I am looking for some information on Cunningham Racing Colors. I am painting my ex-cunningham Cooper T-59 and am not sure what blue to use for the stripe.
I have seen photos of earlier cars with very bright medium blue stripes but by 1962 photos of the cunningham XKE's as well as some color photos of my car in cunningham livery suggest a darker blue was used. Does anyone know the story here?
I have a paint code for the bright medium blue and am looling for a code for the darker blue if indeed that is what I should be using.
Best Regards, Dave Rettew
Cunningham Racing Colors
Started by
retters
, Jul 05 2006 15:30
3 replies to this topic
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#2
Bjorn Kjer
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- 3,686 posts
- Joined: February 06
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Posted 06 July 2006 - 08:40
ask Larry at : larry()bermanadjusters.com
#3
CRX Lee
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- 37 posts
- Joined: January 06
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Posted 07 July 2006 - 02:51
Back in '91, I was painting my '68 Corvair SCCA racecar and being a traditionalist I wanted it to be the American racing white with two blue stripes for my first racecar. The more I researched, the more I found inconsistency on the shade of blue and the width and separation of the stripes.
I visited the Collier Museum in Florida and the restoration department employees were very willing to assist me in my pursuit. They had several Cunninghams on display and they let me step over the barriers to take a variety of measurements. What I found was that each car was different and the standard was basically "no standard". A lot of the Cobras (especially the Mustang Cobras) that I have seen tended to run wider stripes than the Cunninghams which I chose to try to emulate more as they were amongst the earlier cars seen in the the national scheme. People selected shades of blue and stripe dimensions based on their own situations, needs, time, etc. rather than following a prescribed rule. I ended up with two blue stripes of 6 inches wide separated by a three inch wide band of white. The blue that I ended up with was a tad lighter and milky compared to my goal but from my own research what was more important was the presence of the stripes and not their actual dimensions.
If you have and are trying to recreate a specific car, my suggestion would be to try to find a period photo and take some measurements then compare them to other known dimensions on the car to extrapolate the stripe dimensions. Beyond that, you are on your own to make your own call.
Clear as mud?
I visited the Collier Museum in Florida and the restoration department employees were very willing to assist me in my pursuit. They had several Cunninghams on display and they let me step over the barriers to take a variety of measurements. What I found was that each car was different and the standard was basically "no standard". A lot of the Cobras (especially the Mustang Cobras) that I have seen tended to run wider stripes than the Cunninghams which I chose to try to emulate more as they were amongst the earlier cars seen in the the national scheme. People selected shades of blue and stripe dimensions based on their own situations, needs, time, etc. rather than following a prescribed rule. I ended up with two blue stripes of 6 inches wide separated by a three inch wide band of white. The blue that I ended up with was a tad lighter and milky compared to my goal but from my own research what was more important was the presence of the stripes and not their actual dimensions.
If you have and are trying to recreate a specific car, my suggestion would be to try to find a period photo and take some measurements then compare them to other known dimensions on the car to extrapolate the stripe dimensions. Beyond that, you are on your own to make your own call.
Clear as mud?
#4
Frank S
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- 2,162 posts
- Joined: September 02
Member
Posted 07 July 2006 - 03:14
Probably not of much help, but I guess they're nice to look at.
Monterey 2003,
Cunningham C4R 1952 No. 57 5300cc
Chassis No. --
Robert F. Williams
--
Frank S
Monterey 2003,
Cunningham C4R 1952 No. 57 5300cc
Chassis No. --
Robert F. Williams
--
Frank S
