Go-faster stripes
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Go-faster stripes is a term now used, usually in a derogatory or derisive way, to refer to an imitative decoration applied to cars to make them appear to be modified for extra speed. These are, however, merely a vestige of the tradition begun in sportscar racing when all of the racecars built by Briggs Cunningham were painted white with blue stripes—as were most of the Team Cunningham race cars that followed.
The humorous term, go-faster stripes, is thought to have been popularized, and most probably invented, in the Daily Mirror comic strip, The Perishers. Go-faster stripes are popular with boy racers. A running gag in the strip had one character selling his slow-witted friend a series of home-made buggies with "go-faster stripes" as a feature.
[edit] Explanation
Racing cars of the 1950s and 1960s often had stripes, called racing stripes, applied to the paintwork to give them a distinctive appearance on the track—it made them easier to identify for spectators and commentators—and this later evolved into the corporate sponsorship colour schemes still seen. In some cases, the stripes were applied asymmetrically and were used to identify on which side of the racecar the driver was situated. Applying similar stripes to street cars is thought to give them the appearance of these racing cars, and by association, that the cars themselves had been modified for extra speed, whether or not they really had been. It can be seen as a mild form of car customization.
A typical form of the 'classic' go-faster stripe is a pair of parallel stripes in a contrasting colour to the main bodywork which is fixed to the bonnet, roof, and boot in a continuous run (with breaks for the windscreen and rear window). Other arrangements such as side stripes and stripes which form a loop across the bonnet, or boot, and along the sides are seen frequently. The illusion of a racing car is continued by the application in some cases of competition number panels on the doors, bonnet, etc.
Also see racing colors.
[edit] Cunningham racing stripes
The first racing stripes were applied to high-performance prototype automobiles built as racecars by Briggs Cunningham and his motorsport team, beginning in 1951. Cunningham racecars usually carried two parallel blue stripes running from front to rear of the white body so that spectators could identify the team's automobiles readily during races. The Cunningham tradition was followed by Carroll Shelby on his Cobra and some prototypes built as, "Shelby", that sometimes were driven on the street in New Jersey. The tradition was soon adopted by other racing teams in many venues.
Many automobile manufacturers soon decided that imitation of the Cunningham tradition could be profitable, and some "sportier" models of a manufacturer's range often featured stripes out of the factory (hence the derisive use of the term, go-faster). Thereafter, the use of racing stripes soon became common in the 1960s and early 70s for both race and road cars.
The imitative trend continues—although striping has tended to become more subtle. In North America, owners of performance sport compact cars or Ricers as they are called, use a thinner version of the classic striping, similar to that of the Renault Clio Gordini (pictured above).
Recently the striping was used on the Dodge Viper by Carroll Shelby, starting a revival in Europe, so among many who have no knowledge of the the history, they sometimes are referred to as Viper Stripes.
Purists call them Cunningham racing stripes although the more generic American racing stripes also is used in Europe because Cunningham epitomized the American motorsportsman and racecar constructor. For three decades Briggs Cunningham and his team were well known and extremely popular among spectators and racing professionals at European racing events.
[edit] External links
- link to the Briggs Cunningham site; specifically, to the subpage for the Cunningham sports car — although there are interesting photographs on each of the pages of the site
- look at deceased members list for the biography of, and a classic photograph of Briggs Swift Cunningham II
- http://www.jcna.com/library/news/jcna0050.html - a Costin Lister Jaguar raced by the Briggs Cunningham team - bearing the Cunningham racing stripes - in detail and with history - click for exploded views
- http://www.briggscunningham.com/lemans54.html link to several pages of photographs and history of the Cunningham racecars - select the years at the bottom of the page to move from one year to another
- http://www.briggscunningham.com/lemans54.html - link to the cover of Time magazine dated, April 26, 1954 - shows the team cars with their stripes - the links at the bottom of the page lead to various years of production
