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Going green for St. Patrick’s Day
© GMEvery year, the world turns green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The automotive world has been joining in for years, with some legendary green motors through the decades. Sit back and enjoy some of the finest – such as this very famous NASCAR, with which history was made…
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Danica Patrick’s 2013 NASCAR
© GMIn 2013, Danica Patrick made history by becoming the first female NASCAR driver to take pole position at the Daytona 500 race. She also became the first female to lead the ‘Great American Race’ and was in contention to take the overall win right until the final lap. Her No. 10 Stewart-Hass Racing Chevrolet stock car is now an iconic piece of NASCAR history… and naturally we had to include it for St. Patrick’s Day!
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Bullitt Ford Mustang GT
© FordThe 1968 film Bullitt features what many consider the greatest car chase sequences of all time. Steve McQueen, as cop Frank Bullitt, was driving the Mustang, being chased by two hitmen in a Dodge Charger. We’re not spoiling anything by revealing McQueen had the skills to see them off.
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2018 Ford Mustang Bullitt
© FordFord revived the Mustang Bullitt in 2018 for a very special limited edition of the latest V8 car: a guaranteed collectable if ever we saw one. It was created to mark 50 years of the iconic film.
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1968 Shelby Green Hornet
© FordA long-lost 1968 Shelby GT500 prototype, known as the Green Hornet, was restored in 2020 for Barrett-Jackson CEO Craig Jackson. During the restoration, another experimental Shelby, Little Red, was discovered and restored too – both were the only original Shelby notchback coupes ever built. Ford built one-off 2020 Shelby GT500 Candy Apple Green and Rapid Red cars for Jackson to complete the collection.
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National Lampoon Family Truckster
© Barrett-JacksonThe cult 1983 comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation made a star of everyone involved – including Clark Griswold’s Family Truckster. Based on a 1979 Ford LTD, this isn’t the original, but it is a convincing replica – and in 2019 sold for $100,000…
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Transformers Corvette C7
© GMThe 2014 Corvette C7 starred in the Transformers: Age of Extinction movie as Autobot Crosshairs. It was voiced by John DiMaggio.
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The Fast and the Furious VW Touran
© ShutterstockThis radically-modified Volkswagen Touran appeared in the third instalment of the Fast and the Furious franchise. It was driven by Twinkie (played by rapper Bow Wow) and is themed around The Incredible Hulk – note the custom bodywork with Hulk’s fists bursting through the doors.
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Die Another Day Jaguar XKR
© NewspressThe evil Zao drove this high-performance Jaguar in the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day. Some argue it’s one of the most disappointing chase scenes in James Bond movie history, although the sound of the Jag’s V8 engine and Bond’s Aston Martin ‘Vanish’ do live on in the memory.
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Dario Franchitti Team Green
© HondaFour-time IndyCar Series champion and three-time Indianapolise 500 winner Dario Franchitti started racing for Team Green in 1998 and achieved plenty of success with the team. The livery reflected the name…
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Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing
© LATFranchitti’s final season was in 2013, which saw him race this particularly colorful Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara.
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Jordan 191 F1 car
© GoodwoodThe Irish Jordan team bust onto the Formula 1 scene in 1991 with the beautiful Jordan-Ford 191. The team finished an amazing fifth in its debut season – and, along the way, helped the legendary Michael Schumacher make his spectacular F1 debut at that year’s Belgium Grand Prix.
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Aston Martin Racing
© Aston Martin Racing30 years on, the modern incarnation of the Jordan team becomes green in 2021 too. Aston Martin Racing returns to the Formula 1 grid in 2021 – complete with a beautiful new green livery that replaces the pink color of last year’s Racing Point cars.
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Aston Martin FIA cars
© Aston MartinAston Martin is also sharing Safety Car and Medical Car duties with Mercedes-AMG in Formula 1. The Vantage Safety Car and DBX Medical Car share the same rich green color as its racing cars – and are certain to become famous in 2021…
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The Prisoner’s Lotus 7
© NewspressKAR 120C is famous for its role in the cult 1960s British TV show, The Prisoner. This Lotus 7 is more than just a number, it’s a hero of the small screen. And naturally is finished in green.
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Classic Jaguar D-type
© JaguarJaguar, of course, has form with green cars. Think British Racing Green, and it won’t be long before you think about the multiple Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Jaguar D-type from the 1950s.
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Jaguar XJ-S TWR
© GoodwoodJaguar also raced in green during the 1980s, with this beefy TWS Jaguar Racing Team XJ-S taking the 1984 European Touring Car Championship crown. Of course, the less we say about Jaguar’s entry into Formula 1 in the 2000s, the better…
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Land Rover Series 1
© Land RoverHere’s the very first Land Rover – finished in a now-legendary green color. ‘HUE’ dates back to 1948 and now resides in the British Motor Museum.
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Willys MB Army Jeep
© NewspressLand Rover’s arch rival US 4×4 brand Jeep also has a long association with green, which dates back to its roots as a go-anywhere army vehicle. Over 360,000 of them were built between 1941 and 1945.
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Bentley Speed 8
© Bentley MotorsIn 2001, Bentley returned to motorsport, in what other livery but a green-themed one? In 2003, the Speed 8 famously won the Le Mans 24 Hours, leaving its rivals (ahem) green with envy.
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Bentley Blower
© Silverstone ClassicBentley is another brand that has form with green racing cars. Its 1920s racing cars became synonymous with the colour green and the Union Flag: they triumphed back in the 1928 Le Mans 24 Hours.
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Dodge Challenger Sub-Lime
© ShutterstockBack across the Atlantic for one of performance brand Dodge’s most famous 1970s colours – the aptly-named Sub-Lime, featured here on a Challenger R/T. A 1969 Sub-Lime Charger R/T 440 was the star of 1974 film Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.
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Dodge Challenger Sub-Lime
© ShutterstockThe firm has revived it in recent years… is it just us, or is it even more searing than ever?
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Vauxhall Lotus Carlton
© VauxhallOther green hero cars from history are the monstrous Lotus Carlton, Vauxhall’s high-performance legend from the 1990s that only came in green.
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Alfa Romeo Montreal
© Alfa RomeoSome cars simply look best in green. Take this 1970s Alfa Romeo Montreal, one of the finest-looking cars ever and surely always destined to wear a green suit. Just look at it.
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Bertone Alfa Romeo Carabo
© Alfa RomeoAnother famous green Alfa Romeo, the Bertone Carabo from 1968 is perhaps one of the most famous green concept cars of all time. The name stems from the family name of ground beetles, hence the distinctive green and orange paintwork.
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Saab 92
© NewspressAnother car company that started out making green cars was Saab. In 1945, it switched from producing planes for the Swedish Air Force, into car production. The Saab 92 was intended to be its version of the Volkswagen Beetle, and each early car was finished in distinctive bottle green. Rumour has it, this was the only colour available at the time, having been used to paint its aircraft.
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Mercedes-AMG GTR
© Mercedes-BenzLet’s close with a more modern icon, the Mercedes-AMG GTR revealed by F1 star Lewis Hamilton a few years ago. Why was the halo car painted green? To celebrate the fact it was developed to take on Germany’s iconic Nurburgring racing circuit, famously described by Sir Jackie Stewart as ‘the green hell’.