Last update: September 2, 2024
British Petroleum is one of the largest chemical companies in the world and sponsored many racing cars in the 70’s and 80’s of the previous century. Of course many more teams and cars used BP oils and fuels, but here I present only the cars in the yellow and green livery of BP in my collection.
The early years
1969 Zeltweg, Porsche 908/02. Masten Gregory raced this #36 Broström entered Porsche 908/02 in a local race at Zeltweg, unfortunately he got disqualified. Two weeks later the team would finish 4th in the World Championship race at the same track wearing #11.
#36 Masten Gregory (USA) – DSQ
Broström Porsche 908/02 – 3.0 liter Porsche 908 flat-8, approx. 350 hp. Dunlop tires. Weight 600 kg. Aluminium space frame, chassisnr. 908/02 #010
- BEST 9066 (diecast)
1971 Le Mans 24h, Porsche 908/02. Guy Chasseuil and Claude Ballot-Léna raced this beautiful Sonauto Porsche 908/02 in the European races of the World Championship wearing #3. Their best result was 5th at Spa-Francorchamps. At Le Mans they retired after a crash in the 15th hour.
#28 Guy Chasseuil (F) / Claude Ballot-Léna (F) – DNF
Sonauto Porsche 908/02 – 3.0 liter Porsche 908 flat-8, approx. 350 hp. Dunlop tires. Weight 600 kg. Aluminium space frame, chassisnr. 908/02 #026
- SPARK S1980 (resin)
1971 Le Mans 24h, Ligier JS3 – Cosworth. Guy Ligier entered this 3-liter Ford Cosworth powered JS3 at Le Mans, co-driving with Patrick Depailler. After a troublesome race they managed to finish, but hadn’t covered enough laps to be classified.
#24 Guy Ligier (F) / Patrick Depailler (F) – DNC
Ligier JS3 – 3.0 liter Ford Cosworth DFV V8 90º, approx. 420 hp. Dunlop tires. Weight 620 kg. Aluminium monocoque, chassisnr. JS3 #001
- SOLIDO Racing Collection 240054 (diecast)
Touring Cars
1971 Spa-Francorchamps 24h, Ford Escort RS 1600. Yvette Fontaine was famous in Belgian where she raced a lot with her Ford Escort. For the 24-hour race she got company from Dutch driver Han Akersloot. They were competitive, qualifying 16th overall, but had to retire with a broken driveshaft.
#51 Yvette Fontaine (B) / Han Akersloot (NL) – DNF
Ford Escort RS 1600 – 1.7 liter Ford BDA straight-4 16-valve, approx. 200 hp. Goodyear tires. Weight 750 kg. Steel monocoque, chassisnr. unknown
- TROFÉU RE BE225 (diecast)
1978 French Touring Car Championship, BMW 530i. The French Production Car Championship was very competitive. It developed from near standard Group A cars in the 70’s to more special cars in the mid 80’s. Alain Cudini drove this BMW 530i in the 1978 championship and finished third behind Lucien Guitteny in a Ford Capri and Rene Metge in a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.
#2 Alain Cudini (F) – 3rd
BMW 530i – 3.0 liter BMW M30B30 straight-6, approx. 260 hp. Weight 1070 kg. Steel monocoque, chassisnr. BMW E28 #unknown
- SOLIDO 89 (diecast)
1980’s in Le Mans
1980 Le Mans 24h, TOJ SC206-BMW. Long before LMP2, the Sportscars up to 2-liter were the amateur category at Le Mans. Small prototypes from Lola, Chevron, Osella and TOJ with 4-cylinder engines from different makes were popular, however a number of these didn’t qualify for the race. This is the TOJ with a BMW engine entered by Hubert Striebig. It qualified 47th but retired early in the race. The 2-liter category was won by two ROC entries with Simca engines.
#22 Hubert Striebig (F) / Mario Ketterer (D) / Michel Pignard (F) – DNF / ingition
Striebig TOJ SC206 – 2.0 liter BMW M12/7 straight-4, approx. 290 hp. Weight 600 kg. Aluminium monocoque, chassisnr. #01
- SPARK S4771 (resin)
1980 Le Mans 24h, Porsche 935 K3. The K3 version of the Porsche 935 was a fantastic car. After Ludwig won the DRM and Le Mans in 1979, the Kremer brothers sold lots of K3’s. In 1980 no less then 10 competed in Le Mans, but most of them failed to finish, this one retired with a broken gearbox.
#43 Xavier Lapeyre (F) / Jean-Louis Trintignant (F) / Anne-Charlotte Verney (F) – DNF
Kremer Porsche 935 K3/80 – 3.2 liter Porsche Type 930/79 flat-6, approx. 700 hp. Dunlop tires. Weight 970 kg. Steel monocoque, chassisnr. Kremer #000 00013
- QUARTZO Q3007 (diecast)
1981 Le Mans 24h, Porsche 917 K/81. Kremer built this completly new 917K in 1981 when the engine rules changed towards the new Group C regulations for 1982. The car was based on the last 917’s from 1971 but with a stiffened chassis, changed geometry to handle the modern slick tires and a rear wing. The car was beautiful but much slower than the original due to wrong settings of the gearbox and the rear wing that hadn’t been tested in the wind tunnel and caused a lot of drag. It had to retire with a broken oil pipe.
#10 Bob Wollek (F) / Xavier Lapeyre (F) / Guy Chasseuil (F) – DNF
Kremer Porsche 917 K/81 – 5.0 liter Porsche 912.11 V12 180º, approx. 600 hp. Dunlop tires. Weight 900 kg. Aluminium space frame, chassisnr. Kremer #K/81
- SPARK S0917 (resin)
Many cars in the 1980’s that were sponsored by BP also had Résidences Malardeau advertising on the car, a chain of resorts and hotels. This combination could be found on the cars from Kremer Racing, Cooke Racing, Fitzpatrick, Rondeau and Jolly Club. It can’t be a coincidence, but I could’t find the link. If you know more, please put it in the comments.
1981 Le Mans 24h, Lola T600 – Porsche. The Group C category was officially launched in 1982. But the year prior to that, the engine limit of 3-liter was abandoned already. Porsche ran 2.6 liter turbo’s and this newly developed Lola T600 a 3.0 liter turbo engine. But the Cooke Racing car had all kind of troubles during qualifying and ended up in 61st spot, not enough to qualify for the race.
#17 Bobby Rahal (USA) / Brian Redman (GB) / Roy Woods (GB) – DNQ
Cooke Lola T600 – 3.0 liter Porsche Type 930/79 flat-6 turbo, approx. 600 hp. Goodyear tires. Weight 860 kg. Aluminium monocoque, chassisnr. #HU02
- SPARK S8606 (resin)
1982 Le Mans 24h, Lola T610 – Cosworth. Cooke Racing came back to Le Mans with a Lola after last year’s failure. This year, their new Lola T610 used the 3.9 liter version of the Ford Cosworth F1 engine. The DFL had much vibrations and apparently higher fuel consumption than expected; after 28 laps the car came to a stop along the track with an empty fuel tank …
#17 Brian Redman (GB) / Ralph Kent-Cooke (USA) / Jim Adams (USA) – DNF
Cooke Lola T610 – 3.9 liter Ford Cosworth DFL V8 90º approx. 520 hp. Goodyear tires. Weight 825 kg. Aluminium monocoque, chassisnr. #HU02
- BIZARRE BZ357 (resin)
1982 Le Mans 24h, Porsche 935 K3. In 1982 all attention went to the new group C, but most of them weren’t reliable yet (except the Porsche 956). So the GT’s made some nice results like this Porsche 935 K3 that finished 5th overall and 2nd in IMSA GTX behind the Moby Dick replica from Fitzpatrick. A great result for Cooke Racing that saw their Lola retire early in the race.
#78 Dany Snobeck (F) / Francois Servanin (F) / René Metge (F) – 5th overall / 2nd GTX
Kremer Porsche 935 K3/80 – 3.2 liter Porsche Type 930/79 flat-6, approx. 700 hp. Dunlop tires. Weight 970 kg. Steel monocoque, chassisnr. Kremer #000 00013
- QUARTZO Q3003 (diecast)
1983 Le Mans 24h, Porsche 956L. The customer teams also could race the Porsche 956 in 1983, it reached the first 8 places. This Fitzpatrick car, driven by Preston Henn and two very experienced French drivers finished 10th.
#47 Preston Henn (USA) / Claude Ballot-Léna (USA) / Jean Louis Schlesser (USA) – 10th
Preston Henn Porsche 956L – 2.65 liter Porsche 935/79 flat-6 twin turbo, approx. 620 hp. Goodyear tires. Weight 840 kg. Aluminium monocoque, chassisnr. #103
- MINICHAMPS MC400 846647 (diecast)
1983 Le Mans 24h, Rondeau M379C – Cosworth. Rondeau developed a new group C car, the M482. Three cars were entered by Ford France but all retired with engine problems. Rondeau also took this old groep 6 car to Le Mans, it was adapted to the group C rules by adding weight among others. It was no match for the real group C cars and only qualified 32nd despite the presence of Vic Elford who returned to Le Mans after 9 years. It also retired with a broken Cosworth engine.
#28 Joël Gouhier (USA) / Anne-Charlotte Verney (USA) / Vic Elford (GB) – DNF
Rondeau M379C – 3.0 liter Ford Cosworth DFL V8 90º approx. 480 hp. Avon tires. Weight 800 kg. Aluminium space frame, chassisnr. M379 #002
- SPARK S2269 (resin)
1984 Le Mans 24h, Lancia LC2 – Ferrari. Lancia’s only real group C car was a spectacular one! The LC2 was very fast but not succesful. This Jolly Club entry was slower than the works Martini cars but nevertheless had to retire with a blown head gasket.
#6 Pierluigi Martini (I) / Beppe Gabbiani (I) / Xavier Lapeyre (F) – DNF
Lancia LC2/84 – 2.6 liter Ferrari Abarth V8 90º twin turbo, approx. 650 hp. Aluminium monocoque, chassisnr. Dallara #0006
- SPARK S0655 (resin)
Japanese Touring & GT Championships
1993 Japanese Touring Car Championship Fuji, Nissan Skyline R32. When the Nissan Skyline R32 entered the Japanese Touring Car Championship, a period of absolute dominance began. The R32 won every race between March 1990 and October 1993. The last one was the Fuji 500 km which was won by Tom Kristensen. From 1994 the JTCC was contested by 2-liter super touring cars, the Skylines switched to JGTC.
#11 Tom Kristensen (DK) / Hisashi Yokoshima (J) – 1st
Object-T Nissan Skyline GTS-R R32 – 2.6 liter Nissan RB26DETT- straight-6, approx. 550 hp. Steel monocoque, chassisnr. BNR32 #unknown
- EBBRO 44156 (diecast)
1995 Japanese GT Championship Sendai, Porsche 911 RSR turbo. 1995 Was the third year of the Japanese GT Championship. The grid was a mix of many different cars such as many Nissan Skyline, Toyota Supra, Porsche GT2, and Ferrari F40. This longtail Porsche RSR Turbo was entered by Team Kunimitsu and managed to win a race in the previous season. This year it’s best result was 4th at Sendai. The GT2 Porsches were quicker and of course the AWD Nissan Skylines.
#100 Kunimitsu Takahashi (J) / Keiichi Tsuchiya (J) – 4th
Porsche 911 RSR Turbo (964) – 3.2 liter Porsche 930/66 flat-6 turbo, approx. 480 hp. Yokohama Advan tires. Weight 900 kg. Steel monocoque, chassisnr. #unknown
- EBBRO 44828 (resin)
American Le Mans Series
2008 Sebring 12h, Lola B07/46 – Mazda. B-K Motorsports drove in the American Le Mans Series between 2006 and 2008 using Lola chassis’. They were supported by Mazda and were the first to use the new 4 cylinder turbo engine. The race at Sebring 2008 was a disaster; Devlin crashed hard in qualifying and was not able to make it to the start of the race.
#8 Gerardo Bonilla (USA) / Raphael Matos (BR) / Ben Devlin (GB) – DNS
Lola B07/46 – 2.0 liter Mazda MZR (AER) straight-4 turbo, approx. 500 hp. Yokohama Advan tires. Weight 825 kg. Carbon fibre monocoque, chassisnr. B05/40 #HU08
- SPARK ML002 (resin)
2009 Sebring 12h, Lola B09/86 – Mazda. Dyson Racing Team drove Lola chassis’ in the ALMS for years. After a short period with the Porsche RS Spyder, the team returned to Lola. This time the new closed Lola with the Mazda 4-cylinder turbo engine and support of BP. The 2009 Sebring race didn’t bring the team much luck, both cars retired.
#16 Chris Dyson (USA) / Andy Lally (USA) / Guy Smith (GB) – DNF
#20 Butch Leitzinger (USA) / Marino Franchitti (GB) / Ben Devlin (GB) – DNF
Lola B09/86 – 2.0 liter Mazda MZR (AER) straight-4 turbo, approx. 525 hp. Yokohama Advan tires. Weight 900 kg. Carbon fibre monocoque, chassisnr. B09/80 #HU01 & #HU02
- SPARK ML003 & ML004 (resin)
these models have been posted before without details in #011 Mazda
2009 Laguna Seca, Lola B08/86 – Mazda. At Sebring both Dyson Racing Lola’s were in BP green, at Laguna Seca this car (an older B08/86 chassis) was Mazda blue.
#20 Butch Leitzinger (USA) / Marino Franchitti (GB)- DNF
Lola B08/86 – 2.0 liter Mazda MZR (AER) straight-4 turbo, approx. 525 hp. Yokohama Advan tires. Weight 900 kg. Carbon fibre monocoque, chassisnr. B08/86 #HU02
- SPARK ML015 (resin)
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