somewhat OT - racing stripes poll

[skerocdriver@juno.com (Shawn C Meze)]

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002 09:25:28 -0700 "Jeff Toomasson"
<jtoomasson@yahoo.com> writes:

>The guy who brought up the Sierra cosworth scoop got me reminiscing...
>ever since before I could even drive, I've always been enamored with 
>the two racing stripe look on the late '60s Amercian muscle cars.
-snip-!


I knew we would see alot of ignorant replies to the whole racing stripe
thing. There is alot of racing history with racing stripes and as a
matter of fact, were a requirement in some racing leagues in europe in
the 50's and 60's. They later made their way to the US shores as a
cosmetic application and were improvised upon later to the schemes you
are familiar with. Contrary to popular belief, the asian import market
didnt invent racing stripes. 

I love the whole european racing scene in the 50's and 60's. You didn't
need alot of money, you could be a total nobody and be successful in
racing. The rules were simplistic and the cars even more simple. Its
because of THESE racers that the european cars were developed in the
manner they were. They were all about racing in a time when racing was a
newborn babe in the hands of children. Anything was possible and if it
wasn't for these early pioneers of racing, we wouldn't have the worldwide
recognition and participation that racing has today. I love racing and
its history and have the utmost respect for the history racing holds. 

Ahh well. I digress. 

Back to the point. The rice haters hold something simple like racing
stripes as some sort of sin. Whatever. Not much bothers me on a car no
matter how tasteless it might be. Its not MY car and the more crap I see
on cars the better I figure my odds are to winning a race against them. 

I like racing stripes and I painted my car from a paint scheme I saw in
the pits at a GTC race in FInthen, Germany in 87 of a BMW. It stuck in my
head. It was somewhat retro of the early racing stripes that denoted
which side of the car the driver sat on so in the event of an accident,
the course workers knew which side to go to the get the driver out of the
car. Functionality when most people (especially on this list) knew of
none. Ignorance is bliss I tells ya! BLISS!!! Let them, sokay.

So in June of 96' on top of the Mazda Miata Blue paint I painted 2 silver
stripes, 2" wide spaced 1" apart centered over the drivers side. It feels
right on that car for me. Its a racing thing and the car gets raced quite
often. ( look for it at the ND show. See how it does with all its "rice
stickers" and "rice stripes" because if it has stickers and racing
stripes, it MUST be rice, right? ) If people don't like it then they
should get used to losing to it. LOL!! Name calling don't bother me
because I know what its capable of doing. Its not my fault people are
narrow minded. 

When I paint the dedicated FSP 79 Roc, I was thinking of going with the
scheme of the early 70's Porsche GULF cars with the baby blue with redish
trim. Naw, ill stick with my blue with silver racing stripes. It seems to
really piss people off that I put stripes on it. That makes me happy.
Especially when Ive just beat them with it. 

Anyways, do what YOU want man! if you get an idea, go with it. You can
always change it later. 
Or not. :)


Shawn Méze
86' Jetta GLi 8V   88' Corvette -SS 30- 2001 SDR Solo2 Champion
82' Scirocco GTi -FSP 54-   79' "Project FSP Scirocco"  84' Scirocco 8V
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and best looking Scirocco(s) in all of
San Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm


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