4 replies to this topic

[Gil Bouffard]

Once again the color of a nation’s racing cars raises its ugly head..

Thus from Mike Lawrence’s "Directory of GRAND PRIX CARS 1945-65" - Aston Publications 1989.

"Thus B.R.M. ended 1959 with its solitary win and without showing similar form in any other race. Moss, however, had been impressed by the car he had driven at Silverstone and proposed a deal whereby he had one for selected races In 1959, but it was entered by B.R.P. B.R.M. accepted gladly, but the implication was clear: Moss did not trust B.R.M. to prepare the car properly, and after his close shave in the International Trophy few blamed him.

Thus a P25 in the bright near-yellow green of BRP appeared in the French GP. As an aside, there is no such colour as British Racing Green outside of a paint catalogue and any shade of green represents Britain. Equally, Scots teams which paint their cars blue and white are wrong to use Austria's racing colours. Scotland's racing colour has always been green, for the Scots count as British."

Thus Mike Lawrence hath spoken thusly. Thus it may be his favorite word.

Thus I have quoted.

Gil Bouffard

[Wolf]

Heh, here goes one of my silly questions ™... Can anyone provide BRG specification (I meann colour composition, or whatever)?

[BRG]

This ought to be something that I could pontificate upon - but I can't!

I do know that the original BRG was the Napier house livery that somehow metamorphosed into Britain's racing colour. Somewhere I have a leaflet that tells all about it, which I got from an old friend who is from a cadet line of the Napier family. If I can find it, I will let you all know more.

[karlcars]

From my book, "Classic Grand Prix Cars" -- which may or may not be right(!!

"Introduced with the Gordon Bennett competition was the concept of national colours for the cars: blue for France, white for Germany, yellow for Belgium, green for Britain and – at first – red for America."

Of course there's no 'official' BRG but the deep green of the Vanwalls would come pretty close to the ideal hue, I think.

[Gil Bouffard]

A while back there was a thread on colors of racing cars. There were some questions about Stirling Moss' Maserati, especiaaly in the 1995 season. In 1954, the car was green until the works asked Stirling to join the team. The car was then painted RED.

As many of you know I collect and read old books. Back when I was a young whippersnapper, I owned Moss' "In The Track Of Speed," and "A Turn At The Wheel."

I remembered reading some place why Moss changed the color of his Maserati.

From "In The Track Of Speed." 1957,Stirling Moss, G.P. Putnam's Sons, the following: " I spent hours and hours thinking and dreaming. Maserati, B.R.M., Vanwall, Connaught; for Maserati had made me a very definite and attractive offer to be their No. I driver in all the 1956 races. In my own mind, I was convinced that the Maserati would give me the best chance of becoming the first British driver to win a World's Championship. But, all things being equal, I would much rather drive in British green, or should I say grey-green, because, as I have said before, I am a bit superstitious and don't like an all-green car. That is why I painted my own Maserati in grey and picked it out in green, to comply with necessity."

There you go.

Gil