Petersen Automotive Museum celebrates McLaren’s papaya livery — Petersen Automotive Museum

Bruce McLaren was an auto racing pioneer whose cars took checkered flags in a wide variety of motorsports disciplines. The company’s Can-Am cars used gorgeous, swoopy lines and mid-mounted Chevy V-8 engines. Its early F1 cars used DOHC Ford V-8s and sleek, trim fuselages. Its road cars brought track performance to the street. All were beautiful machines, but there wasn’t anything to tie their shared identity together until 1967, when McLaren settled on a distinctive shade of orange for its Can-Am entries. For the next few years, the papaya orange livery was a signature for McLaren racing and was worn in Can-Am, Champ/Indy car, Formula 1, Formula 2, and Formula 5000.