13 replies to this topic

[mariner]

An interesting topic here on the UK BBC website about glitzy F1 car launches - now apparently a thing of the past

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...rmula1/31495268

 

Being mainstream media they stopped at 20 years back but it started me thinking when did F1 launches as "events" first start anf when did they go glitz?

 

Up to about 1965 I dont think there were any "launches" as such. The Lotus 25 just turned up at Zandvoort and shocked everybody etc..

 

The Lotus 38 was, howvever , properly introduced to the press at Cheshunt with its designer and builders standing proudly behind it.

 

I think the first media focused launch might have been the Lotus 49 Ford  at Hethel. As well as the buliders this Hethel pic has Hazel and Clive Chapman posed in the photo - clearly aimed at adding human interest for  the broader audience Ford was aiming at.

 

https://www.google.c....html;1600;1193

 

By the Lotus 77 budgets must have been tight as IIRC it was launched in a Heathrow hotel car park.

 

i have used Lotus as my" measuring stick " because I think that , once again, Colin Chapman was the innovator of the truly glintzy car launch with the unveling of the Essex sponsorship at the Albert Hall complete with a Helicopter on top of an open bus, all Essex livered.

 

http://s31.photobuck...copter.jpg.html

 

Shiley Bassey, a huge star at the time, was hired to sing in front of a 79. First image.

 

http://www.thelotusf...-random-images/

 

 

In the fourth  shot on that page  the inevitable underdressed girls have appeared but Colin Chapman looks decidely dis-interested. Pretty sure Bernie is behind the car and is that Max already discussing F1 deals in his ear?

 

Joking apart the Essex link up and launch was another first for F1 because it marked , I think, the begining of the modern sponsorship trend of aiming at a market of the rich and influential instead of Joe Public like JPS. David Theime was an oil trader and was quoted as saying he only had 200 customers but F1 was the perfect vehicle to woo them in glamorous surronding away from the unwashed public. Very modern f1-like  in the 1970's

Edited by mariner, 22 February 2015 - 12:22.

[midgrid]

Coincidentally I just came across a video of a McLaren MP4/6 being "launched" in 1992 (I use the inverted commas because it was the previous season's car) at Ten Downing Street.

 

[eldougo]

This is when it all began as stated by Mariner.

 

Colin Chapman  and David  Thieme created this truly glintzy car launch ,with the unveling of the Essex sponsorship in the 1979.........

They were great events to be at ....   

 

 

 

image upload no compression

Edited by eldougo, 23 February 2015 - 04:31.

[Catalina Park]

I have seen photos of the 1971 Brabham launch. Now that would have been a wild party.

[blackmme]

The Lotus 78 I believe had a quite formal launch. It was held at a London hotel (the Metropole I think) in November or December 76 and seems to have been a quite widely attended and reported event.

Regards Mike

[MCS]

I have seen photos of the 1971 Brabham launch. Now that would have been a wild party.

BT34 then...?

[Tuboscocca]

 

This is when it all began as stated by Mariner.

 

Colin Chapman  and David  Thieme created this truly glintzy car launch ,with the unveling of the Essex sponsorship in the 1979.........

They were great events to be at ....   

 

 

 

image upload no compression

 

Wow , 12 wineglasses!!!!

 

Michael

[Lee Nicolle]

And why is the question?  

Just throw quite a few sponsors dollars around.

[Catalina Park]

BT34 then...?

It must have been a good party, even the car got tipsy and fell over...

[Felix]

Analysis of launches as at 2008 here:

http://www.autosport...le.php/id/1423/

[Roger Clark]

"The BRM was unveiled to an invited audience at Folkingham Aerodrome on Thursday, December 15, 1949.

 

"It was, by modern standards, a distinctly amateurish function, but these were austere times.  It was held in a large, cold and draughty Maycrete hut beside Folkingham's control tower.  Chairs had been arranged around three sides of a roped-off area around the prototype car, shrouded beneath a large parachute.  The Trustees faced their guests from behind a top table, backed by a large Union Jack crudely pinned with engaging näivete to the hut's end wall..." (D Nye)

 

National Prestige was at stake.

[D-Type]

Just a thought:  Did the prewar Mercedes Benz and Auto Unions have glitzy launches?  I would expect so, given the 3rd Reich's penchant for propaganda but I can't recall any references to launches.

As for the original query.  Chapman was always a showman witness the photo of him with a Lotus XI photo on his shoulder demonstrating its lightness to the [Motoring] Press.

[Vitesse2]

The German GP and record cars were always displayed at the Berlin Motor Show in heroic style after a parade through the city's streets and there was always an official announcement from the NSKK as to which events they would be attending, but I think the nearest thing to a launch was when they turned up at Monza for winter testing. I suppose Don Alfredo might have bought a few beers for any curious journalists ...

 

In 1939, as part of the instigation of the NSKK's award system, the NSKK held a glitzy function at the motor show to honour all the medal winners, but the photos and reports I've seen don't mention cars - only drivers. There was another - much lower-key - in 1940 and although medals were also awarded in 1941 there doesn't seem to have been any sort of ceremony.

[Roger Clark]

The Chancellor of Germany was given a preview of the prototype W25 before it first ran.  I guess that was far more important to Daimler-Benz than a press launch.