This has been discussed a few times in the past. Not sure who copied who.
As to the stripes, I found this on a Corvette forum:
Quote:
In short..
The Grand Sport stripe is actually called a HASH MARK and it was USED ONE TIME AND ONLY ONE TIME on a racing original Grand Sport. That one time started a legend and history.
The hash mark was NOT on the fender- didn't show up on the fender until the NON RACING 1996 tribute edition.
In 1963 John Mecom took 3 Grand Sports to the Bahamas for Speed Week (rich boys in the early 60's went there to race on street courses, google Bahama Speed Week and the Nassau Tourist Trophy-also understand that GM NEVER raced the Grand Sports, private parties only).
All three Mecom Grand Sports were painted the same color of blue. A single HASH MARK (red, white and black I believe-sorry too tired to go look it up) was placed on the nose of each car--THE NOSE--this allowed the car to be identified as it came down pit lane. This is 1963, no cell phones, no laptop computers, no in-car radios...just a sign board telling a car to come into the pit...can't see the "side' of a car coming at you down pit lane thus the hash mark to id the car.
The HASH Marks were done with TAPE NOT PAINT. The 3 Grand Sports never raced like that again...just that single week frozen in time....thus no more hash marks.....until 1996 and later during the C5R and C6R programs. Also understand the history or racing and 'safety--in 1963 pit lanes were not 40 mph safe zones of today...they were just part of the main straight...you worked on the car while racers blew past 20 ft away at 120mph. You didn't step into pit lane (the damn racetrack) unless you had to and for your car-thus car id was critical.
Hash Marks were again used in the C5R and C6R programs...NOT just fenders but mirrors...look at pictures of the #53 BLUE LeMans C5R from 2003. You will see 3 yellow stripes on the passenger mirror (pit wall side)...again a marker to identify the car to a pit crew. Even today the C6R has a "hash mark" in every race....look at the windshield CORVETTE banner--one car has a black background and the other red..WHY? Instant Identification when viewing the car head on...
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