Everything about British Racing Green totally explained
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| RGB: (2, 28, 19) |
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Shades of British racing green
with their RGB values |
| Napier Green |
An approximation of the
original colour used by Napier |
British racing green or
BRG, identified with
brunswick,
hunter,
forest or
moss green (RAL 6005), takes its name from the green
international motor racing colour of
Great Britain. Although there's still some debate as to an exact hue for BRG, currently the term is used to denote a spectrum of deep, rich greens. 'British racing green' in motorsport terms meant only the colour green in general - its application to a specific range of shades has developed outside the sport.
In the days of the
Gordon Bennett Cup, Count
Eliot Zborowski, father of inter-war racing legend
Louis Zborowski, suggested that each national entrant be allotted a different colour. Every component of a car had to be produced in the competing country, as well as the driver being of that nationality. The races were hosted in the country of the previous year's winner. Britain had to choose a different colour to its usual national colours, red, white and blue, because those colours had already been taken by Italy, Germany and France respectively.
When
Selwyn Edge won the
1902 race for Britain in a
Napier it was decided that the
1903 race would be held in
Ireland, at that time a part of the
United Kingdom, as motor racing at the time was illegal in
Great Britain, and the opening of
Brooklands still 4 years in the future. As a mark of respect for their Irish hosts the
British Napier cars were painted shamrock green. As Napier had already used olive green during the 1902 event, and had adopted the colour as its corporate livery, they supported this choice wholeheartedly. Initially the colour distinction only applied to the
grands épreuves, but was later codified in the
Code Sportif International (
CSI) of the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (
FIA).
In keeping with these Irish/Napier roots, many of the earliest greens used on British racing cars were of a lighter
olive,
moss or
emerald green. Later, darker shades became more common.
In the 1920s
Bentley cars were hugely successful at the
Le Mans 24h races, all sporting a mid- to dark-green. The first recorded use of the darkest green shades was on the
Bugatti of Briton
William Grover-Williams, driving in the very first
Monaco Grand Prix, in 1928. This colour became known as
British Racing Green and was regarded as a semi-official shade, especially in the 1950s and 1960s when British teams such as
Vanwall,
Cooper,
Lotus, and
BRM were successful in
Formula One, all in different shades of dark green. However, reflecting their long racing heritage, Napier and
Aston Martin retained the lighter shades, and Scottish teams such as
Ecurie Ecosse and the
Rob Walker Racing team used a dark blue. The
Brabham team also used a shade of BRG, despite not being British. As Australia was a member of the British Commonwealth the base shade was the same as Britain, but this was augmented with a gold (later yellow) stripe, gold and green being the national sporting colours of Australia.
Under pressure from a number of teams, most famously the Lotus team who wished to use the
Gold Leaf livery on the
Lotus 49, in
1968 sponsorship regulations were relaxed in
F1. In 1970 the FIA formally gave Formula One an exemption from the national colours ruling and the previously common green colour soon disappeared, being replaced by various sponsor liveries. This exemption has since been extended to all race series, unless specific regulations require the adoption of national colours.
The history of the famous greens was revived in 2000 by
Jaguar Racing in Formula One, but after this team was sold to
Red Bull by
Ford in
2004, the new
Red Bull Racing team used their own colours. Other traditionally British manufacturers have since followed suit. Bentley returned briefly to the Le Mans circuit in 2002 and in 2003 with the winning
Bentley Speed 8, painted in a very dark shade of BRG. In recent years Aston Martin has also returned to endurance racing, with their
DBR9s painted in, a typically Aston, light BRG.
With the many successes of British racing teams through the years, British Racing Green became a popular paint choice for British sports and luxury cars, and a popular choice for the
Mini Cooper, the
BMW MINI and the
Mazda MX-5, whose styling was heavily based on the 1960s British
Lotus Elan. British Racing Green wasn't traditionally a
metallic paint, but tends to be such on new cars, as such a limited range of "solid" colours is offered by manufacturers.
Further Information
Get more info on 'British Racing Green'.
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