10 replies to this topic

[racer69]

In the early 80s why did Murray Walker during his calls refer to the Lotus' as John Player Specials, rather than Lotus, and McLaren as Marlboro's, rather than McLaren?

[Newtown]

$$$

[Ruairidh]

Originally posted by racer69
In the early 80s why did Murray Walker during his calls refer to the Lotus' as John Player Specials, rather than Lotus, and McLaren as Marlboro's, rather than McLaren?

Colin Chapman in the 1970's (at the request of his sponsor) asked the media to call the Lotus GP cars John Player Specials -so that the Lotus 76 was introduced as the John Player Mk 1....

I watched most of the BBC coverage of motor racing throughout the 80s and have to admit I do not recall Murray Walker calling the cars Marlboro's or John Player Specials.

[Gary C]

there's NO WAY Murray would have referred to 'John Player Specials' or 'Marlboros' simply because at that point he was working for the BBC, and they don't allow advertising!!! Easy! (you could see it, but not hear it on the BBC!!)

[jgm]

There was a time in the 1970s when it became fashionable for teams to officially change the names of their cars to whatever the sponsor required - this practice had been commonplace in the US for many years. So we had the JPS (Lotus), the Texaco-Marlboro (McLaren), the Copersucar (Fittipaldi), the Iso-Marlboro (Williams) and, much later, the Footwork (Arrows). These days the emphasis seems to have switched to the 'badging' of engines. I don't remember Murray Walker giving in to most of these names - although he did adopt 'Footwork' - perhaps because nobody knew what it meant anyway. It was normal for circuit commentators and programmes to adopt the commercial names.

[Eric McLoughlin]

I don't remember Murray referring to Lotus's as "John Player Specials" or "JPSs" to any great extent. In the period the BBC covered the full GP seasons (1978 to 1996), Lotus cars were spnsored by Players in 1978 and then from 1981 to 1986. It was only in 1977/78 thet the "John Player Special Mk I/II" issue arose. By 1981, Players were no longer insisting that the cars be exclisively referred to as "John Player Specials".

However, It is true that in 1983/84 Murray DID tend to refer to McLarens as "Marlboro McLarens" or even just "Marlboros" (I have most of the races on tape from those years to prove it). It struck me as odd at the time, especially as Alfa Romeo were also sponsored by Marlboro up to and including 1983 and he never referred to them as "Marlboro Alfas"

[Rainer Nyberg]

I am glad that this habit never catched on here in Europe, I can't say I am happy for the traditional Indy style naming, where every car is some kind of a 'special'...

Just think of having a grid full of, MARLBORO TOBACCO SPECIAL'S, COMPAQ COMPUTER SPECIAL'S, WEST TOBACCO SPECIAL'S, BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO SPECIAL'S...ETC....

[fines]

I second Rainer's thoughts, but the truth is Murray was being politically correct, so to speak. JPS was the official constructors' name during most of the seventies (I believe from 1972 to 1978), and Marlboro the same later on, iirc. It just wasn't Lotus that won the International Formula One Constructors Trophy in 1972 and 1978, but JPS!

In Motorcycle Racing, the situation in the early eighties was even worse: the "Chevallier" was okay, even if it was a Yamaha, since Chevallier was merely the name of the team owner, but "Pernod" (liqueur), "Parisienne" (fags) and "Real" (supermarkets) were really strange makes. The issue was additionally somewhat confused by some hybrids, i.e. industry-financed developments of original designs, like the "Elf" (oil) and the "Krauser" (bike accessoires)!

[Vitesse2]

The works F3 Lotus team also ran the 73s as John Player Specials, while the F2 74s were known as Texaco Stars. Sticking with F2 and fuel: the Elf 2J - later sold to Willi Kauhsen, who renamed them Kauhsen-Renaults.

[fines]

... and the F2 Motul of 1973, which was really a "Rondel"...

[Don Capps]

Originally posted by Rainer Nyberg
I am glad that this habit never catched on here in Europe, I can't say I am happy for the traditional Indy style naming, where every car is some kind of a 'special'...

Rainer,

Calling a car a "Special" was required by the AAA (and later USAC) rules, starting in about 1910 or 1911 and was the commonplace and accepted way of naming cars by 1915. Somewhere in the 1970's the practice moreorless ended or changed somewhat.