Original 289 colors?

[Bartruff1]

Originally Posted by Newsnake

What were the original colors that were used on 289 racers and roadsters?

Thanks

.....The original FIA Shelby Team Cars in 1964 were Princess Alice Blue....even the car transporters and the crew's Ranch Wagons (station wagons) were painted that color. Someone ? didn't think that name was macho enough for those fire breathing and thundering monsters, so they changed the name but not the paint to Viking Blue. I have read that it was Ford and not Shelby that wanted the team cars painted in the Blue Oval Blue (Guardsman) in 1965. And so according to the Golden Rule ( He who has the gold makes the rules) it was done.

[Nedsel]

Originally Posted by Bartruff1

.....The original FIA Shelby Team Cars in 1964 were Princess Alice Blue....even the car transporters and the crew's Ranch Wagons (station wagons) were painted that color. Someone ? didn't think that name was macho enough for those fire breathing and thundering monsters, so they changed the name but not the paint to Viking Blue. I have read that it was Ford and not Shelby that wanted the team cars painted in the Blue Oval Blue (Guardsman) in 1965. And so according to the Golden Rule ( He who has the gold makes the rules) it was done.

The Cobra color of Princess Blue (no "Alice") is a different color than the '63 - '64 Ford color of Viking Blue. The former is more a metallic greyish-silver, with practically no blue in it, whereas Viking is a metallic sky-blue.

[Bartruff1]

Originally Posted by Nedsel

The Cobra color of Princess Blue (no "Alice") is a different color than the '63 - '64 Ford color of Viking Blue. The former is more a metallic greyish-silver, with practically no blue in it, whereas Viking is a metallic sky-blue.

I got the " Princess Alice Blue" from a team member in the pits at the Targa in 1964 because I really liked the color and asked what it was. I remembered that name because it was so unusual and he was laughing when he told me. It is quite possible he didn't know wtf he was talking about. Later, I saw a reference to that color on page 66 of Trevor Legate's book " Cobra, The First 40 Years". In any case, I was wrong because Cobra's were raced as early as 1962 at Riverside and there were some very famous Cobra's raced in Europe in 1963....soooo...the Team Cars I saw in 1964 were hardly the original race cars.

[G-Pete]

Originally Posted by Bartruff1

.....The original FIA Shelby Team Cars in 1964 were Princess Alice Blue....

Yes, but there were other teams like Hitchcock/Tchkotous (CSX 2155) which raced also in April of 1964 at Targa Florio.

The CSX 2155 289FIA was Wimbledon white. The car had the number 152.
Since 1999 stripped and on display at the Shelby Museum.