[circuittaps]

Working on my Reims July 4th, 1954, starting grid I have now come to:

Owen Racing Organisation #42 Maserati 250F - Ken Wharton

I have found some good photos of this car, but unfortunately they are all B/W.

So my question comes down to this: What basic colour did this car have?

I have some photo evidence that proofs, that this car was overall dark blue at the British and Spanish GP the same year, so my best guess would be blue in France as well.

But then there is the AUTOSPORT Vol. 9 No. 2 from July 9th, 1954. I quote from page 43: "Wharton was already lapped with the green Owen-entered Maserati"!

Please help!

/Holger

 

[superhornets]

Hi Holger
As none of the other BRM entered cars in that era were painted blue ,why do you think this one was
My guess is that it was dark green ,however some more research down the museum on wednesday

cheers tony

 

[circuittaps]

Tony - I agree, dark green (BRG) is a safe bet..... But why the h... was this car painted blue during the British and the Spanish GP in 1954? I have photo evidence of this!

Cheers, Holger

 

[Diogenes]

Holger,

I agree it does look blue in Spain!

Cheers

Mel

 

[circuittaps]

Mel - yes, well known picture from the Paul Parker book.

/Holger

 

[superhornets]

Hi Holger
I agree that it does look like blue ,however beware ,I know from my time working at kodak that sometimes the camera can lie and some of those earlyish colour films didn,t always give a true reperesentation of the colour ,and it could be that dark greeny blue after it is processed comes out as darkbluey green

cheers tony

 

[Mark Witham]

I'm not sure if this helps, but I seem to remember that Ken Wharton was nominated (with BRM support) as reserve driver for 'Bira's' private Maserati at Silverstone - which was defintely blue. With Bira unwell, Wharton took the start but soon crashed. Bira was decidedly unimpressed, and a deal was done to swap the crashed Bira car (2504), with the ORO 2509. If ORO did not repaint it, it is quite possible that it continued to run under the ORO banner, but in blue paint !
Mark

 

[superhornets]

Hi Mark
Thats a fascinating piece of info mark but the impression i got was that the bira blue was far lighter than the blue showed in the piccy above
I,ll have to see if i,ve got a video of that french gp and see if I can spot the yellow gordini and the blue BRM

cheers tony

 

[circuittaps]

Mark + Tony - B. Bira was driving his own 250F at Reims that day in 1954. Plenty of photos confirm his 4th place in his light blue/yellow #46 car.

So please keep the focus on a yellow Gordini T16 #30 and a dark blue/or dark green Maserati 250F #42!

Cheers, Holger

 

[Phil Kalbfell]

The car was loaned to Bira after the British GP and then repainted in his colours for Caen GP it also got his engine and chassis plate! ( David McKinney)

 

[Rob J]

The car had been repainted twice after the British GP, so the Spanish picture probably isn't useful. However, if you have a photo of the car in blue at the British GP, that says more. The British GP was held 13 days after the French, so one would think the colour was the same.
After the British race, the car was lent to Bira with Bira's engine, as Phil said. That was because BRM driver Ron Flockhart (not Wharton) crashed Bira's car in the British GP. Bira used it in the German GP and Parker says it was painted in Bira's pale blue. There's a b/w pic in his book showing it a light colour in Germany. It was obviously repainted in a dark colour by the time it was again driven by Wharton in Spain. The colours in the full photo in the book look quite reasonable, and there is some green, but Tony has a point. Could your British GP photo be deceptive?
Rob J

 

[Mark Witham]

I've found a comment in the Motor Sport magazine that month, which states that BRM repainted the ex Bira car (2504)in their usual 'metalic green' after the British GP. From this, I'd be 100% sure that the original ORO car (2509) would not have run in France in Blue. I think it was probably their standard dark green, or just possibly (since Motor Sport talk about it being 'all new and shiny') unpainted aluminium.
Mark

 

[circuittaps]

Guys - sorry. My photo evidence from British GP is only a diecast model. Please have a look.

http://www.jademiniatures.com/images/pdf/J4316B2.pdf

I know that there is no proof in such a model. Wouldn´t be the first one painted wrong. So I will probably go for a green Owen 250F.

/Holger

 

[SplitRim]

I'd agree with Tony re the false colour.

If you look closely there are some strong shadows, which could mean a strong Blue sky. Dark BRG/Nearly Black etc do tend to "reflect" there surroundings.

My friend and I ran a DarkGrey Peugeot as a road rally car in the '80s. Of all the photos of us competing(20+) only 2 are the same colour(taken by same photgrapher on same event) and not one shows the true colour. Under Orange street lamps it became a very girly lilac!

 

[Limerockist]

Holger,
All of the above are correct. The pictures have changed for the reasons Tony and others have said. The Owen car was always green. A dark green, probably BRM green.
Best,
Jerry

 

[David Lawson]

Holger

The Owen Racing Organisation Maserati 250F "2509" that you are modelling as raced at Reims was definitely painted in the much discussed "BRM" very dark metallic green colour.

This is confirmed in the definitive book, "B.R.M. - The Saga of British Racing Motors - Volume 1" by Doug Nye and Tony Rudd.

As Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon passed responsibility for running and developing the Maserati for Wharton and the Owen Racing Organisation over to Tony Rudd this information is therefore first hand.

David

 

[circuittaps]

Jerry + David - thanks a lot for this last info. And thanks to everyone for their input.

Once again SF has showed its value. Case settled.

/Holger