Bruton Smith says no black cars

[NickFalzone]

Re: 2011 Vegas finale night race:

"I hope they will listen and get rid of the black cars. We don’t need black cars running at night on black asphalt."

[call_me_andrew]

Yeah, Dale Earnhardt would still be alive if his car were bright pink.

[anthonyvop]

I hate black race cars. You can't see the sponsor logos and the just blend in. They are especially bad for TV.

[nigelred5]

Every car I own is black and will be for the foreseeable future. If I owned a race team, dame sure it would be black some how regardless of the sponsor!
The John player sponsored lotus cars are arguably the most beautiful liveried racing cars of all time. Briton Smith probably owns stock in House of Kolors paint. He'd love to see 40 cars in metallic dayglow fuscia paint. No thanks.

[anthonyvop]

If I owned a race team, dame sure it would be black some how regardless of the sponsor!

Yea. And I bet the sponsors would be striping all over themselves to sponsor you with that attitude.

Nothing wrong with black cars. In racing They just make lousy sponsorship platforms.

[nigelred5]

All those yellow and red cars are just covered in decals.

[garyshell]

Yea. And I bet the sponsors would be striping all over themselves to sponsor you with that attitude.

Nothing wrong with black cars. In racing They just make lousy sponsorship platforms.

Yep, they make TERRIBLE platforms:

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/shadow.jpg





http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/Lotus-john-Player.jpg

And this one was one of the worst:

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/97DESr-2P49716019-GoodwrenchAutoPartsLeft.jpg

Remind me again, how long have you been a motorsports "reporter"?

Gary

[anthonyvop]

Yep, they make TERRIBLE platforms:

Gary

Those cars are Iconic so they don't apply

Quick

http://www.f1badger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/KC4.jpg

Name a sponsor!

Be honest
Which stands out more?
http://www.motorsport.com/photos/indycar/2010/ken/indycar-2010-ken-tm-0088.jpg

or

http://www.motorsport.com/photos/indycar/2010/son/indycar-2010-son-tm-0110.jpg


And those are still pics.....On TV it is worse. I had to wait till a pit stop before I could figure out who was Carpenter's sponsor was.

[garyshell]

Those cars are Iconic so they don't apply

Quick
Name a sponsor!

Be honest
Which stands out more?


or



And those are still pics.....On TV it is worse. I had to wait till a pit stop before I could figure out who was Carpenter's sponsor was.


Iconic or not, the sponsors' names clearly showed up in all three cases. You really are a piece of work. You pull out pictures that don't even show the sidepods or wings and then ask someone to identify the sponsor. I am not going to play your stupid little game. You know as much about graphic design as you do about "reporting".

Gary

[Marbles]

I continually hope that Guinness will get into Motorsport sponsorship.

[call_me_andrew]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/3586843791_8e25541781.jpg

Name a sponsor.

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules/ew_filemanager/08content/ptalk/anne/usnat/tony-schumacher-630.jpg

Name a sponsor.

[Chamoo]

Well, in all fairness to Bruton Smith, I can see his logic in regards to black cars at night. For those of you who think this is a safety concern, it is not. It is simply a marketing/advertising ploy. In Bruton's mind, he thinks that Indycar's are too hard for on-site fans to identify running around at 215 MPH. He wants bigger numbers and non-black cars (for night races).

I like the idea of bigger numbers (not sure where they would go), but I do not see a big deal with black cars at night. However, if studies show black cars on black asphalt at night doesn't translate well to fans, so be it.

[anthonyvop]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2450/3586843791_8e25541781.jpg

Name a sponsor.

http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/modules/ew_filemanager/08content/ptalk/anne/usnat/tony-schumacher-630.jpg

Name a sponsor.


The NH car was horrid on TV.

Drag Racers don't apply. They spend 95% on TV standing still or barely moving.

[anthonyvop]

Iconic or not, the sponsors' names clearly showed up in all three cases. You really are a piece of work. You pull out pictures that don't even show the sidepods or wings and then ask someone to identify the sponsor. I am not going to play your stupid little game. You know as much about graphic design as you do about "reporting".

Gary

Whatever. Then stop replying to my posts.

[DanicaFan]

Who really cares what he wants. He doesnt own or pay any of the IndyCar teams.

Here are a couple pics of a beautiful car with a black platform. Looks very nice on the track and you can see the sponsors plain as day! :)

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/danicanewcar2.jpg

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee236/DanicaRules/indycar-2008-sp-jd-0096.jpg

[Chamoo]

Who really cares what he wants. He doesnt own or pay any of the IndyCar teams.

Here are a couple pics of a beautiful car with a black platform. Looks very nice on the track and you can see the sponsors plain as day! :)

Now, can we please consider what Mr. Smith wants? We do not have to implement every thing he says, but he is a major player in the Izod Indycar Series now, especially now that we have basically told ISC to get lost.

Bruton's point is that AT NIGHT he believes for fans at the track, it is difficult to pick one black car out from another. No one has posted any night time shots of black cars to compare them, only day time shots.

I think, to the naked eye, Mr. Smith may have a point. But further evidence is needed to back him up. But please, do not simply throw this man's opinion out the window, especially now that he is one of our biggest allies, and one of the best race promoters in North America.

[garyshell]

Bruton's point is that AT NIGHT he believes for fans at the track, it is difficult to pick one black car out from another. No one has posted any night time shots of black cars to compare them, only day time shots.

The track at KY speedway is well lighted enough that there is really not much problem in seeing the cars at all. Black cars, red cars, green cars. It is no more difficult to differentiate two black cars than it is to differentiate two red ones, or two yellow ones. I just don't understand WHAT Bruton is driving at???

As for Anthony's assertion that they make bad platforms for sponsors. The key to visibility of sponsor logos is contrast. The more contrast between the base color and the logo color, the easier it is to see. There is a REASON we use black text on white paper for all these years. Contrast. It's pretty hard to beat black or white a a base colors when you want a high contrast logo color.

Gary

[electron]

the problem is not the color black but the way the sponsor writes it's logo. get bold bright (white) letters or a clean Logo and you are good.

Goodwrench, Havoline, UOP (anyone remembers the UOP-Shadow(!) GP Team?), Playboy (DTM), Motorola.... all clearly visible sponsors on the black cars. The black NH car is an icon too, btw.


the HRT cars don't have any noticable sponsor,. no matter what teh color may be and that 20 IndyCar is the worst possible angle. But I can see well enough that the sponsor insisted in using a thin-line fancy scribble font... again, here the color is also not teh poblem but the font.

If he'd scribble that on the sidepods of a red car you would also not be able to read it, let alone at 200 mph

Target on the other hand. clean logo, easy to read fonts. would work on any darker color.

[nigelred5]

HOw many colors has Dario's car been this season. As electron said, that logo and Font would stand out on canary yellow, but then TARGET knows that.

[dcr22B]

Here's another thing of beauty in black:

[harvick#1]

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/Lotus-john-Player.jpg


I actually wasn't black from what I recall from modelers, the car was in bare carbon kevlar form, just like the Peugeot 908 Liveries. these 2 were never painted with Black, just bare.

Bruton Smith should just go back in his hole and count his money

[Jag_Warrior]

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/Lotus-john-Player.jpg

Gary

You should get an infraction for posting porn on this site.

I'm going to take a cold shower now...

[EagleEye]

Yep, they make TERRIBLE platforms:

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/shadow.jpg





http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/Lotus-john-Player.jpg

And this one was one of the worst:

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad39/scuderiaconchiglia/97DESr-2P49716019-GoodwrenchAutoPartsLeft.jpg

Remind me again, how long have you been a motorsports "reporter"?

Gary

Great post. I would like to add the NH racing's black cars of the past, or the gorgeous Interscope VPJ cars that Danny Ongias drove.

[anthonyvop]

Black cars look horrible on video. Especially at night.
Argue all you want but it is a fact.

Anybody who films racing will tell you the same thing.

[e2mtt]

Well lets make a rule... All black cars reverse to opposite color on white on night races.

[EagleEye]

http://www.motorracingblog.nl/wp-content/gallery/maart/imsc5173.jpg

[edv]

From my recollection, the greatest colour contrast in nature is yellow and black (ie bees & hornets, etc)

In that vein, Sarah Fisher has the most readily identifiable livery in the field.

Dunno about you, but to me her car seems to pop out of the TV screen on restarts relative to the others.

And since the livery is a 'natural' colour, it is easy to look at (compared to similar but un-natural liveries, like Paul Menard's)

Likewise with the old Jordan F1 cars and the Dollar General Cup car. IMO.

[bblocker68]

I work in TV land and there is no more visible a combo than white on black.

If it wasn't, film and TV credits would be a different color combination.

D'OH!!

Thanks for posting a Shadow, Gary. Those were my fav's growing up, along with the Lotus 79.

[garyshell]

I work in TV land and there is no more visible a combo than white on black.

If it wasn't, film and TV credits would be a different color combination.

D'OH!!

Thanks for posting a Shadow, Gary. Those were my fav's growing up, along with the Lotus 79.

One of my favorites too. As I said earlier, there is no higher contrast than black and white. And that's the reason we use white paper and dark ink. It was easier to make paper white than to make it black, or we might have been using that all these years. In film and video either one is equally as easy to use as a background.

Gary

[Mark in Oshawa]

Listen guys, I love black race cars BUT Bruton has a point. My TV guy hat (yes, community cable doing hockey and other sports isn't making me a TV god any time soon)says that a black car at night isn't as good for TV and the fans in the stands as say red or blue race cars would be.

That said, I think if the teams adopted the attitude of NASCAR teams and put special livery up for a night race on an oval, it might help. Anyone remember Earnhardt's chrome coloured "3"?

Far be it for me to tell Bruton he is full of crap, he has made more money than I in this business. If he says the teams shouldn't show up with black cars, it is worth thinking outside the box for..

Now I am going to take a cold shower...that UOP Shadow pic has me all hot and bothered!!!

[garyshell]

Mark,

The lighting at the track and the chips in the current video cameras make the difference between daylight and nighttime almost moot. That was also true of the "chips" in my own eyes. It was very easy to see the black car on the back straight. And when it was close enough for the size of the lettering to be readable it was quite easy to read. Now if we were talking about a 24 hour sports car race I think there is a VERY valid point. But these oval lighting systems do a fine job.

Frankly, I think Bruton just needs a new pair of glasses.

Gary

[Anubis]

From my recollection, the greatest colour contrast in nature is yellow and black (ie bees & hornets, etc)
.

I believe that's why it's the default for airport signage as well. It's the best contrast without being a horrible mess to look at.