Flashy R3!

[mfg]

Why did Studebaker decide to apply dual racing stripes to the '64 R3 Daytona 'HRM' Spl.'?  (Not a normal option)

[Gunslinger]

It could either have been for the 12-hours of Sebring and there was another event in the Bahamas I believe.  Racing teams were assigned specific colors...the Brits had what came to be known as British Racing Green...the American Shelby team had a broad blue strip on white and presumably Studebaker received twin blue stripes over white to tell cars apart at a distance.

[mfg]

10 minutes ago, Gunslinger said:

It could either have been for the 12-hours of Sebring and there was another event in the Bahamas I believe.  Racing teams were assigned specific colors...the Brits had what came to be known as British Racing Green...the American Shelby team had a broad blue strip on white and presumably Studebaker received twin blue stripes over white to tell cars apart at a distance.

Hey, those are good observations!

[Nelson]

That theory sounds plausible for the 1963 cars that we’ve seen with stripes but the version I remember is that the stripes on the 64 cars were added while at Paxton Products. Andy G , showman that he was, wanted the cars to look sporty for the press. He hired a local guy who did pin striping to letter all the cars at Paxton at the time. That included the Hot Rod R3 Daytona, the Bonneville competition cars, the Road tested R2 Commander and probably anything else at Paxton that appeared worthy of some glitter work. The pin stripes were white gold leaf with a black pin stripe border. The one potential deviation from this might be the #2 Bonneville Daytona convertible which had a single stripe down the center. I’ve owned that car since I was about 18 years old. The only virgin unpainted part of that car is the cowl grill. That part still has the stripe on it and that stripe appears to be white with red border stripe on one side and blue border stripe on the other. When the car eventually is restored it will get that striping.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Nelson

[mfg]

"White gold leaf with a black pin stripe border"...Awesome!

I always thought they were plain white stripes!

[Gunslinger]

Here's the Sebring Avanti...

[mfg]

Similar idea on the striping.

(I wonder what became of that Sebring Avanti)