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NATIONAL RACING COLOURS
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This is in response to an earlier question about what colours were used by
teams of various nations. As has been pointed out in earlier posts, the
practice of painting cars in national colours goes back to the Gordon 
Bennett races at the turn of the century.

Over the years a rather extensive list of colours was drawn up. In the early
days even the exposed  chassis rails and the 'bonnet' were different in
colour from the body of the car.

In some cases national colours have changed over the years. In the case of
Great Britain, British Racing green was never a strictly defined colour and
different shades were used by different teams. I have compiled a list of
official colours from the Guinness Superlatives Guide: Grand Prix Motor
Racing by Eric Dymock, and the official FIA yearbook of Automobile Sport
1969.


Argentina:         Blue, black chassis and wheels, yellow bonnet.
                   Nos; red on white.
Austria:           Blue, white chassis and wheels, silver stripe.
                   Numbers; white.
Belgium:           Yellow. Nos; white.
Bulgaria:          Green, white bonnet. Nos; red.
Brazil:            Yellow, green chassis and wheels. Nos; white.
Canada:            Red, white stripe min. 8" wide.
Chile:             Red, white chassis and wheels. Nos; red on white.
Czechoslovakia:    White, red chassis and wheels, blue bonnet.
                   Nos; blue on white
Egypt:             Mauve. Nos; red on white.
Estonia:           Upper body white, lower blue, black chassis and wheels.
                   Nos; black.
Finland:           Black. Nos; blue on white. (Guinness) 
Finland:           White with two blue stripes on bonnet forming Latin
                   Cross. (FIA)
France:            Blue. Nos; white.
Germany:           White. Nos; red.(Guinness)
Germany:           Silver-grey, national flag as lengthwise stripe on
                   bonnet. (FIA)
Great Britain:     Green. Nos; white.
Hungary:           White, red bonnet, green tail. Nos; white.
Irish Replubic:    Green with yellow (Guinness) or orange (FIA) horizontal
                   band.
                   Nos; white. 
Italy:             Red. Nos; white.
Japan:             Ivory white with red disk on bonnet.
Latvia:            Black, white bonnet. Nos; black.
Lithuania:         Chequered blue and yellow, blue wheels. Nos; white.
Luxembourg:        Grey, red bonnet. Nos; white. (Guinness)
Luxembourg:        White, lengthwise stripe of red/white/blue. (FIA)
Monaco:            White with red stripe along side. Nos; black.
Netherlands:       Orange. Nos; white.
Poland:            White, red chassis and wheels. Nos; red.
Portugal:          Red, white chassis and wheels. Nos; white.
Romania:           Blue, red chassis and wheels. Nos; white.
Siam:              Blue, yellow wheels and yellow stripe on side. Nos; white.
South Africa:      Buff,green bonnet,white wheels.
                   Nos;black on white. (Guinness) 
South Africa:      Golden, green bonnet. (FIA)
Spain:             Red, yellow bonnet. Nos; white.
Sweden:            Upper yellow, lower blue, 3 transverse blue stripes on
                   bonnet. 
                   Nos; white.                                                 
Switzerland:       Red, white bonnet. Nos; black.

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Source:   Rick MacLennan   r.maclennan@freenet.hamilton.on.ca.
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