89 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

I felt the same way when I first read the suggestion, dbw, but didn't know the facts and said nothing. Any factual information available, anyone?

[Eric McLoughlin]

Being Irish, I've heard the story of the Irish origins of British Racing Green many times. However, I'm pretty sure its all a touch of the old "blarney". I think the story of green being Napier's house colours is more correct.

[Barry Boor]

Although I can't stand the modern 'moving billboards', when I think back to my first F1 race at Goodwood in 1957, Ferrari did not come, and if there were any Maseratis they were green; as was every car in the race except the toothpaste-tube Connaught, and that wasn't green because they hadn't had time to paint it.

It won !

So maybe they disappearance of national racing colours was not too bad a thing. I just wish we could have found a happy medium, or at least a reasonably cheerful fortune-teller!

[fines]

The only Maserati in this race was Sid Greene's Gilby Engineering 250F which was, of course, green. But can anyone tell me what's so wrong about "moving billboards"? I am way too young to remember, but national colours do not appeal the slightest to me. What is it good for?

[Ray Bell]

Absolutely nothing, Fines, except in the long run causing divisions... like in Soccer.

[Felix Muelas]

I am somehow sure this will be interesting to share...
;)



Felix Muelas

[Ray Bell]

I guess there could be a little interest in this... and any other contents in this book... perhaps.

Where did you steal it?

[Felix Muelas]

Nice one, Ray !
I didn´t actually, the images shown are reproduced in "Le Livre de Bord d´un Pilote de Grand-Prix" Tome 1 : GP de 1926 a 1931, by André Etancelin about his grandfather Philippe Etancelin. Plenty of things there...

[Ray Bell]

If I spend all this time on this forum, how much of my life would I waste in the collective libraries of you blokes?

[Don Capps]

Why is it that I never cease to be amazed at what pops up on this Forum?

Excellent, Felix!

[Ray Bell]

Because you're normal?

[cjpani]

Originally posted by MN
Soichiro Honda had a choice for Japan since Honda was the only one entered F1 in '60th.
He wanted GOLD first but FIA did not allow gold, then he wanted SILVER but Germany was using silver that time.
He picked IVORY WHITE.

I don´t really have a source, but I was under the impression that GOLD was the official colour for Mexico, not in the 1930s though , but maybe somewhere around the 60´s or 70´s...

I believe I recall Moises Solana driving a Golden car...

Anyone got any info on this??????

Thanx in advance,
cjpani

[dbw]

i know we can't afford all the books we'd like,but the etancelin book[volume 1]gives one of the best looks into pre-war continental gp racing i've seen...[plus gp bugatti photos hard to find anywhere else]worth tracking down...

[Carlos Jalife]

Mexico was supposedly gold and royal blue, never saw a car painted that way anywhere though, not even in the Panamericana where we had plenty of mexican entrants.

[rdrcr]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread Carlos. I was interested in understanding how the national colors can about and how they became more and more relaxed in the advent of sponsorship and other diversities.

I became interested in this when the discussion evolved in the "What Color Is Your Car" thread.

[ensign14]

Originally posted by Carlos Jalife
Mexico was supposedly gold and royal blue, never saw a car painted that way anywhere though, not even in the Panamericana where we had plenty of mexican entrants.

What a shame, I bet that would have looked absolutely splendid.

For the sake of completeness, on another thread I mentioned that Greek driver Nicolas Embiricos had a grey ERA, so this may mean that Greece's racing colour was grey, at least de facto.

[dmj]

I am bringing this thread up simply for one reason. As it is more or less confirmed that Auto Union ran their cars in silver livery BEFORE famous MB paint-stripping story happened (if it really did happen at all), maybe someone of our newcomers with vast knowledge of AU history can provide us more details on this issue... Why silver?

[dretceterini]

I thought the Honda "prototype" Gp car was olive green and not gold....and that the "original" color for Britian was red..

[Ruairidh]

Anyone seen this before? - looks like it came from R&T in 1960 http://www.miata.net.../racecolor.html

[kos]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
So let's diverge a little ... the colour of cigarette packets in that era... why did Lucky Strike wait until WW2 to change from green to red?

Ray, they changed from green to white, not red. Red bull-eye was always there.
They removed green because copper used in green paint was needed for war efforts. And they managed to build very successful ad-campaing on this - they invented a slogan "Lucky strike green has gone to war", and used it in the radio-ads.

Luckies' history

[D-Type]

originally posted by Ensign 14
Greek driver Nicolas Embiricos had a grey ERA, so this may mean that Greece's racing colour was grey, at least de facto.

I have recently seen a web posting of a more recent FIA rule book than the one above. It gave the Greek racing colours as a combination of pale blue and white (I forget the exact details)

However,
Kenya-based driver John Manussis, winner of the 1958 and 1961 Safaris, was of Greek extraction. A Google search shows that in 1953 he owned a grey Jaguar C-Type that he crashed heavily in that year's TT. He later bought a grey Jaguar D-Type from the Nairobi agents to race in Kenyan national races (and to set unofficial town to town records!). The choice of grey for the two Jaguars is more than a mere coincidence and lends weight to Ensign 14's contention.

Can anyone else cast any light on the question?

Edited by D-Type, 31 March 2013 - 14:46.

[Racers Edge]

We have a Bugatti T51 in our shop that the owner wants a bonnet "band/ stripe" painted in the Australian colours, like the photo below located at the front of the bonnet.

..I can not find the International Racing Colours for this country..Ideas anyone?
Or..what where the Australian colours for the chassis / body etc?

[Barry Boor]

There are probably no official Australian colours dating from the time when colours were Internationally recognised, but dark green and gold would seem the best bet - a la Brabham (1963 - 1969) (I know, the stripe went yellow in '68).

[Racers Edge]

The Australians were very serious racers in the 1930's,

BRG/Gold maybe in the 1960's but the 30's....humm?

[Barry Boor]

Well, there is a link to the official racing colours back in the bowels of this thread.

There are 30 countries listed, but NOT Australia, so I guess you pays yer money......

[Alan Lewis]

In this old thread :

http://forums.autosp...&threadid=53357

...I listed the contents of Appendix I of the 1975 FIA Yellowbook. No Australia shown so, as far as the FIA was concerned at the end of 1974, there were no official colours for that nation at that time. Not the same as saying Australia didn't have any.

Of course, they also had Germany as silver-grey instead of white...

APL

[Rob29]

I recall Comonwealth racing colours were issued around 1958.
Australia;Green & Gold
NZ;Green & Silver
S.Africa;Green & buff

[David McKinney]

National colours were issued to teams (not necessarily manufacturers) competing in international races.
Which 1930s international Australian team did you have in mind?

[Racers Edge]

I can not say/BUT a proper racer........

[HDonaldCapps]

The national colours was determined at the Gordon-Bennett race of 1900.
Yellow for Belgium
Blue for France
White for Germany
Red for USA (yes they actually raced with red initially,starting at the 1903 event)
Later of course the red colour went to Italy.
The Germans adopted a slight change to silver.
The US colours was changed to blue and white.
So how about the British Racing Green?
Also from the 1900 Gordon-Bennett races...
British driver Charles Jarrot was unlucky to receive the number 13 on his vehicle so out of compassion he was
awarded the "lucky" green colour to make up for the dreaded 13...

Rainer

"Gordon Bennett Cup Race Notes," Motor Age, 28 April 1904, Vol. 5 No. 17, p. 15:

The colors of the cars of the different nations
competing in the race are: Red for
America; white for Germany; green for Great
Britain; yellow for Belgium; blue for France;
black for Italy. Switzerland and Austria have
not decided between violet, orange and purple.

[cdrewett]

"Gordon Bennett Cup Race Notes," Motor Age, 28 April 1904, Vol. 5 No. 17, p. 15:

The colors of the cars of the different nations
competing in the race are: Red for
America; white for Germany; green for Great
Britain; yellow for Belgium; blue for France;
black for Italy. Switzerland and Austria have
not decided between violet, orange and purple.

OK just to stir all this up again, here's a quiz question: where, when, and why, did the works Mercedes team race in bright red?
Chris

[Vitesse2]

OK just to stir all this up again, here's a quiz question: where, when, and why, did the works Mercedes team race in bright red?
Chris

Where: Targa Florio
When: 1924
Why: nobody knows for certain, but I'm sure somebody's going to mention Sicilian bandits ...

[ReWind]

http://forums.autosp...showtopic=78262

[D-Type]

I don´t really have a source, but I was under the impression that GOLD was the official colour for Mexico, not in the 1930s though , but maybe somewhere around the 60´s or 70´s...

I believe I recall Moises Solana driving a Golden car...

Anyone got any info on this??????

Thanx in advance,
cjpani

Mexico was supposedly gold and royal blue, never saw a car painted that way anywhere though, not even in the Panamericana where we had plenty of mexican entrants.

While looking for something else in Motor Sport for November 1954 I found a report of the CSI meeting in Paris on October 6th. One of the items reported was that the racing colours of gold with a blue stripe had been allocated to Mexico. No reason was given.

[Graham Gauld]

The Automobile Club de France received the entry of a three car team for the 1912 Grand Prix de l'Automobile Club de France from the Arrol Johnston company in Glasgow, Scotland. As a result the Club decided to give Scotland its own racing colours of Green and Blue. However, when the three cars arrived at Dieppe for the race the owner of Arrol Johnston had them painted in the hunting Gordon tartan! I believe it is the only occasion racing cars have turned up painted in tartan!

[BRG]

I believe it is the only occasion racing cars have turned up painted in tartan!

Well it is quite hard to get hold of tartan paint!

[D-Type]

Well it is quite hard to get hold of tartan paint!

I know, I remember trying 50 years ago!


But you have to be careful - it is possible to buy spotted paint - it's called Portaflek (I think)

[Emery0323]

Here's some fun for TNFers: The Sporcle.com online trivia quiz site now has a quiz for international racing colors:

http://www.sporcle.c...l_racing_colors

Let the score comparisons begin!

[Graham Gauld]

Well it is quite hard to get hold of tartan paint!

It has all to do with the brush you use. You use a brush with two heads merged at right angles to each other !!!!!

Sorry for the quality of this but it is Alex Crossman's Arrol Johnson at the 1912 GP



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[D-Type]

Here's some fun for TNFers: The Sporcle.com online trivia quiz site now has a quiz for international racing colors:

http://www.sporcle.c...l_racing_colors

Let the score comparisons begin!

About 15 (I accidentally hit the "Escape" button and revealed all the answers