67 replies to this topic

[BuddyCarSeries]

Hi, first time poster. I wanted to show what I've been working on and ask for feedback/help. I've always loved the tobacco sponsorship era of racing, and history in general, so I decided to find all tobacco (cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, snuff, shag, papers) that I could find. I used Pinterest, since it's a great place to easily catalog, to keep up with it all. It's been hard to find all the brands I have and has required a lot of clever searching and random photo album perusing. I hope you enjoy what I've done and can tell me if you know any I've missed.

 

Pinterest: Tobacco Racing

 

Update: 84 added since I last posted, 300.

• 51-Cigarettes
• 38 Special-Cigars
• 43 70-Cigarettes
• Acid-Cigars
• Açoriano-Cigarettes
• Alem Mar-Cigarettes
• Alpine-Cigarettes
• American 100s-Cigarettes
• Apolo 20-Cigarettes
• Assos 25-Cigarettes
• Astor-Cigarettes
• Avanti-Cigars
• Bailey's-Cigarettes
• Barclay-Cigarettes
• Baronet-Cigarettes
• Bastos-Cigarettes
• Beech-But-Chewing Tobacco
• Belga-Cigarettes
• Belmont-Cigarettes
• Benson & Hedges-Cigarettes
• Bentoel-Cigarettes
• BF-Cigarettes
• Bingo-Cigarettes
• Boa Viagem-Cigarettes
• Boss-Cigarettes
• Boule d'Or-Cigarettes
• Boule Nationale-Cigarettes
• British American Tobacco-Cigarettes
• Brooks-Cigarettes
• Caballero-Cigarettes
• Cabin-Cigarettes
• Cambridge-Cigarettes
• Camel-Cigarettes
• Capstan-Cigarettes
• Carlton-Cigarettes
• Carreras-Cigarettes
• Chaminar-Cigarettes
• Chattanooga Chew-Chewing Tobacco
• Chesterfield-Cigarettes
• Clayton-Cigarettes
• Click-Cigarettes
• Cocktail Hour-Cigarettes
• Colorado-Cigarettes
• Colt (Argentina)-Cigarettes
• Colt (Finland)-Cigarettes
• Commander-Cigarettes
• Commodore-Cigarettes
• Condal-Cigarettes
• Cooper-Cigarettes
• Copenhagen-Snuff
• Coronas-Cigarettes
• Craven-Cigarettes
• Cupido-Cigars
• Dallas-Cigarettes
• Dannemann-Cigars
• Davidoff-Cigarettes
• Derby-Cigarettes
• Djaurm-Cigarettes
• Dorados-Cigarettes
• Drum-Shag
• Ducados-Cigarettes
• Ducal-Cigarettes
• Dunhill-Cigarettes
• Embassy-Cigarettes
• Escort-Cigarettes
• Estrela-Cigarettes
• ETA (Empresa Dos Tabacos de Angola)-Cigarettes
• Export A-Cigarettes
• E-Z Wider-Papers
• Flint-Cigarettes
• FM-Cigarettes
• FN-Cigarettes
• Fortuna-Cigarettes
• Four Square-Cigarettes
• freeport-Cigarettes
• FTM-Cigarettes
• Gallaher-Cigarettes
• Gallant-Cigarettes
• Gallia-Cigarettes
• Gauloises-Cigarettes
• Gitanes-Cigarettes
• Gladstone-Cigarettes
• Gold Dollar-Cigarettes
• Gold Flake-Cigarettes
• Gold Leaf-Cigarettes
• Golden Beach-Cigarettes
• Golden Club-Cigarettes
• Granger Select-Chewing Tobacco
• Guards-Cigarettes
• Gudang Garam-Cigarettes
• Gunston-Cigarettes
• Hamilton-Cigarettes
• Hav-A-Tampa-Cigars
• HB-Cigarettes
• Hilton-Cigarettes
• Hofnar-Cigars
• Hollywood-Cigarettes
• Imperial-Cigarettes
• Jackson's-Cigarettes
• Jockey Club-Cigarettes
• John Hay-Cigars
• John Player & Sons-Cigarettes
• Johnson-Cigarettes
• Joker-Papers
• Karelia-Cigarettes
• Kent-Cigarettes
• Keranis-Cigarettes
• King Edward-Cigars
• Kingsway-Cigarettes
• Kodiak-Snuff
• Kool-Cigarettes
• L&M-Cigarettes
• Lamber & Butler-Cigarettes
• Lancaster-Chewing Tobacco
• Lark-Cigarettes
• Levi Garrett-Chewing Tobacco
• Lexington-Cigarettes
• Life-Cigarettes
• LIS-Cigarettes
• Longbeach-Cigarettes
• Longhorn-Chewing Tobacco
• Lotus-Cigarettes
• Lucky Strike-Cigarettes
• Manhattan-Cigarettes
• Marbelo-Cigarettes
• Mark Ten-Cigarettes
• Marlboro-Cigarettes
• Martins-Cigarettes
• Meccarillos-Cigars
• Memphis-Cigarettes
• Mercury-Cigarettes
• Mild Seven-Cigarettes
• Milde Sorte-Cigarettes
• Montana-Cigarettes
• Monte Carlo-Cigarettes
• Morescos-Cigarettes
• MS-Cigarettes
• MT-Cigarettes
• Muratti-Cigarettes
• Nevada-Cigarettes
• Newport-Cigarettes
• No.10-Cigarettes
• Nobel-Cigarettes
• North State-Cigarettes
• Oldenkott-Cigarettes
• Padron-Cigars
• Palermo-Cigarettes
• Pall Mall-Cigarettes
• Pallas-Cigarettes
• Parisienne-Cigarettes
• Paul Stulac-Cigars
• Perolas-Cigarettes
• Peter Jackson-Cigarettes
• Peter Stuyvesant-Cigarettes
• Play-Cigarettes
• Players-Cigarettes
• Portugues-Cigarettes
• President-Cigarettes
• R6-Cigarettes
• Red Buck-Cigars
• Red Man-Chewing Tobacco
• Redwood-Snuff
• Renegades-Snuff
• Rinas-Cigars
• Ritz-Cigarettes
• Rizla+-Papers
• ronhill-Cigarettes
• Rothmans-Cigarettes
• Route 66-Cigarettes
• Sampoerna-Cigarettes
• Samson-Shag
• Sax-Cigarettes
• Scissors-Cigarettes
• Senior Service-Cigarettes
• Sequoia-Snuff
• Seven Stars-Cigarettes
• SG-Cigarettes
• Shelton-Cigarettes
• Silk Cut-Cigarettes
• Silver Creek-Snuff
• Skoal-Snuff
• Sobieski-Cigarettes
• Sobranie-Cigarettes
• Sopianae-Cigarettes
• Sportsman-Cigarettes
• St. Bruno-Pipe Tobacco
• St. Michel-Cigarettes
• Star Mild-Cigarettes
• State Express 555-Cigarettes
• Superkings-Cigarettes
• Supreme-Cigarettes
• Surya-Cigarettes
• Swedish Match-Snuff
• Swisher Sweets-Cigars
• Symphonia-Cigarettes
• Tahoe-Snuff
• Texan-Cigarettes
• Texas-Cigarettes
• Timber Wolf-Snuff
• Trumf-Cigarettes
• Tucson-Cigarettes
• U.S Smokeless-Snuff
• Vantage-Cigarettes
• Viceroy-Cigarettes
• Villiger Kiel/Tabatip-Cigars
• W.D. & H.O Wills-Cigarettes
• Walnut-Pipe Tobacco
• Walter Wolf-Cigarettes
• West-Cigarettes
• Weyman & Bruton-Chewing Tobacco
• Winchester-Cigarettes
• Winfield-Cigarettes
• Winston-Cigarettes
• Woodbine-Cigarettes
• Work Horse-Chewing Tobacco
• More-Cigarettes
• Cougar-Snuff
• American Club-Pipe Tobacco
• Morven-Cigarettes
• Fontanares-Cigarettes
• United-Shag
• Zig-Zag-Papers
• JOB-Papers/Cigarettes
• Supermatch-Cigarettes
• Mocne-Cigarettes
• Death-Cigarettes (yes I found a boat sponsored by the fabled Death Cigarettes)
• Monroe-Cigarettes
• Old Port-Cigarettes
• Swan-Papers
• Belvedere-Cigarettes
• Number 7-Cigarettes
• Astorias-Cigarettes
• Mayfair-Cigarettes
• Prince-Cigarettes
• Coronado-Cigarettes
• Mustang-Cigarettes
• Carter Hall-Pipe Tobacco
• Montecarlo-Cigarettes
• Philip Morris-Cigarettes
• Amphora-Pipe Tobacco
• Visa-Cigarettes
• Willem II-Cigars
• Bond Street-Cigarettes
• Benston-Cigarettes
• Rodeo-Cigarettes
• Partner-Cigarettes
• point-Cigarettes
• Lord-Cigarettes
• 57-Cigarettes
• Lovcen-Cigarettes
• Classic-Cigarettes
• Peer-Cigarettes
• Primo-Cigarettes
• AurA-Cigarettes
• Regal-Cigarettes
• Ardath-Cigarettes
• Inter Biru-Cigarettes
• Viking-Cigarettes
• Matrix-Cigarettes
• Panama-Cigarettes
• Baltimore-Cigarettes
• De Reske-Cigarettes
• Boston-Cigarettes
• FORM-Cigarettes
• Monza-Cigarettes
• Comet-Cigarettes
• Long-Cigarettes
• Tiparillo-Cigars
• Kayak-Cigarettes
• Porto-Cigarettes
• Monserrate-Cigarettes
• Sintra-Cigarettes
• Valetes-Cigarettes
• Sporting-Cigarettes
• Hope-Cigarettes
• Macho-Cigarettes
• LM-Cigarettes
• MC-Cigarettes
• Tabaqueira-Cigarettes
• Kart-Cigarettes
• Contessa Slims-Cigarettes
• Bristol-Cigarettes
• Sukan-Cigarettes
• Country-Cigarettes
• U Mild-Cigarettes
• L.A. Lights-Cigarettes
• Churchman's-Cigarettes
• W&M Taylor-Pipe Tobacco
• Statesman-Cigarettes
• Prestige-Cigarettes
• Sredets-Cigarettes
• bulgartabac-Cigarettes
• Victory-Cigarettes
• MM-Cigarettes
• S-Cigarettes
• Femina-Cigarettes
• Tresor-Cigarettes
• Seven Hills-Cigarettes
• Audaces-Cigarettes
• Madison-Cigarettes

Edited by BuddyCarSeries, 20 February 2025 - 03:12.

[Tim Murray]

WD & HO Wills sponsored race meetings/individual races, but I don’t know if they ever sponsored cars or teams under that name.

[john aston]

Players No 6 Autocross Series . An awful smoke (tiny , horrible tasting things ) but good grass roots (literally ) club motorsport . 

 

A shame that the whimsically named Passing Clouds or Sweet Afton never were sponsors - one could imagine their logos on a Frazer Nash or Alvis 

Edited by john aston, 28 June 2023 - 06:03.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Tim Murray
WD & HO Wills sponsored race meetings/individual races, but I don’t know if they ever sponsored cars or teams under that name.

Under brand names Craven A, Craven Mild, John Player, JPS and probably more here...

That Dean Wills certainly put some money into motor racing before he divested himself of his tobacco interests, changed the corporate name to Amatil and pretended the family fortune came from bottling Coca Cola.

[AJCee]

That’s something if a labour of love Buddy!

You have Walter Wolf on your list, was the cigarette brand contemporaneous with his involvement in motorsport?

[Tim Murray]

Under brand names Craven A, Craven Mild, John Player, JPS and probably more here...

Absolutely, but was there anything under the WD & HO Wills name itself?

[2F-001]

In the 90s there was a short-lived cigarette brand 'Death' (black pack with a prominent skull-and-crossbones emblem, and, bizarrely, a white-packaged sister brand called 'Death Lights'), whose marketing activities very briefly came into the orbit of a business with which I was working (though not an account on which I was particularly interested in working).
There were said to be offers from them around '94 to sponsor the Pacific F1 team - at a time when mainstream advertising outlets were reluctant to take the Death brand's marketing.
One might assume that the events of Imola that year would be a sure disincentive for such a collaboration to proceed - as if the juxtapostion of that brand name and motorsport was not already somewhat uncomfortable.

[FrankB]

I’m no expert but weren’t Bristol based Wills, Nottingham based Players and British American Tobacco three distinct businesses? Or did they merge at some point, bringing the John Player / JPS brands, Craven A and Embassy brands into the same company?

[2F-001]

This report from the University of Bath may be interesting to some...

 

https://tobaccotacti...rt-sponsorship/

[Vitesse2]

Wills was never a cigarette 'brand' as such, more of a holding company - and was part of Imperial Tobacco from 1901, as was John Player. Apart from on the various Embassy brands, which only emerged from the 1960s onwards, the Wills name just about disappeared. BAT was another combine, although as this Wills timeline mentions, one of the Wills factories was transferred to BAT between 1902 and 1919.

 

http://www.davenapie...ls/wdhowill.htm

 

There's also a lot of cross-ownership of cigarette brands, which just confuses things. For example: depending on where you are, Benson & Hedges might be manufactured by Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, Phillip Morris USA, British American Tobacco or Japan Tobacco International.

 

Getting back to the OP, I have a vague feeling the Irish company Carroll's may have been involved in motor racing sponsorship at some point? They were certainly very big sponsors in Irish sport.

[small block]

In 1968 John Blackburn drove a Ford Escort in UK club saloon car racing sponsored by Caylpso Cigar-ettes, which were, appparently, made from cigar tobacco.

[bradbury west]

In the distant days prior to direct  tobacco advertising  sponsorship I always understood that the larger part , or perhaps all, of the funding for the unsuccessful Bugatti T251 Grand Prix device  came from a major, possibly state owned, French tobacco  firm , hence their ability to commission the celebrated engineer who drew it all up. It is a long time since I gave it any real thought, but I believe the venture stalled when funding was stopped for some political reasons, perhaps to do with their difficulties in Algeria.

Roger Lund

[bradbury west]

 

A shame that the whimsically named Passing Clouds or Sweet Afton never were sponsors - one could imagine their logos on a Frazer Nash or Alvis 

 
Crikey, John, that takes some of us a long way back down memory lane. It makes me think of all the various other less well known cigarette brands on the Newsagents’ or Tobacconists’s  shelves back in the day. Part of life’s backdrop. Nostalgia, eh, even for a non smoker.

Roger Lund

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Tim Murray
Absolutely, but was there anything under the WD & HO Wills name itself?

Not that I recall, Tim...

Once again drawing attention to the duplicity of Dean Wills was my main aim.

Was Country Life one of their brands? They're not in the list.

Nor are Silver Kings or Edinburgh.

[Vitesse2]

In the distant days prior to direct  tobacco advertising  sponsorship I always understood that the larger part , or perhaps all, of the funding for the unsuccessful Bugatti T251 Grand Prix device  came from a major, possibly state owned, French tobacco  firm , hence their ability to commission the celebrated engineer who drew it all up. It is a long time since I gave it any real thought, but I believe the venture stalled when funding was stopped for some political reasons, perhaps to do with their difficulties in Algeria.

Roger Lund

Tobacco was a French state monopoly throughout most of the 20th century - SEITA. Brands included Gitanes, Gauloises, Disque Bleu, Royale, News, Bastos, Fine 120, Django and Amsterdamer.

[Vitesse2]

Not that I recall, Tim...

Once again drawing attention to the duplicity of Dean Wills was my main aim.

Was Country Life one of their brands? They're not in the list.

Nor are Silver Kings or Edinburgh.

Country Life looks to have been a brand sold as Wills in Australia and Player's in Ireland. Ultimately Imperial Tobacco in both cases.

 

Edinburgh is mentioned on this website as an Aussie brand of unknown ownership. No sign of a Silver Kings though.

 

http://www.cigarety.by/index.php

[Ray Bell]

Silver Kings I picked up when I googled 'Country Life cigarettes in Australia'...

 

I found nothing of the Country Life that I recalled so well, but a series of ads were on a You Tube clip that came up near the top, it had Edinburgh, Viscount, Silver Kings and Virginia Slims on it.

[Charlieman]

Wills was never a cigarette 'brand' as such, more of a holding company - and was part of Imperial Tobacco from 1901, as was John Player. Apart from on the various Embassy brands, which only emerged from the 1960s onwards, the Wills name just about disappeared. 

Tobacco sponsorship more or less corresponds with the slow decline of sales in the 'Western world'. There were an awful lot of different but not all that different fag packets on shop shelves.

 

In the 1980s, I processed market research computer data, including some for Imperial Tobacco, then owned by Hanson Trust. There were lots of overlapping brands -- Player's Weights, No. 6, Navy Cut -- and one of the Lords (Hanson and White) running the company instructed a junior to suggest which brand to cut. The junior reported back that all of the brands sold equally well and that some cross purchasing occurred etc. A month later, the junior informed the Lord that maybe one of the brands (Player's Weights, IIRC) performed weakest. The Lord thanked him for his final work at company, pointing out that had he delivered the information at the first meeting he would still have a job. Asset strippers are renowned for their charm.

 

Players and Wills were big companies in their cities and I would be unsurprised by how much they sponsored local sport and culture over the years. 

[BuddyCarSeries]

That’s something if a labour of love Buddy!

You have Walter Wolf on your list, was the cigarette brand contemporaneous with his involvement in motorsport?

This one is somewhat of an *. While I did find some cars that specifically said Cologne on them, nothing really specifically said Walter Wolf Cigarettes. I found some motorcycle sponsorship in Japan that alluded to the cigarettes being the main backer, but it seems like all of his sponsorship was for his general "brand", which includes cigarettes.

[BuddyCarSeries]

In 1968 John Blackburn drove a Ford Escort in UK club saloon car racing sponsored by Caylpso Cigar-ettes, which were, appparently, made from cigar tobacco.

I quickly looked for any pics, but I couldn't find any remotely close. I have a few other brands that I found reference to, but couldn't find any pics or decals for anywhere; Granger Select Chewing Tobacco sponsored some NASCAR Busch races in the early 90s, but I can't find any poster or race logo, just their own company logo and a reproduction hat. Thank you though, I'll keep it in the back of my mind in case I run across it.

[BuddyCarSeries]

WD & HO Wills sponsored race meetings/individual races, but I don’t know if they ever sponsored cars or teams under that name.

THANKS! I found a poster for an F2 race they sponsored at Thruxton.

[BuddyCarSeries]

Getting back to the OP, I have a vague feeling the Irish company Carroll's may have been involved in motor racing sponsorship at some point? They were certainly very big sponsors in Irish sport.

I think I looked into them. Some brands, just by their name and package design, I get a gut feeling they sponsored racing, but I couldn't find anything. I've gotten good at recognizing just by the name or the font on a car "I think that's a cigarette company".

[john winfield]

THANKS! I found a poster for an F2 race they sponsored at Thruxton.

And also F2 at Silverstone in 1967.

Edited by john winfield, 28 June 2023 - 13:57.

[john winfield]

St. Bruno pipe tobacco. Barry Foley, British Clubmans racing in the 1970s.

[BuddyCarSeries]

St. Bruno pipe tobacco. Barry Foley, British Clubmans racing in the 1970s.

Found it thanks!

[Dick Dastardly]

WD & HO Wills sponsored race meetings/individual races, but I don’t know if they ever sponsored cars or teams under that name.

They also sponsored early Rallycrosses at Lydden from 1967/8 onwards. These were televised on BBC Grandstand....

[Vitesse2]

Players and Wills were big companies in their cities and I would be unsurprised by how much they sponsored local sport and culture over the years. 

There are currently suggestions that Bristol University's Wills Memorial Building - and other Wills-connected buildings - might be renamed due to slave trade connections. And in another local motor sporting (but chocolate, not tobacco) connection, the same may apply to facilities bearing the name of Fry.

 

John Winfield might know of similar things in Nottingham?

 

Just because history may be uncomfortable, I'm not sure erasing it is very sensible.
 

[dolomite]

In the 90s there was a short-lived cigarette brand 'Death' (black pack with a prominent skull-and-crossbones emblem, and, bizarrely, a white-packaged sister brand called 'Death Lights'), whose marketing activities very briefly came into the orbit of a business with which I was working (though not an account on which I was particularly interested in working).
There were said to be offers from them around '94 to sponsor the Pacific F1 team - at a time when mainstream advertising outlets were reluctant to take the Death brand's marketing.
One might assume that the events of Imola that year would be a sure disincentive for such a collaboration to proceed - as if the juxtapostion of that brand name and motorsport was not already somewhat uncomfortable.

Previous thread about Death Cigarettes

https://forums.autos...acific-gp-1994/

[small block]

I quickly looked for any pics, but I couldn't find any remotely close. I have a few other brands that I found reference to, but couldn't find any pics or decals for anywhere; Granger Select Chewing Tobacco sponsored some NASCAR Busch races in the early 90s, but I can't find any poster or race logo, just their own company logo and a reproduction hat. Thank you though, I'll keep it in the back of my mind in case I run across it.

 

Try here https://www.ebay.co....tm/266229068813

[john winfield]

There are currently suggestions that Bristol University's Wills Memorial Building - and other Wills-connected buildings - might be renamed due to slave trade connections. And in another local motor sporting (but chocolate, not tobacco) connection, the same may apply to facilities bearing the name of Fry.

 

John Winfield might know of similar things in Nottingham?

 

Just because history may be uncomfortable, I'm not sure erasing it is very sensible.
 

 

I'm not aware of any pressure up here comparable to that in Bristol, or at Oxford's Oriel College etc., although I do know that Nottingham's two universities are investigating their own shared origins, and possible links to the slave trade. Nottingham is quietly proud of George Africanus, an ex-slave who became a successful local entrepreneur, and of Samuel Morley, abolitionist MP for Nottingham, whose statue stands in our Arboretum. He later became MP for Bristol.

 

https://en.wikipedia...orge_Africanus#

 

https://en.wikipedia...uel_Morley_(MP)

[Ray Bell]

Winfield was another of the Wills brands here...

 

They put their name on track corners, not cars.

[malomay]

Well, done...that's a great list & the Pintrest page brings back some wonderful liveries !

 

On a personal note, I grew up watching these liveries on touring cars in OZ during the 70s/80s....all the names meant to me were that they were racing cars & drivers. Malboro was Brock (Holden dealer team), Craven was Alan Grice, JPS was the lovely BMW of Jim Richards etc etc. They meant nothing to me as cigarette companies.

 

Same with Benson & Hedges. For me in the 80s, all this name meant to me was Cricket !

 

I have never smoked once.

[brucemoxon]

Winfield was another of the Wills brands here...

 

They put their name on track corners, not cars.

Er...

 

Sponsored the Nissan Group A team, various speedway, drag racing and rally cars. 

 

And you can add 'Gallaher' to the list; they sponsored the Bathurst 500 between Armstrong (shock absorbers) and Hardie-Ferodo (equally deadly asbestos brake pads)

 

 

 

 

BRM

[Lee Nicolle]

Winfield was another of the Wills brands here...

 

They put their name on track corners, not cars.

Errr, Winfield Commodores and Datsuns and on Jack Villenuve in F1

Goerge Tattnel had Winfield for a decade on both Sprints and Midgets.

Garry rush also for a few years.

And then Winfield Speedway Pk,, that was replaced with Quit.

[Ray Bell]

Ah yes...

 

It looks like I have to brush up my late-eighties and early-nineties memory.

[Vitesse2]

Winfield was another of the Wills brands here...

 

They put their name on track corners, not cars.

Winfield was - and is still - a British American Tobacco brand, not Wills/Imperial.

 

Er...

 

Sponsored the Nissan Group A team, various speedway, drag racing and rally cars. 

 

And you can add 'Gallaher' to the list; they sponsored the Bathurst 500 between Armstrong (shock absorbers) and Hardie-Ferodo (equally deadly asbestos brake pads)

 

 

 

 

BRM

Gallaher was another holding company, which owned or co-owned several of the brands already mentioned. It was taken over by Japan Tobacco International in 2007, at which time it was headquartered in a building on Members Hill, Brooklands, overlooking the Brooklands Museum.

 

Coincidentally, this video has just been posted on YT. Race was sponsored by Gallaher International (Aust) Ltd, which seems to have been an Aussie branch, presumably just importing rather than manufacturing. Gallaher's Wikipedia page doesn't mention Australia!

[Michael Ferner]

I think "Walter Wolf Racing" was sold as a consumer brand, mostly after the team stopped racing. It ended up with several manufacturers of goods, mostly unconnected. If I recall correctly, in Switzerland there was an After Shave selling under that name, and that company also sponsored a few cars.

[Dick Dastardly]

The Circuit of Ireland Rally was sponsored by Gallaher in the late 60s.

Amongst their brands was "Senior Service", they should be included in the original list of motorsport sponsors, amongst other things they sponsored hill rallies..

Edited by Dick Dastardly, 29 June 2023 - 10:41.

[AJCee]

Going back to Walter Wolf Racing, it looks as if the car didn’t carry that wording on the side pod at Silverstone in 1979 but did do so at Hockenheim. So it was probably unconnected to tobacco at that point.

[BuddyCarSeries]

Thanks everyone for the responses! Y'all got me some new ones and and other cars of current ones I've had.

[BuddyCarSeries]

Hi, just wanted to update my first post with the additional sponsors I've found. 51 new ones since I posted, bringing my total to 216.

[BRG]

Curiously apt that this thread surfaces today, just as the British Parliament is debating a Bill to ban cigarette sales to 15 year olds forever. the ban rising year on year.

 

The thread shows just how much motorsport was in hock to Big Tobacco - 216 (and counting) different brands  of cancer sticks etc is mind boggling.  

[Bob Riebe]

That should be Beech-Nut chewing tobacco, not Beech But

[E1pix]

Racing took a big hit when tobacco ads were banned.

I’d have no issue with the signals of not advertising cigs on cars — if not for it being okay to continue advertising all kinds of worse toxins.

[john aston]

I find the current climate of once respected teams being part owned or in hock to dodgy Middle Eastern regimes equally offensive.  

[Mallory Dan]

Like our football teams, John

[Sterzo]

Bring back Moneytron.

[MarshalMike]

Can someone please explain to me the logic that allows historic race cars to carry the cigarette advertising they wore in period ?

[john aston]

Good question . I think a pragmatic approach is taken that most historic racing has a tiny audience compared to F1 ,and  the livery reflects a different era ,in the same way that  the cars do . An ERA would fail scrutineering if entered for an FIA F3 race on countless  grounds, and its HANS free driver would too . And finally , I suspect that many of the brands  have been extinct  for many years . I'm sure Gold Leaf and JPS , for example , are long since defunct. 

 

But I'd love to see a driver in shirt and tie enter a GP supporting F3 race in an ERA , and have a fag** break in the pit lane . 

 

** For US readers , 'fag'  is English slang for cigarette , just in case you were alarmed  

[Vitesse2]

Good question . I think a pragmatic approach is taken that most historic racing has a tiny audience compared to F1 ,and  the livery reflects a different era ,in the same way that  the cars do . An ERA would fail scrutineering if entered for an FIA F3 race on countless  grounds, and its HANS free driver would too . And finally , I suspect that many of the brands  have been extinct  for many years . I'm sure Gold Leaf and JPS , for example , are long since defunct. 

 

But I'd love to see a driver in shirt and tie enter a GP supporting F3 race in an ERA , and have a fag** break in the pit lane . 

 

** For US readers , 'fag'  is English slang for cigarette , just in case you were alarmed  

A lot of the brands listed are certainly defunct, but both Gold Leaf and JPS are still around. Gold Leaf is now a hand-rolling tobacco and JPS is sold as 'John Player Special Legendary Black'. However, in countries which have gone 'dark market' - plain packaging, restricted display - the brand names and even the logos will be unfamiliar to non-smokers.