Fueling Imagination
A classic television commercial offers an offbeat tribute to a culture of innovation.
A Shell commercial in 1997 featured a real airplane and a Formula 1 (F1) Ferrari engaged in a mock refueling scenario to demonstrate the depth of the company’s commitment to technical innovation. (Courtesy of Mario Toscani)
Shell Oil aired a commercial in 1997 of a speeding Ferrari F310 seemingly being refueled from an aircraft as a component of its then-current campaign entitled “The Future Is In The Making.” The campaign was developed to emphasize Shell’s obsession with developing innovative solutions to satisfy customer’s current and future fuel needs.
For the commercial Shell leveraged its partnership with Ferrari’s racing team to present a far-fetched solution in response to Ferrari’s desire at the time (and other F1 teams) to use refueling to strategic advantage. Refueling at speed would allow cars to carry less fuel, run faster due to less weight, and eliminate fuel stops. Obviously, safety issues alone would prevent refueling as wildly imagined here (note: refueling has been banned in F1 since 2010). Nevertheless, the association of Shell with innovation was presented to dramatic effect.
Current audiences may assume that the commercial was made entirely using CGI. However, it was mostly filmed live in the Mojave Desert using a real Ferrari and aircraft driven and piloted by real people. The car is a model F310, a V10-powered racer in Ferrari’s 1996-1997 stable that preceded the more successful F310B. The F310 was also the first Ferrari F1 car to run on Shell fuel since the 312B3 in 1973. Its driver was Luca Badoer, a veteran who won the Formula 3000 title in his first year (1992) before competing in F1 between 1993 and 2009. Additionally, he was later one of the active test drivers for Ferrari from 1998 to 2010.
The other vehicle is a C-123K, a former U.S. Air Force transport plane (serial number 54-0615) carrying registration N456S. Built by Fairchild Aircraft in Hagerstown, MD in the 1950s, the C-123K had a J-85 jet engine on each wing to increase its performance and payload capability. These additions contributed to the type’s extensive use in the Vietnam War to carry troops and cargo into areas that were difficult for other aircraft to operate.
Since their retirement from military service in the early 1980s, C-123s have been popular movie props with appearances in films like Air America (1990) and Con Air (1997). Movie credits for N456S include Terminal Velocity (1994) and A Man Apart (2003).
Interestingly, no C-123 was ever used as a refueling aircraft. As a result, the shot in the commercial of the fuel hose connecting from the plane to the Ferrari was achieved through a combination of green-screen special effects and careful choreography of the C-123.
Readers interested in viewing the commercial can click here. As a bonus, click here to view a video that illustrates the filming of the commercial. 