2 replies to this topic

[Dennis David]

Just wondered if you had any info on the origins and start date of the
tradition of British Racing Green, Italian Red, French Blue, German White,
etc, before the days of commercial sponsor decoration of race cars?

Best regards, Andrew Beint.


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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[Dr.DeDion]

I bet someone else will come up with a more complete answer, but national colors were first assigned in auto racing for the original Gordon Bennett Cup race in the first decade of the 20th century.Interestingly, the United States was initially assigned the color red, but because the Americans did not manage to get any cars ready on time to participate in the first GBC the Italians replaced them and were allowed to appropriate the color as well.Maybe that's when U.S. racing started to get so screwed up?

[Racer.Demon]

Just as a note of interest - here's where you can find most countries' national colours:
http://www.racer.dem...ear/colors.html

Incidentally, the Gordon Bennett story is right, but I'm sure there are others more knowledgeable who can dwell on that.


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