Thursday Trivia

Thirsday Trivia
Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars!
This week’s question: Who is generally considered to have “invented” the racing stripe?
If you think you know the answer, make the jump and see if you’re right.
Cunningham-C-4R_7The aesthetic of today’s race cars seems to be more billboard for sponsor messages than for team colors, but underneath the ads, livery is just as important as ever.
At one time the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) established a color code for cars competing on the international stage, based on their nationality. These allowed for teams, observers, and spectators to more easily distinguish competitors at speed. Of course under these rules Italy was red and Great Britain was green, but would you have suspected that Cuba’s color was yellow?
The FIA’s Code Sportif International no longer mandates country colors, but there have been plenty of other ways for cars to stand out at a distance. The venerable racing stripe was once one of those.
From Motorsports University:

Some historians credit Briggs Cunningham and his cars with the first use of “racing stripes” beginning in 1951. Their idea was to make the cars easier for spectators and team members to identify. Some speculate that the stripes also helped drivers figure out their direction after they’d spun out. This led to their wide spread use in all forms of motorsports. They even made their way onto street and performance cars, a trend which continues to this day.
The White w/blue Stripes of the Cunningham racers are considered by many to be the national racing colors of America. The colors are also be flipped to Blue w/White stripes as seen on Shelby Cobra’s and Dan Gurney’s Eagle racing cars. These stripes opened the door for much of the custom paint work seen on hot rods, custom cars, racing cars and street cars over the last 60 years.

Racing livery has long since evolved from the simple stripe and of course some, like the Gulf Racing and Martini colors, have frequently been replicated on the road, sometimes even on cars that deserve it!
Image: Motorsports University

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  1. Rover 1 Avatar
    Rover 1

    You really have to admire someone who can take one of these Cadillacs to Le Mans to compete.
    At this early stage the cars were two-tone rather than striped.
    It’s almost like the stripes evolved with each newer version just to save on blue paint ?
    And then the same running gear was given another go with a rebodied version called ‘Il Monstre’ before Cunningham decided that making the whole car might be easier.
    http://myautoworld.com/gm/history/cadillac/cadillac-innovation/1950_Coupe_deVille_at_LeMans_3a.jpg
    http://www.lepoint.fr/images/2012/07/05/cadillac-lm-620112-jpg_424463.JPG
    http://www.briggscunningham.com/images/lemans51/c2_1.jpg