British racing green

Long before the 70's, when racing cars started to be covered with obsessive advertising, each national racing team had its own, branded color.

In the heat of the race could be clearly distinguish white Japanese, red Italians, blue French, silver Germans; gentlemen from the islands preferred «British Racing Green» — the color of courage and legendary victories.

British Racing Green (#004225) belongs to the group of dark mint colors. Below you can see what this color looks like next to its neighbors in a color circle. In tone BRG is similar to «green moss» and Brunswick green.

Why is it green?

Car racing began literally from the first days of serial production of cars, so the international championships were only a matter of time.

During automobile races of Gordon Bennett Cup, American racer Eliot Zborovsky suggested dividing nations by colors. Such an innovation seemed quite logical, because it would have been easier for spectators to distinguish the participants from different countries.

In the UK itself, car racing was not allowed for a long time, and the colors of the national flag were taken apart by Italians, French and Germans. When in 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup was won by Englishman Selwyn Edge, it was decided to hold the competition in Ireland. Participants from Great Britain painted their cars in light green, in honor of three-leaf clover — the symbol of Ireland.

Car Napier D50 of Selwyn edge on which he won in 1902

From that moment the British racing teams began to use green as the national colour, but the name British Racing Green did not appear until 1929, when William Grover-Williams raced in Monaco on Bugatti painted green.

The BRG became dark green even later. With the birth of Formula 1 in 1950, British teams from Lotus, Bentley, Aston Martin and Cooper began to use different shades of green to stand out. It was until 1955 when Jaguar D-Type acquired its classic dark shade of colour.

Lotus 25 Climax during the race of Formula 1 (1963)

In the late 60's — early 70's, due to the huge influx of sponsors of racing teams, the rule of flowers by nation was abolished. The main color of the car was often lost behind dozens of stickers, so the coloring made no sense anymore. Despite this, many car manufacturers, whose teams participated in the races, following the tradition, continued to paint their cars in national colors.

Modernity

The story of the famous British Racing Green was revived by the Jaguar Racing Formula 1 team only in 2000, but four years later, after the sale of the Red Bull team, the new Red Bull Racing began to use its signature colors.

Years of success of British racing teams have consolidated the color. Today British Racing Green has again become a popular color for British racing and production cars.

Jaguar R1 (2000)