The famous blue-and-orange Gulf Oil colors are iconic in racing history. They’ve been worn by several brands, including historic McLaren race cars. Now a new McLaren street car wears the Gulf colors as the British supercar company unveiled a one-off Elva speedster.

Revealed at Goodwood SpeedWeek via a “closed-door” broadcast, the car showcases a partnership between McLaren and Gulf Oil. The oil company signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with the McLaren Formula One team in July. As part of the deal, McLaren customers will be able to order Gulf-liveried cars through the automaker’s McLaren Special Operations (MSO) personalization division.

McLaren and Gulf have a long history of collaboration. Gulf branding appeared on McLaren Formula One, Can-Am, and Indy race cars from 1968 to 1973, the automaker noted in a press release. However, those cars typically wore McLaren’s then-trademark Papaya Orange, rather than the full Gulf livery.
More recently, MSO painted a Senna GTR LM in Gulf colors to commemorate the number 24 McLaren F1 GTR that finished fourth at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car was one of five Senna GTR LM models built – one for each of the F1 GTRs that finished that race (out of seven entered). Also be sure to check 15 beautiful cars of all time and 15 fastest cars in the world.

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