Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Uncle Joe]

Promted by a comment in another topic, I started to wonder what the correct shade for British Racing Green is.

As far as I can make out, the term was first used as far back as 1902 or 3 and referred to a colour otherwise known as Napier Green. Is this the generally accepted shade, or is it a different one?

But what shade IS Napier green if it is correct? Anyone have a formula?

[Rick]

[Uncle Joe]

Rick, I doubt if there ever was a proper brg colour myself. It seems as though there were a lot of interpretations.

I was thinking about your Dodge. There is a case that says that it was painted in brg, but I seem to remember you calling it another colour. Am I correct in that thought?

[Penman]

Hi
Take your pick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_racing_green

I would say choose the one you like best, perhaps from a favourite racing car.

[pigtin]

I had a nightmare matching the BRG on my Sprite. I assumed the it would be BMC BRG but it was totally wrong and I had to have the paint remixed to match the existing colour. There seem to be dozens of different shades going from something approaching light green to almost black.

[Rick]

The Dodge was painted ICI Westminster Green (so I was told a few years back by a chap who drove it in the late 40s!), but as I've yet to find a modern equivalent paint code I resorted to scratting around trying to find a good sample of paint.

I found a section of 'good' green paint on the trailer that went behind the Dodge, so that'll be spectrum analysed to get a code for it. The widow (now aged 92) of the racing driver chap who owned the Dodge after the war, confirmed to me recently over the phone that the car, truck and trailer were all the same green, which is handy, so the green section I found on the trailer should do the trick in getting the truck back into the correct green.

R
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[Uncle Joe]

Penman: I did see the wiki article, things do get confusing dont they? Not sure which shade I personally would choose, but as you say, possibly from a favourite racing car.

[Uncle Joe]

Rick: How do the colours in the wiki article compare to your Dodge?

[SloResto]

I'm gonna paint my Datsun roadster Japanese racing green but that is besides the point.

Will read the Wikipedia article - seem to recall racing colours originated back in the 30s and an odd story about the German silver being derived as a result of having to lose some weight from the test car so they went paintless - liked the look so much that thay continued to use silver as `their racing colour.

The D type jags of the 50s had an almost black version of the BRG that some agree is the true BRG - but that is probably conjecture.

All grist for the mill as they say.

[Rustynail]

Hello
i painted a stationary engine a fairly big one i ask for Brg and they said there was a dozen colours for it they ended up giving me bedford green which is nearly the same as one of the Brgs

[Rich5ltr]

There was recently a debate among the classic car circles about this very subject because a significant 1920's Bentley has been recently restored to a lighter shade of green than is generally accepted as the "right" colour for a blower Bentley, I won't go into the details of the debate but the owners maintains that there were traces of more like a light olive green on the car. Obviously BRG pre-dates Jaguar racing green which as has been said is very dark, almost black and of course there is Aston Martin racing green which is pale metalic green. I have just returned from the Le Mans Classic where there were several Talbot Lagos from the '20s racing and these were all painted a bright grass green! BRM, Vanwall and Lotus all went for a mid green as their racing colours. So I would say there is no one definitive BRG it's just that British cars adopted green as their racing colour... incidentally this was as a nod to Ireland who hosted the early British GP races but that's anothe story...

[dclf1947]

I used to have stationary engines and the Mid Brunswick Green that Listers used seems the identical colour to my old MG Midget that was reputedly BRG. Mid Brunswick Green is still available.

Dave
Philippines