National Colours

Sir

Oh how wonderful Dodge’s mighty Viper GTS-R looked in Andrew Frankel’s track test in your February issue. Long of snout and powerful of haunch, this GT1 racer really offered a fiercely menacing countenance, even at standstill.

However, what attracted me most to this lump of America’s “hewn-from-solid” engineering was the fact that it was bedecked with those two blue stripes down the middle of its white livery. Yes, an all-American car in America’s national racing colours.

While I am not from the ranks of blinkered traditionalists who consider sponsorship to have no place in motor racing, I still feel that it’s possible for a car to bear allegiance to the home nation of the team that runs it. Underneath the required signwriting, of course.

Yes, the Viper that Frankel drove at Paul Ricard ought to have been blue with white numbers, as the ORECA team is French. But you surely follow my line of thought.

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to see British entries in green, ones from Germany in traditional white with red numbers and Italians in red? Or, to stretch the point, Swedes in blue and yellow, Belgians in yellow, the Dutch in orange and South Africans in gold and green with the numbers black on a white background. Or even the Egyptians in pale violet with red numbers.

In GT racing terms, races such as the Le Mans 24 Hours would confuse matters with, say, a British team running a car for up to four drivers, none of whom my be of the same nationality. Indeed, none of the drivers need even be British. But the idea of running in national colours is still one that appeals.

Rory Bedingfield, Hong Kong.