Going back to the start of this thread we learn that Mercedes removed the white paint from their cars at the Eifelrennen in 1934 in order to pass below the 750Kg. limit. I was always led to believe that this actually happened at the French GP in 1934, more as a result of "inaccurate" French weighing equipment than anything else. However an earlier post shows this was untrue and since I have always doubted the story I suspect the reason was that at some stage they realised that weight saving from not having paint was worth having. The question of when and why Auto Union followed suit was asked but never answered but presumably they saw the advantage too.
Since the thread seems to have slipped away from pre war times can I move a little more OT and ask about Stirling Moss's car in the Aintree 200 of 1958? One of my most prized possessions is the Eagle Book of Cars & Motor Sport by Peter Roberts published in 1958 which I have owned from the age of 9 in 1958. In one chapter he describes a sort of "day at the races" about the Aintree meeting and describes Stirling's Cooper as black, although the programme says green, he concedes that it is actually very dark green. This would have have been Rob Walker's car so should have been blue with a white stripe on the nose but the photos show a very dark car with no stripe. Is this just a case of sloppy writing or was the car actually green? Did it have to run in green to satisfy the organisers?
Edited by RCH, 19 August 2012 - 22:49.