Colours and Superstitions

Simon Lord · Post by **Simon Lord** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:33 am

I think in motor racing terms the superstition about green is more an
Indianapolis thing - certainly there was some consternation there when Lotus
turned up with little BRG cars in the early sixties, and not just because
the tiny rear-engined things beat the pants off the antiquated front-engined
Offenhausers and the like.

It would be difficult to support the idea that BRG cars were unlucky
internationally when the F1 World Champions of 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966 and
1967 were all driving basically green cars with assorted stripes. It was
only the advent of sponsors' colours that stopped the 1968, 69, 70, 71, 72
and 73 cars being green too. Mind you, the fatality rate of drivers in those
days was appalling, so maybe there is something in it. I read recently that
during that time a driver racing for five years had a 2 in 3 chance of being
killed - probably more if he drove a Lotus! In 1969, Bernie Ecclestone (at
that time Jochen Rindt's manager) told Jochen: 'If you want to win the world
championship, drive for Lotus. If you want to stay alive, drive for
Brabham.' He went to Lotus and became the sport's first posthumous world
champion.

Having written the above, I have come across the following comment from a UK
car buyer survey: "Racing Green was highlighted more than any other colour
emerged as the most unlucky colour according to superstitious car buyers."
Doesn't say where or when the survey was carried out, or among how many
people.

But then,as you'll have guessed, I drive a green one (sparkle, not
metallic).

Simon

Bill Rehm · Post by **Bill Rehm** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:50 am

Simon the expansive nature of your knowledge never ceases to amaze me!
Once more, well done!

Regards
William

Provocators of Corporate & Personal Growth!

KASE Consulting Group Ltd.
www.kase.co.nz
bill@kase.co.nz
T: 64 9 523 5238
M: 64 21 366 999
F: 64 9 523 2619

Bill Rehm · Post by **Bill Rehm** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:50 am

Simon the expansive nature of your knowledge never ceases to amaze me!
Once more, well done!

Regards
William

Provocators of Corporate & Personal Growth!

KASE Consulting Group Ltd.
www.kase.co.nz
bill@kase.co.nz
T: 64 9 523 5238
M: 64 21 366 999
F: 64 9 523 2619

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:47 pm

Interesting information Simon,

I am reminded of a controversy which I was involved in quite a number of
years ago, which bears on British Racing Green cars.

The car in question was an Aston Martin DB4 GT, the short wheelbase, 2 seat,
triple Bendix carb, twin ignition version of the DB4. It's the only one I
have ever seen, other than the one I owned myself in Australia. (the reason
that I was, in a long winded way, involved with the provenance of this
particular car).

This car was imported into NZ and offered for sale, being extensively
advertised as having belonged to the late comedian and Goon, Peter Sellars.

It was however, BRG, and it has been well documented that Sellars, who was a
remarkably superstitious man, would never enter a green car, and certainly
would not have owned one, even an Aston.

We were able to refute the suggestion that it was owned by Sellars, indeed
we had this confirmed by his estate, and the car was rapidly shipped back to
the UK.

I have often wondered what the true provenance of this car was, as they are
extremely rare, and also why Sellars held this particular superstition. I
would love to know why this particular superstition arises.

Regards

Eric

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:47 pm

Interesting information Simon,

I am reminded of a controversy which I was involved in quite a number of
years ago, which bears on British Racing Green cars.

The car in question was an Aston Martin DB4 GT, the short wheelbase, 2 seat,
triple Bendix carb, twin ignition version of the DB4. It's the only one I
have ever seen, other than the one I owned myself in Australia. (the reason
that I was, in a long winded way, involved with the provenance of this
particular car).

This car was imported into NZ and offered for sale, being extensively
advertised as having belonged to the late comedian and Goon, Peter Sellars.

It was however, BRG, and it has been well documented that Sellars, who was a
remarkably superstitious man, would never enter a green car, and certainly
would not have owned one, even an Aston.

We were able to refute the suggestion that it was owned by Sellars, indeed
we had this confirmed by his estate, and the car was rapidly shipped back to
the UK.

I have often wondered what the true provenance of this car was, as they are
extremely rare, and also why Sellars held this particular superstition. I
would love to know why this particular superstition arises.

Regards

Eric

Rex Johnston · Post by **Rex Johnston** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:35 pm

Eric & Ann West wrote:

I would love to know why this particular superstition arises.

It's a sorry tale.

Green clothing was frowned upon due to word association.

Widow's weeds is both a mournful article of clothing, and weeds we can
do without.
To wear green was to associate yourself with a (green) weed, which in
turn is associated with
clothing which is in turn associated with death.

For a more, read here
http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cetag/5bseadal.htm
then
http://www.word-detective.com/091400.html

<SILLY>
BEDEMIR: Quiet, quiet. Quiet! There are ways of telling whether
she is a witch.
CROWD: Are there? What are they?
BEDEMIR: Tell me, what do you do with witches?
VILLAGER #2: Burn!
CROWD: Burn, burn them up!
BEDEMIR: And what do you burn apart from witches?
VILLAGER #1: More witches!
VILLAGER #2: Wood!
BEDEMIR: So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of wood...?
BEDEMIR: Good!
CROWD: Oh yeah, yeah...
BEDEMIR: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?
VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEMIR: Aah, but can you not also build bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #2: Oh, yeah.
BEDEMIR: Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No, no.
VILLAGER #2: It floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond!
BEDEMIR: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Great gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Churches -- churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead -- lead!
ARTHUR: A duck.
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEMIR: Exactly! So, logically...,
VILLAGER #1: If... she.. weighs the same as a duck, she's made of wood.
BEDEMIR: And therefore--?
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
</SILLY>

Cheers, Rex (co-owner of a BRG 99 MX5)

Rex Johnston · Post by **Rex Johnston** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:35 pm

Eric & Ann West wrote:

I would love to know why this particular superstition arises.

It's a sorry tale.

Green clothing was frowned upon due to word association.

Widow's weeds is both a mournful article of clothing, and weeds we can
do without.
To wear green was to associate yourself with a (green) weed, which in
turn is associated with
clothing which is in turn associated with death.

For a more, read here
http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cetag/5bseadal.htm
then
http://www.word-detective.com/091400.html

<SILLY>
BEDEMIR: Quiet, quiet. Quiet! There are ways of telling whether
she is a witch.
CROWD: Are there? What are they?
BEDEMIR: Tell me, what do you do with witches?
VILLAGER #2: Burn!
CROWD: Burn, burn them up!
BEDEMIR: And what do you burn apart from witches?
VILLAGER #1: More witches!
VILLAGER #2: Wood!
BEDEMIR: So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of wood...?
BEDEMIR: Good!
CROWD: Oh yeah, yeah...
BEDEMIR: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?
VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEMIR: Aah, but can you not also build bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #2: Oh, yeah.
BEDEMIR: Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No, no.
VILLAGER #2: It floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond!
BEDEMIR: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Great gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Churches -- churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead -- lead!
ARTHUR: A duck.
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEMIR: Exactly! So, logically...,
VILLAGER #1: If... she.. weighs the same as a duck, she's made of wood.
BEDEMIR: And therefore--?
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
</SILLY>

Cheers, Rex (co-owner of a BRG 99 MX5)

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:52 am

Thanks Rex,

Fascinating!

Eric

EricW · Post by **EricW** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:52 am

Thanks Rex,

Fascinating!

Eric

Michael & Kate Cooper · Post by **Michael & Kate Cooper** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:54 am

Okay Rex, where's the witch thing from? My guess is some sort of Monty
Python thing?

Love to know..

Kate

Michael & Kate Cooper · Post by **Michael & Kate Cooper** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 11:54 am

Okay Rex, where's the witch thing from? My guess is some sort of Monty
Python thing?

Love to know..

Kate

Simon Lord · Post by **Simon Lord** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:58 pm

It's missing the last line - the witch saying 'It's a fair cop'. Monty
Python & The Holy Grail. Would they were around to debumk the Da Vinci
Code...

Simon

From jifjif@gmail.com Fri Apr 27 17:08:02 2007
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com;
h=received:message-id

from:reply-to:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:references;
b=VbWCdnNKQgnX6LXpQyFIy8DwyPYLQrNTRelHR6Biyb2ZNtAWemeTcYA8w6lshbqZN8V0SMuUwlUVe2N7ZkfZmE+RJ5D5gIyA7Tny/ZXrhzJd07p1K+1qtJBICeZnhjZTYnmRbfyBCZYzYSXoWEvYSh8IyxOeS6mOGUPADikU17o=
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2005 13:51:32 +1200
From: ~Jeff~ <jifjif@gmail.com>
To: MX5List <mx5list@mx5club.org.nz>
Subject: Re: a quick game for you ..
In-Reply-To: <FB1D5769F12AF54EB58B29B12517B2659CFB0E@svmxc301.ap.aderant.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
References: <FB1D5769F12AF54EB58B29B12517B2659CFB0E@svmxc301.ap.aderant.com>
Precedence: list
Message-ID: <HG8ec.A.9z.SdYMGB@L733>

that list looks like a first-class holiday in Paris... for a month!

On Apr 7, 2005 11:41 AM, Chris Tankard <chris.tankard@aderant.com> wrote:
[...]

poison · Post by **poison** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:42 pm

I never knew that, as far as I was concerned the colour thing was purely
because BRG is FUGLY. And what did our Mom's always used to say "Brown and
Green should never be seen", yet the BRG's have brown interiors, it just goes
to show this is Mazda's version of L.Ron Hubbard's 'Church of Scientology" one
great big Joke on the world. Probably due to a bet over morning tea by the
boys at Mazda... BRG and a Brown interior... And then there's Brian
Tamaki...

Gazza
"PO1SON"
Bringing the world closer together through tolerance and understanding...
Unless you're different!

Did anyone3 notice some of the words the spell check comes up with when
finding BRG... Borg, Brag, Burg, Beg, Bog, Bug, Bag... And we thought
Microsoft was crap... it's obviously more intuitive than we thought.

poison · Post by **poison** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:42 pm

I never knew that, as far as I was concerned the colour thing was purely
because BRG is FUGLY. And what did our Mom's always used to say "Brown and
Green should never be seen", yet the BRG's have brown interiors, it just goes
to show this is Mazda's version of L.Ron Hubbard's 'Church of Scientology" one
great big Joke on the world. Probably due to a bet over morning tea by the
boys at Mazda... BRG and a Brown interior... And then there's Brian
Tamaki...

Gazza
"PO1SON"
Bringing the world closer together through tolerance and understanding...
Unless you're different!

Did anyone3 notice some of the words the spell check comes up with when
finding BRG... Borg, Brag, Burg, Beg, Bog, Bug, Bag... And we thought
Microsoft was crap... it's obviously more intuitive than we thought.

Graeme H · Post by **Graeme H** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:12 pm

I think you'll find it's "Blue and green should not be seen (without a colour in between)".

:0D

Graeme H

[...]

Graeme H · Post by **Graeme H** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:12 pm

I think you'll find it's "Blue and green should not be seen (without a colour in between)".

:0D

Graeme H

[...]

poison · Post by **poison** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:19 pm

Oh crap you're right, blue and green should not be seen, brown and blue just
will not do... never mind... green sludge must have been clouding my mind.

poison · Post by **poison** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:19 pm

Oh crap you're right, blue and green should not be seen, brown and blue just
will not do... never mind... green sludge must have been clouding my mind.

Who is online