[DoneByDoug]

If you're thinking of doing a stripe and you want to go with the original white color, you may want to do a lot of comparisons between that white and a body color.

I was considering a stripe, but in the end felt the FIA body style was better served without one. However, I did a lot of test samples and had some very nice combos. I was using industrial colors, non metallic, cold in value (light blues, lights greens, and light grays) What I was looking to do was create a color combo that had the effect of being total color all the way through. Almost like if you cut the car in half, the cross section would be total color.

I know this may sound crazy to some, but the slightly off-white of the stripe next to these types of colors really look "thick". They don't lie on top as a white does on the traditional cobra blue. They also look very retro and industrial, the way a lot of the original 289 racing cobras look. To my eyes, the white on a metallic, makes both the metallic and the stripe look like a skin. In the end, I thought it was too radical a choice. What I ultimately chose was a blue from a 1974 Chevy truck with a Ferrari red rookie stripe. However, the next build I do, I'll do exactly what I originally wanted. I'm planning on doing it on an altered wheel base Ford Falcon funny car.

In the end, John at ERA helped me a lot. He and Doug have a lot of common sense, and see a lot of these cars. In fact, John thought it might work and said they'd done a couple of non-metallic grays that looked killer. I was ultimately afraid of growing tired of a baby-blue-battleship grey FIA with an off white stripe. But, every time I see one of the Gulf sponsored GT's in blue with an orange strip, I still have a tinge of regret.

One other observation: I know you don't want the grill in front, but it truly is a piece of art and I'm really happy I chose it. I've heard rumors that Peter comes from an old line of Italian metal smiths, and that these are hand made by monks in a monastery in the Southern alps. They certainly are priced that way, and I WILL be trying to write it off as a donation to the Catholic Church!