Racing Colours
By Simon Owen
Once upon a time, the racing cars we lusted after were presented in the national colors of their origins, lusty red for those from Italy, brilliant green for the British offerings, pale blue for those of France, white—and later silver—for German products and blue and white for American machines (among all the others). We knew instantly where the cars had come from and chose to cheer appropriately. Then commercialism swarmed over the sport and the cars became rolling billboards for the products of their sponsors, carrying liveries that became more “specialized.”
The late English graphic artist Simon Owen found a particular fascination with this aspect of racing cars and, after initially recreating them with watercolors, ultimately evolved into doing so digitally. This book represents his distillations of those liveries, where he took primary panels from the cars to capture their essence. He then accompanied each image with a relevant quote culled from decades of famous utterances by the main players of the sport to produce an excellent book that should prove inspirational for anyone with the slightest interest in our sport.
Available for US$32.50 / £19.99 from publisher Veloce at www.velocebooks.com or www.veloce.co.uk
