A new body usually comes in white or black, so most people put numbers, a name, and sponsors on the side and leave it a plain color because a custom wrap can cost atleast $800 and paint can also cost $800. And the first time a sprint car or midget touches the track, rocks and mud ding your awesome paint job, not to mention the fact that each trip on the track could result in a wreck that could destroy that nice paint job. Plus at the end of the day I would rather have a spare frame, and extra shocks, so when I do wreck it I can race the next weekend. And nice paint jobs will not help you win any race. But, if if someone want to pay to design my car I will have no problem with it.
I started painting my cars yellow so I could see the thing as it goes around the track; old age is a pain sometimes.
I gave up on show quality paint & use spray bomb tractor paint with some vinyl to mimic the old Wynn's Friction Proofing style. It takes time and only looks good from 20 feet away but it is what I can afford.
When we raced with Badger in the 1970s there was a rule about "professional appearance." You were allowed only ONE race weekend in primer. After that you had to look decent. That said, we selected a paint color to match duct tape and requested #11 so we could number it with fancy engine turned foil tape. No money for a sign painter.
What about the safety issue of so many black cars? Didn't the USAC Focus west division have issues on poorly lit tracks?
Team cars can at least put contracting tape on the roll bar padding to help the scorers.
Fans want cars painted different colors which cost money but when Dave Darland's car owner Steve and Carla Phillips ask for $500 to help keep getting Dave to the Track, Everyone on here started to complain, I just don't think fans understand the true cost of racing
Originally Posted by ThrowbackRacingTeam:
16 out of the 22 starters Sunday were black. I kept thinking Thorson was Rico, couldn't tell them apart. I almost never knew which Lein car was which. Why can't the team cars be painted differently? They could flip the colors or something. I get that paint or vinyl costs money. But, when every single stock car at our local track can afford it, I think most midget teams could. The problem is the modern day owners just don't care what the cars look like. Did you also notice the stands were less than half full? A coincidence? I think so. I used to be a fan of certain cars because of how they looked, regardless of who drove them or how fast they were. I used to day dream about them all the time. This year, there hasn't been one car that I've thought about once I left the track. I used to drive an old VW car at Sun Prairie with an Edmunds hood. I would get a ton of people looking at the car after the races and signed a bunch of autographs. They always commented how much they liked the car. When I moved into a modern style car, hardly anyone came by anymore.
Race cars are the same as going to a horse race or show. Everyone complains about "all" the horses are Bay colored. Everyone likes a Paint or a white socked black horse. But at the end of the day. Everyone loves the one getting there picture taken and the biggest check at the pay window.
Originally Posted by Leohr46:
Race cars are the same as going to a horse race or show. Everyone complains about "all" the horses are Bay colored. Everyone likes a Paint or a white socked black horse. But at the end of the day. Everyone loves the one getting there picture taken and the biggest check at the pay window.
My Lightning Sprint has right now nine different colors from the body panels to the 4130 custom made steering and rear radius rods. Some of the painting I did myself others I had two different body shops do $$$. If you count the wings that will make ten colors. I really enjoyed putting the different color combinations together more work than most people realize!!!
When I was active with my team back home, I was bent on a good looking car. And I paid the price for such. I was the guy who did the armor-all on the tires for the heat races.. Painted the white hoosiers every week, and CLEANED the car.
As for looks, I still pay for the wraps, because when I show people what I do and did, I hate to show em a blank car with some die-cut decals. Yeah, it costs a lot, but for me, and the owner too, it was satisfying to hear that we've got the best looking car on the track. Easy to see, basic colors that contrast well. No flashy barbed wire, smoke and fire, dragons and stuff (the modifieds come to mind). Basic and clean. Have we been beaten by cars with WD-40'd chassis and gel-coat fiberglass, and duct tape numbers, yeah many times. But the 800 bucks I put into the looks of the car, or team alone, as we've got shirts too is money well spent IMO. And realistically, that 800 would go into the motor, or tires, fuel, whatever.. But when were building stuff out of our garage, and running against Don Ott and Wessmar engines, if were gonna finish 6th, were gonna look good doing it.
