From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE FIRST TO WEAR THE GREEN:
In the Dining Room of the Royal Irish Automobile Club at Dawson Street, Dublin, hangs a wonderful painting by the motoring artist Roy Putt. The painting portrays the first major international win in a motorsport event by an Irishman, Kenelm Lee Guinness, of brewing family fame. The event was the 1914 Tourist Trophy Race in the Isle of Man when Guinness drove a Sunbeam to a wonderful victory. But the painting also tells another tale, the unexpected story of how Emerald Green became the famous British Racing Green.
The tale begins in early 1903 when preparations for the Gordon Bennett Race of that year were gathering pace. The race was, of course, to be held in Ireland and excitement was growing at the prospects for the race. The Gordon Bennett rules dictated that the race was for teams of three cars representing their countries of origin, and entries had been received from the national motor clubs of France, Britain, Germany and the US, making this the first truly representative international motor race anywhere. For the first time, national colours were to be allocated to the teams; France, naturally, took a shade of French Blue, the Germans decided on white, the Americans chose red, while the British, recognising that the race would not have taken place at all without the whole-hearted co-operation of the Irish, chose Emerald Green in honour of Ireland.
Thus the three British Napier cars sported a light shade of green in the race, while their mechanics and crew wore Emerald Green hats. Alas, the 'rub of the green' did them no good at all and it was the German Mercedes of the great Belgian driver, Camille Jenatzy, who was victorious in the Irish race. The Americans, incidentally, did even worse, and withdrew from European motorsport for several years. Their allocated colour, red, was re-allocated to the Italians.
Fast forward now to 1914 and the Tourist Trophy Race in the Isle of Man, then the most important race in the British Isles. Young Kenelm Lee Guinness and his older brother, Algernon, are two of the Sunbeam Motor Company's 'works' drivers. In the intervening years, although the shade of Emerald Green has varied, it has remained the national racing colour of Britain. But Kenelm, a recent addition to the Sunbeam team stable of drivers is not enthusiastic about Emerald Green believing it to be unlucky (in contrast to continental drivers who regarded green as a 'lucky' colour) and blaming it for the non-finishes in his first outings for the team.
Today, however, the team have a surprise for him and when he joins them it is to see his race car painted in a beautiful shade of dark green rather than the pale Emerald Green. In the race, the Guinness brothers set the pace with Kenelm leading. Near the end of the race, Algernon drops out with a mechanical problem and Kenelm scores a dominant victory, the first for an Irishman in a major international motorsport event.
And the dark shade of green? Thereafter, every British racing car appeared in the same dark green, a colour that would become as famous as the red of Italy.