Race Car Color Scheme - Dark Green Base?

[Ron Earp]

I've been daily driving my next SCCA IT race car around for the last couple of months. It is a 1998 Mustang, dark green (not BRG) in color. Ford color code is FU. It is a deep green with black or smoke overtones and it is a metallic.

This is a poor picture of one in the same color:

I don't want to change the base color of the car. In fact, it has a fresh coat of paint on it and looks great. So, what color schemes can you fellows suggest that would work well with the base dark green? I have a vinyl cutter and will be able to do all the stripes, numbers, etc. that one would want.

I'm not so good with colors but I've considered a few schemes/ideas:

*Thick yellow stripe down the middle, probably yellow numbers with maybe black or white outlines

*Combination of a dark red/burgondy striping/numbers/highlights

Anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I am going to have the inside professionally sprayed in white once the cage is installed.

Ron

 

[Jeff Young]

Pink.

Seriously, black or anything dark will get totally washed out with that color. You need something bright like the yellow/gold on my green car.

Try photoshop but one "weird" combination that can look pretty good on dark green is a fluorescent orange. I'm serious, try it, you might like it.

White is basica and simple and will work.

 

[Jack]

Ron, I agree with Jeff's comments. Yellow or gold would look best, IMO.

 

[Ron Earp]

Fellow the problem is Mr. Young's TR8 is green and yellow. And I plan to be in front of it a lot and don't want the corner workers confused. So green/yellow is scheme that I know looks good but I'm sort of trying to avoid it.

Here is a better picture of the actual Mustang:

And here is a picture of Jeff's TR8 with the bottom TR8 picture more accurately showing his shade of green. It is quite dark as well.

 

[Jack]

I see and understand! No yellow then. You may try orange or even silver.

 

[Jeff Young]

It actually has to be built and running before it has a chance of being ahead of my car.

I think Mr. M has an idea -- silver might look good with that dark of a green.

 

[Brian Magee]

Well here is a dark green and yellow colour (color) scheme that seemed to go down well in the states !!!!!

Brian

 

[Doug S.]

I think a gold metalflake would go well with the dark green you have, Ron.

Of course, if frequent touchups are going to be a necessity....ditch the metalflake, but keep the Gold!

Cheers from Doug!

 

[Malcolm]

Fellow the problem is Mr. Young's TR8 is green and yellow. And I plan to be in front of it a lot and don't want the corner workers confused. So green/yellow is scheme that I know looks good but I'm sort of trying to avoid it.

Here is a better picture of the actual Mustang:

And here is a picture of Jeff's TR8 with the bottom TR8 picture more accurately showing his shade of green. It is quite dark as well.

Holy Schmoley, these are rare pictures Ron, I mean Jeff's car ..... running!

If you want to show up well in photos then yellow is best bet (hence my miata build) plus you will be seen coming up on guys in front (in theory) but your car is at an age that can cope with a modern design and not just boring stripes. When we run in Britcar all the teams I have been with have the car in a base colour like you but then all other is graphics applied. Join up with a local sign/graphics company and persuade them to do a free rein job on the car for free. If you don't like it is easy to change. Spraying on paint is much harder to do, less easy to change andneeds new paint when scratched. Adhesive graphics is the future!

 

[Ron Earp]

I'm thinking that orange trim/stripe idea might work, and maybe the silver.

 

[Rich Roy]

day-glow green, with white and black accents. Look at the Tommy Kindel Trans-Am Mustang a few years back, or the Mello Yellow Nasturd cars..............

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Ron I think Jeff's idea of fluro orange is a good one.

 

[Ron Earp]

Ended up with some green, orange, and silver. The car comes back today with cage and I think I'll paint the inside silver to brighten it up. These pictures are six weeks old right before it went for the cage. I'd just gotten a vinyl cutter and had some fun.

 

[Randy V]

That stripe woke the car right up!!!

You bought a vinyl cutter? I've been thinking about doing the same thing some day..

 

[Ron Earp]

Do it.

They are easy to use and the money you save on one car will pay for the setup. On ebay 24" vinyl cutters (this one is 32" and not necessary) are under $175. Vinyl is pretty cheap, around $30 for 50 ft of high quality stuff. I've done some graphics for the Lola, TR8, Fran's SLC, this Mustang, and we'll be doing another one just after this one is finished. Should have bought one years ago and graphics pricing seems to be higher now than it did then.

 

[Randy V]

Would you recommend any one brand over another? What software comes with them?

I'm on a Mac, but have windoze running on VMWare so I can do either format actually..

 

[Ron Earp]

I'd recommend The Signwarehouse for a vendor. They have great DVD tutorials that come with the plotter to show you how to set it up, cut vinyl, weed it, mask it, etc.

I bought this one:

Vinyl Sign Cutter / Cutting Plotter w/ UPGRADEABLE Professional Software | eBay

a 31" plotter with stand for $229. Has basic software that will do a lot and you can download free ware that allows you to take raster images (JPG, GIF, BMP) and convert them to vector. This allows you to take a simple image and cut it, like a Ford logo, Triumph logo, etc. It is a bit more than $175 but the support is good. You can definitely get one for under $200 (or you could four months ago) but I'm not sure about the software/support.

It has a little bit of a learning curve but the videos knock that out pretty quickly. I've got about $400 invested in the plotter plus six or seven colors of vinyl. Not cheap, but when I priced out the striping on my car I was already up to $170 just for the wide stripes that go all the way down the car. Plus, that wouldn't cover fook ups on application, which there were two big ones that would have had me buying the roof and trunk vinyl again. Large swaths of vinyl take skill to apply and that has nothing to do with the cutter. We're getting better.

 

[Randy V]

Thanks for that Ron.. Putting on my wish list for Christmas!