Blocks of blue and white, separated by red and gold pin stripes. These are the colours of Rothmans, a firm which wrote its own chapter in Porsche's illustrious history. Following on from former sponsors Gulf oil and Martini vermouth, the tobacco giant’s backing of the Porsche works team fuelled the firm’s motorsport activities for most of the 1980s. This instantly recognisable collection of colours dressed some of the finest race and rally cars in Porsche’s history. Porsche and Rothmans’ alliance was formed by common thinking and personal chemistry and fuelled nearly a decade of steam rolling success in various forms of motorsport. In the coming weeks, Porschesport.com will explore the chapters of this bountiful collaboration.

Rothmans scored their first world championship triumph in the rugged world of rallying in 1981 with Ari Vatanen, David Richards, and a mighty David Sutton motorsport prepared Ford Escort. Not only was Richards responsible for calling the pace notes and keeping a lairy Vatanen on the path to success, but the charming Englishman also played a pivotal role in securing Rothmans’ support. Although Richards retired from competition at his world championship coronation in November 1981, the motorsport entrepreneur remained involved in the Rothmans Porsche era as a close confidant and advisor to the cigarette manufacturer.

Buoyed by their newfound world champion status, Rothmans aimed for the big time of Formula One. A newly reformed March team was Rothmans new route to grand prix racing. However, doubt and concern engulfed the project before the season even began.

“We’d come back into Formula 1 with the new March team and Jochen Mass was one of our drivers” recalls Richard Watling, Rothmans’ director of marketing and sponsorship. “We were in London for a press conference and Jochen said to me ‘What are you doing with this lot?! You’re up against Williams, Ferrari etc. This is going to be really hard. You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re world champions, you shouldn’t go into another form of the sport unless you have a chance of winning.’” Slightly perplexed by the pessimism towards the new F1 partnership, Watling asked for an alternative. “Have you thought about Group C racing?” suggested Mass. “I know that Porsche are building a car and it is going to be a world leader.” This ‘world leader’ was the rapidly developing Porsche 956 that eventually dominated 1980s endurance racing.

After the press conference announcing the ultimately doomed Rothmans/March Formula 1 team, Mass introduced the tobacco giant to the top brass at Porsche. When Watling arrived in Stuttgart for initial discussions, Porsche’s head of PR had the red carpet ready and waiting for their new potential sponsor. “Manfred Jantke picked me up from the airport in his beautiful 911, which I fell in love with” beams the Porsche fanatic. “This was like a dream come true for me. Here was a business proposition for the one brand that I loved more than anything else in the automotive world.”

For Porsche, scoring a sponsor with such financial might was crucial to realising the full potential of the soon to be unveiled 956. However, even in the early 1980s, some concerns remained over the optics of promoting such a vice. “I think in an ideal world Porsche probably wouldn’t have gone with a tobacco manufacturer. Partly for the obvious reasons, but partly because Rothmans wasn’t very well known in Germany. However, they got over that” explains Watling.

Moral dilemmas swiftly settled, Porsche and Rothmans soon carved out specific roles for sports car racing’s most ominous new alliance. Porsche’s role was simple. Build the car, run it, win, and repeat. Apart from the obvious financial contribution to power the project, Rothmans brought a whole suite of support which played a pivotal part in the eventual popularity of Group C racing. Trapped in an era without the advantage of television coverage, teams and sponsors needed to create their own exposure to those beyond the trackside grandstands. Rothmans slick PR machine would deploy pioneering methods to make Porsche’s endurance racers famous by capturing and delivering superb footage to the world’s media.

With the deal agreed on a handshake over a hearty meal with Porsche president Peter Schutz and Ferry Porsche himself, the die was cast for a relationship which yielded success beyond the expectations of either party. “Peter Schutz came over to the UK to sign the deal and gave the company a small model of the new car” remembers Watling. “He then invited me to Weissach to see the roll out of the 956. I think it was Jurgen Barth or Roland Kussmaul who was rolling it out. It was grey and white and a bit battered, but there it was on the track at Weissach. We just knew it was going to be a success. There was huge confidence. When Porsche get behind things you know they are going to succeed. They are so focused.”

Rothmans well placed optimism towards their new project with Porsche starkly contrasted with the unbridled disaster of the firm’s venture into Formula 1. A week after a pleasing class win on debut with Porsche at the Silverstone six hour, Rothmans executives hosted VIP guests at the Hotel de Paris for the Monaco Grand Prix. However, much to the tobacco firms dismay and embarrassment, neither Rothmans’ car qualified for the race. Coupled with some nasty accidents for Jochen Mass, the end was nigh for Rothmans’ ill-fated Formula 1 journey. “The relationship with Formula 1 was fading. It wasn’t going to be a success. In fact, we pretty much pulled the plug when we failed to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix. That was something of a disaster” cringes Watling. So disastrous was the March-Rothmans project that Jochen Mass left Formula 1 for good to focus on sports cars. The German ace would soon get his redemption at the wheel of Rothmans backed Porsches

With Formula 1 now in the rear-view mirror, Rothmans’ full attention and support could be deployed towards the promising campaign with Porsche. Next stop, the 1982 Le Mans 24 hours.

Part two

Part Three