Significance of these stripes?
 

I know the straight across stripe was on the FIA. What about these?

http://members.cox.net/btsai4/stripes.jpg

They sure do look good on the 427 body style...

http://members.cox.net/btsai4/nifty4.jpg

Ben

I believe that there has been some discussion on these stripes before. As I remember from the discussion, these stripes were used by the teams to help differenciate and identify team cars out on the tracksince many of the team cars had similar paint and numbers series.

anyone else,

Mike "monster"

Mike, Your right on !! Different colors for each team.

well- I wasnt even born when these cars were racing around in Europe- and someone may be willing to correct me if I am wrong- but they are called pit stripes or team stripes- so that when a car was either circling the track or coming into the pits they could differentiate the cars- as they had really similar colors- This allowed the correct team to work on the car when it came in to pit-

a modern version of this same idea can be seen on the Porsche GT1 cars with their red and yellow fender mirrors and nose paint-.http://www.arteauto.com/images/wattslm98.jpg
or the Audi R8's that run at LeMans, they run a yellow car and a red one- and last year a red and black one. So that they can be easily disdinguished from afar.http://www.minichamps.info/Audi123box.JPG I know their models but you get the point

The Gulf GT40s had three different variations on the classic blue and orange paint. I wont post the pics- you can do a search on google or something else if you really want.

Well, i can offer a different tale. I was talking recently with a paint and restoration shop near the Olthoff's, up in NC. I asked about having some "rookie" stripes put across the driver's front fender, and he told me how he had heard these came to be put on race cars.

He said that race cars used to have tapes on things that had to be checked prior to a race, like an airplane has straps and warning tapes on things to be checked prior to flying, of course, the tapes are pulled off as that item is checked. On a rainy day, someone noted how nice some strapping/tapes looked when plastered across a left fender of a race car, and just thought they added a racy look. Hence, more decoration to a race car.

I would suppose if indeed this was how it started (i wouldn't of course know), how the "rookie" stripe could be used for many things on race cars. He said to do the stripes right, they would have to paint the front of my car, for over a thousand dollars.

I spoke with Dennis Olthoff, and while my car is up getting a new rollbar and other "tweaks" he is going to have some tape put on to replicate the stripes on the front "wing."

Interestingly, i have asked any number of people what color would look best on my red/white stripe car, and got very different opinions!

God bless our Astronauts, and their loved ones.

Thanks for the posts, guys. Hal -- please post some pictures of our car when you get it back -- would be very interested in seeing!


Ben

I love my stripes
 

Btsai,

I was told they are team colors and think they look great. I was also told that rookie stripes were on the rear of the cars so the drivers could identify them as they approached to pass. That said, I love mine.

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/s...t=1&thecat=500

Cheers, Pete C

Some variations....all tape

http://www.priveye.com/cobra/DONE.JPG

http://www.priveye.com/cobra/Latest2.JPG

http://www.priveye.com/dls/one1.jpg

Here's my slant.
 

It's a variation on a theme above.....
When I ordered my car, this is the story related to me concerning the stripes. When teams raced multiple cars and there were penalties for pulling into the wrong pit, different colors were used for each driver/car/crew since you can visually differentiate a flash of color while numbers are just a blur. I have seen various pictures of Carroll Shelby's team cars in which the stripes "appear" to be different colors (tough to tell in black & white), so it sounds plausible. Anyway, when Doug Reed explained it to me when I ordered my car in 1999 it sounded good to me, and I liked the look anyway. My car is in my photo gallery.
John Russell
SPF #586, with yellow stripes & currently running a hard top.

Does anybody know how to make these stripes...or where to buy them? Are they static cling?

Roscoe,,,,,,your up! That "tape" for stripes is SO cool. I get bored easy, you could re-stripe every few weeks, lol.

OH! Roscoe is stripeing over GEL COAT. Would the "tape" work as well on "paint"? Possible long term "marks" left over when you remove them?

Ernie

Does anyone know what color stripes are associated with which teams?

Tape on and off for kicks.

I will try and have a computer-savvy friend take some pictures (and post them for me) of my Blue Cobra (with white stripes), as it has the two red stripes on the right fender. I did not like them at first, but they look really far-out now!!!

Roscoe.
Where do you get those taxi stripes?

TURK

Taxi stripes??

It's racer tape from http://www.racerpartswholesale.com

Roscoe