Racing history, told one season at a time

How rulebooks, circuits and liveries shaped Formula 1, NASCAR and endurance racing from the 1950s to the 1990s.

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Bentley 4.5 Litre sports car in dark British racing green, the color British teams carried at Le Mans
A Bentley 4½ Litre in the dark green that British entries carried at Le Mans in the late 1920s. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The eras, decade by decade

1950s

  1. The first Formula 1 World Championship race runs at Silverstone.
  2. The rear-engined Cooper T51 wins the title and front engines start to disappear.
F1 car evolution

1960s

  1. Team Lotus races in Gold Leaf colors, and sponsor liveries begin to replace national colors.
  2. The last traditional Le Mans start, with drivers running across the track to their cars.
What a livery is

1970s

  1. The Lotus 78 shapes its sidepods as upside-down wings, the start of the ground effect era.
  2. The Brabham BT46B fan car wins once and is withdrawn after a single race.
Cars & Rulebooks

1980s

  1. Formula 1 requires flat car floors, ending the ground effect era.
  2. Group B rally cars are banned at the end of the season.
Races & Rules

1990s

  1. Richard Petty starts his last NASCAR Cup race, at Atlanta in November.
  2. Formula 1 bans active suspension and traction control before the season.
Flags across the series

Subjects in the archive

Each post sits in one subject. Every account names the season, because the same car could look quite different from one year to the next.

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Every post on JohnHellard is signed Walt Brennan, a pen name shared by the site’s writers. Seasons, results and specifications are checked against series archives and period sources, and where historians disagree, both versions are noted. Drafts are prepared with AI assistance, and no post goes live until each date, result and figure in it has been traced back to a source.