Lil4X

In the past week I've come across several pur sang sports-racers out on the road in colors that are just altogether wrong. If a car has any real pretensions of a racing heritage, to my little mind its performance models should be sold ONLY in the historic pre-war or immediate postwar racing colors of the marque. If you are going to trade on your racing traditions, you should honor those traditions in your livery - and it should be of the period.

Within the last few days I've been passed by a blue F430 Spider, then came alongside a similar model in black. I followed a white Maserati to church this morning and parked near a retina-searing yellow Corvette of a few years back. Black seems to be the color of choice for the high-end Turbo Porsches, and I've come across several burgundy Aston Martins and even a light green Jaguar. What is with these manufacturers allowing their sportiest models with a genuine racing heritage out the factory door swathed an anything but the national colors in which they achieved their legendary status?

Ferraris and Maseratis, unless the more pedestrian models, should be sold only in Rosso Corsa, the blood-red of the racing stable. Bugatti Veyrons should only be sold in French Blue, Porsches and any remnant racing Mercedes, Auto Union (Audi) or BMWs with real competition credentials should be limited to German Racing Silver (not a paint color at all, but an attempt at weight saving by leaving the aluminum surface unpainted). Jaguars, Aston Martins, and the occasional Bentley Continental should only be offered in British Racing Green, and if Corvette Zo6's are determined to continue racing in yellow, they need to apply for Belgian citizenship.

I suppose if someone wants to shell out the big bucks for an image-racer, they are entitled to have it painted plaid if they wish. It only goes to show a certain disrespect for the history of the marque.

/rant

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Carmakers should at least offer the color.

Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin do not offer British Racing Green as standard options, but do offer personal customization. Only MINI offers BRG as a standard option.

The Germans and Italians have it easy with silver and red, respectively.

And only the Ford Mustang offers the classic American white with blue lengthwise stripes.

mmarshall

You're preaching to the choir, Lil. I've been complaining for years, in my car reviews, about a predominance of funeral-home colors on the factory-lists and not enough pastels, brighter shades, and classy-shades like amythist, coral, turquiose, etc.....

Back in the 1950s and 60s they did colors right...at least on American cars. You could often get any one of dozens of shades, two-tones, and even some three-tones, even on lower-priced cars. That started going out in the 1970s and 80s, as the manufacturers brought in big cost-cutting on the paint-process. Then, the addition of the clearcoat process and new EPA spray-requirements forced new expenses and even more reductions in the color-choices.

Lil4X

The original Shelby Cobras, Ford GT40, and Daytona coupes were all blue with broad white stripes. They are still one of the more handsome colors on the present day Mustangs and show a respect for the heritage. Occasionally the paint colors were reversed, white with blue stripes, and that is, to my mind, permissible. The first F1 Lotuses that hit the track in the sponsors (John Player's, black and gold) livery caused a firestorm of criticism at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix, and things have gone downhill since. Colin Chapman had gotten away with BRG with a white nose band around the air intake on his works cars for several years, but otherwise, your color choices were limited by the national origin of the manufacturer.

I can't quite imagine a yellow Alfa or a blue Ferrari. Like an out of tune piano, a black Veyron is just grating on me. Although the cars can be quite attractive in these "alternative" colors, I feel some incumbency on the owner to carry the marque's proud racing heritage onward. Today, given the sponsorship colors and logos, maybe national racing colors are a thing of the past. I fully expect the next generation of Ferraris to sport Marlboro logos. Maybe one day you can order your Veyron with Elf badges.

2002GGPIS3

I know what you are saying, I love the American blue with white stripes and white with blue stripes, especially on a Ford GT !

But sometimes, if you know the race history of a certain marque, some of the colors take on deeper meanings. take Ferrari for instance, everyone knows the red ( actually most compition car were the deep darker red but I digress). Tour de France Blue, a dark blue was the official racing color of the French Ferrari team, that competed in many sports car races including Lemans. So I would have no shame of repping Ferrari in Tour de France Blue !

mmarshall

That's a good point. And, some of the worst-offenders are in NASCAR/Winston Cup.....though, of course, national-colors don't apply in NASCAR. Still, those cars are so heavily-laden with corporate-logos on them (as are the drivers' racing suits/helmets) that is is sometimes difficult to see what color the car is actually painted.

Lil4X

There is a whole marketing system built around those corporate ads on NASCAR racers. Certain positions on the car command bigger bucks, with the hood logo being the top spot, followed by the flanks and rear. The top of the car and front doors are reserved for numbers. While the Sprint Cup cars (Winston abandoned racing years ago as tobacco became non PC) and the junior Nationwide Series cars are heavily covered in sponsor's logos, most of the Cup cars have run out of space to cover with commercial endorsements. Only in the Nationwide series will you see blank spaces where actual paint is visible.

Sponsorship costs are not necessarily determined by winners and losers, but by "exposures". Yup, little guys sit around with program tapes and hand counters, clicking each time they can read a logo, and for how many seconds it is visible during a race. Sometimes the guy who leads the race doesn't get the most "hits", it's sometimes one of the contenders who breaks through in the last couple of laps who gets the air time. Next race, his stock goes up and it costs more to advertise on his car because he's getting exposure for his sponsors.

Once upon a time the big teams had their colors, Petty Blue practically owned the tracks of the '60's, and legends like Junior Johnson, the Allisons, Foyt, Elliot, Earnhardt, Wallace, and Yarborough all had recognizable paint colors and schemes until sponsors were largely responsible for the look of the entire car. I first recognized the change in 1972, when Richard Petty signed with STP, and where two of the legends of American motor racing, Petty, and owner Andy Granatelli had to coexist in the livery of one car, The Petty Plymouths suddenly sported big bold stripes of red . . . or was it red with blue stripes, along with huge STP logos? Whatever, it made for a distinctive looking car that left no question as to driver and sponsor.

Now, Lowes and Home Depot slug it out on the track with OBVIOUS marking on their cars. The Army and corporate America can be found on the track too, whether touting a bank, insurance company, household products, or foodstuffs. Ain't nothin' subtle about these guys.