When racing fans all over the world know of a Porsche dealership in Florida, you know you’ve done something right with a livery. Sadly, we probably won’t be seeing Brumos Porsche’s iconic red, white and blue stripes on cars for much longer, as Sportscar365 reports that the dealership group has been sold.
Brumos may have had a thing for racing many German cars over the years, but their most famous livery is about as American as bacon-infused deep-fried apple pie covered with extra butter—as it should be.
According to the team’s own history page, the first Brumos Racing Porsche appeared in 1960, right after the dealership itself was founded in 1959. Since then, they have been a major presence in American endurance racing, largely thanks to the number of racers involved with the dealership. Founder Hubert Brundage was a major force behind fielding the first Brumos cars. Racing legend Peter Gregg bought the dealership after Brundage passed away in 1964, taking the team to six IMSA GT and three Trans Am titles over the course of ten years. Later, dealership co-owner Bob Snodgrass became vice president of the Grand-American Road Racing Association in 1999, a series where Brumos Racing fielded a pair of Daytona Prototypes for a while.
Currently, Hurley Haywood—another driver from the Brumos Racing team who’s become synonymous with racing Porsches—serves as the dealership’s vice president.
Like Gulf’s baby blue and orange, Brumos found a livery so instantly recognizable that it never needed to be tweaked. Too many people already associate the two thick red and blue stripes on the hood and trunk of the car, the red and blue stripes that follow the contours of the car’s waistline, and big, squared off numbers with Brumos Racing. The result was a car that looked more American than Lady Liberty herself. Why change a good thing?
The Brumos Racing team shut down after Grand-Am merged with the American Le Mans Series at the end of 2013, but their iconic stripes made a comeback last year. Dempsey/Wright Motorsports was sponsored by the Florida dealership in 2015, complete with this black version of the famous Brumos livery for fellow sponsor Beautyrest Black.
Let’s be honest, though: I’m fairly certain that you could put Brumos’ stripes over pink pineapple Lilly Pulitzer prints and we’d still instantly recognize it as a Brumos car.
Unfortunately, it looks like the Brumos nameplate will be gone soon, so it’s hard to say if its infamous striped livery will stick around. The Florida Times-Union reports that the Fields Auto Group has purchased Brumos’ group of seven dealerships, which will be rebranded as Fields dealers after the sale is finalized in February. While Fields is yet another family-owned and operated dealership group, they currently run 38 franchises throughout the country.
Although even Brumos’ flagship Jacksonville Porsche dealership will no longer be Brumos Porsche, there’s a possibility that their new owners will remain involved with motorsport. The Florida Times-Union notes that the Fields Auto Group’s Orlando Lamborghini dealership currently backs a team in the Super Trofeo series.
Update: What will happen to the dealership’s extensive car collection, or the Brumos name itself? Current Brumos owner Dan Davis retained those items, per Racer. Hurley Haywood confirmed to Racer:
We’ll still have the museum with the cars in it for the next two years, and by that time, we should find a new space for those cars and all the major cars will stay with Dan.
Hopefully it also occasionally opens to the public as well. [H/T It’s a “Porch-uh”]
Photo credits: Getty Images (Grand-Am car), self (Dempsey/Wright car)
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.