Car Colour

[woodyracing]

if you have a car that is a colour that is easily recognisable eg, bright pink or green. Fellow competitors will see you coming and immediately know who it is, so do you think this will put you at a dissadvantage ?

[andy_b]

well, for Senna and his yellow helmet, it worked and people got out the way! Are you quick


Bare in mind, loud colours make it harder for sponsors logos, wording etc to be seen on TV and print. Check out the rest of the field and make sure there arent 20 other Blue cars, (or Grey in the case of the Cupras!)

[carsten.meurer]

it is always important for me that my car is easily recognized in mirrors !

it always was of help to me, maybe because of my natural style to not take
prisoners, and people realising that resistance is useless...

on one occasion we came to lap cars on the streets of pau.
i was lying 3rd, defending from two orange cars, when we hit a group of
backmarkers that held another two orange cars ( kind of fashion in france in 01... ).

while they made life easy for me knowing i was on a mission, they mistaken
the guys behind me, and i had a cruise to the finish line !

no matter if there might be some disadvantages, i WANT the people in front
to know they deal with me ! never had a bad effect for me so far !

in respect of sponsors, its usually the parts of the car you do not need
for sponsors that make your car bright in the mirrors !
i have my usual racing blue on all cars, easy to put sponsor logos on ( if only
there were some...), useing spaces no sponsor would want to go for the
bright contrast colours. worked great !

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by andy_b

Check out the rest of the field and make sure there arent 20 other Blue cars, (or Grey in the case of the Cupras!)

This is the problem we had. The first year I raced the car was blue and looked pants in pictures and was difficult to tell who it was while on track.
Then we went purple/pink. It was great - you could see it from miles away.

Originally Posted by woodyracing

if you have a car that is a colour that is easily recognisable eg, bright pink or green. Fellow competitors will see you coming and immediately know who it is, so do you think this will put you at a dissadvantage ?

Is it an advantage? I think it makes minimal difference, but I guess it can be off putting in the mirror and there is more chance they know when you are coming through It may also help with lapping.

As for knowing who it is, well I guess that depends if you have a reputation or not

[woodyracing]

I was thinking that having a bright colour could make it easier for other competitors to see you, and then it would be more difficult to sneak a passing move on them. Also if someone knows your driving style and they know you are behind them, then they could maybe predict what you are going to do.

[carsten.meurer]

if the guy ahead is trying to adopt his line to prevent you passing, he will get slower, allowing you to pass ! advantage to you !

if you have not enough variety in your box of tricks to surprise them freshly
every time, think about that rather than the car colour first !

i see no disadvantages, other than marshalls being able to tell that it was
exactly you in the pink car that has done something wrong, even if they did
not see your number immideately !
then you are also less likely to be accused for someone else penalty !

as said, surely depends on your reputation if you want to be seen !
if you are known for not making a move stick, it might be better not to be identified easily, as they will always expect you to slot in behind.

if you worked hard on getting people to know that once you started the move, you will make it stick, or both go off, you would want people to realize its you.

[GordonG]

Regardless of any reputation for being a committed driver or psychopath (!), you want the driver you are passing to know you are there. You dont pass a car by "sneaking past", it's just not how things work. You position your car so that the other driver must give you room and you can make the pass.

The worst thing that can happen is you poke your nose up the inside, he doesnt see you and wipes the 2 of you off the track. If you have a visible car, he sees you and still chooses to wipe you off the track then you can use his face to repaint the front of your car bright red when you get back to the paddock (JOKE).

So a visible car is preferable, IME. I have a blue car, but I usually put my full beam on when in a dice or lapping other cars.

G

[R59]

I had one of my cars in flourescent red. You needed shades to look at it.

I still had someone turn in on me, and the excuse "didn't see you".

Didn't want to look more like.

[dtype38]

Mine used to be dark green and I used to get mistaken for a bit of scenery! Didn't help me overtake anyone though. Then I changed it to bright red, but there was another car the same type and colour on the grid and the crowd and commentators just got confused. Now I've painted it bit more "distinctive" and everyone knows exactly where I am... making a brilliant overtaking move or just a complete balls up.... I'd have it no other way