other one driven by Scott McLaughlin claimed 15th following his infamous late race skirmish with Tander and Whincup.

Another Nismo tribute for Caruso/Fiore, this time the 1991 Jim Richards/Mark Skaife Bathurst winner. In 2016, it was good enough for eighth.

2017

The car that broke the curse!

While not the biggest livery change of those listed here, the addition of the Australian flag motif to the Reynolds/Youlden car led home a 1-2 for tweaked liveries, with Pye/Luff continuing on their Sandown throwback, which paid homage to Peter Brock’s first ever HRT paint job from 1994.

With the squad losing their official HRT backing that year, the original lion/helmet logo on the side of the car could not be exactly reproduced on the 2017 version.

GRM carried over their Sandown schemes, with Tander’s a throwback to himself, and Moffat to his dad’s 1987 Rothmans Commodore look. These cars finished 18th and in the fence.

Mark Winterbottom ran a tribute to Allan Moffat’s ’77 winner (again), while Caruso sported a Big 4 Holiday Park scheme. These cars finished in the wall, and sixth respectively.

2018

Erebus tried again with some chrome, but the year resulted in finishes of 13th and 24th.

Rick Kelly/Garry Jacobson took on the look of the Larry Perkins Castrol Bathurst winners, while the sister Andre Heimgartner/Aaren Russell Altima borrowed Rick’s regular stickers. They finished 11th and 16th respectively.

Winterbottom/Canto paid tribute to the ’78 Moffat Cobra scheme, while Team 18 carried over their Sandown retro theme, a hat tip to the 1968 Monaro of Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland.

These cars finished 12th and 21st.

2019

Red Bull HRT ran a generic throwback, which finished second and fourth.

Kelly Racing sent it back to Russell Ingall’s Castrol scheme from 2000, while Matt Stone Racing went for ye olde Shane Van Gisbergen/SP Tools look from the SBR days.

This pair wound up eighth and in the wall.

Erebus went chrome once more, eventually being classified fifth and a concrete-induced DNF.