Stripes

[PaulProe]

I understand the slash stripes on the left front fender indicated the particular team that the car belonged to, but what about the longitudinal stripes.

Is there a significance to the two stripes (white or otherwise) that run down the center of the car.

Sorry, I'm a drag racer, not a SCCA or FAI guy so pardon the question if it is one of common knowledge to road racing.

Thanks

Paul

[DougD]

Paul
The slashes on the front fenders were to differentiate cars that were painted the same within a race. Two dark blue cars with identical white stripes, for example, would receive different color slashes to make the cars easier to tell apart from the pits.

The longitudinal white stripes changed over time, but had no real significance that I'm aware of. The first racing Cobras had no stripes, just the number circles (roundels). Later team cars had twin narrow white stripes (see the '64 Daytona Coupes). By '65 the stripes were the familiar twin "Le Mans" style (similar to the GT 350s) that are frequently copied today.

Doug

[pmfranke]

the two stripes were put on for a refrence to show the driver witch way the car was pointed in a spin.

[Power Surge]

Originally Posted by pmfranke

the two stripes were put on for a refrence to show the driver witch way the car was pointed in a spin.

[01yelrt]

The two Lemans stripes are also sometimes called "skunk stripes". I suppose to indicate what will happen to the competition. Aron

[Todd Spence]

I've always heard people refer to them as rookie stripes. A rookie driver had them on his car just as nascar paints the spoiler or some other part to let you be aware of a inexperienced driver. Any truth to this?

[DougD]

No.
Also, rookie stripes would be on the rear of a car so the other drivers are aware they're passing a rookie. Pretty common in other forms of racing.

[Naumoff]

I would have to look it up but I thought I heard Shelby say they were just European racing stripes. But That could mean anything.

[Naumoff]

Found something.

[edit] Cunningham racing stripes
The first racing stripes were applied to high-performance prototype automobiles built as racecars by Briggs Cunningham and his motorsport team, beginning in 1951. Cunningham racecars usually carried two parallel blue stripes running from front to rear of the white body so that spectators could identify the team's automobiles readily during races. The Cunningham tradition was followed by Carroll Shelby on his Cobra and some prototypes built as, "Shelby", that sometimes were driven on the street in New Jersey. The tradition was soon adopted by other racing teams in many venues.

Many automobile manufacturers soon decided that imitation of the Cunningham tradition could be profitable, and some "sportier" models of a manufacturer's range often featured stripes out of the factory (hence the derisive use of the term, go-faster). Thereafter, the use of racing stripes soon became common in the 1960s and early 70s for both race and road cars.

The imitative trend continues—although striping has tended to become more subtle. In North America, owners of performance sport compact cars or Ricers as they are called, use a thinner version of the classic striping, similar to that of the Renault Clio Gordini (pictured above).

Recently the striping was used on the Dodge Viper by Carroll Shelby, starting a revival in Europe, so among many who have no knowledge of the the history, they sometimes are referred to as Viper Stripes.

Purists call them Cunningham racing stripes although the more generic American racing stripes also is used in Europe because Cunningham epitomized the American motorsportsman and racecar constructor. For three decades Briggs Cunningham and his team were well known and extremely popular among spectators and racing professionals at European racing events.


[edit] External links
link to the Briggs Cunningham site; specifically, to the subpage for the Cunningham sports car — although there are interesting photographs on each of the pages of the site
look at deceased members list for the biography of, and a classic photograph of Briggs Swift Cunningham II
http://www.jcna.com/library/news/jcna0050.html - a Costin Lister Jaguar raced by the Briggs Cunningham team - bearing the Cunningham racing stripes - in detail and with history - click for exploded views
http://www.briggscunningham.com/lemans54.html link to several pages of photographs and history of the Cunningham racecars - select the years at the bottom of the page to move from one year to another
http://www.briggscunningham.com/lemans54.html - link to the cover of Time magazine dated, April 26, 1954 - shows the team cars with their stripes - the links at the bottom of the page lead to various years of production
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-faster_stripes"

[Naumoff]

Here's a couple of the european revivals.