Hi Gary
I'd say that white with a red roundel (like the flag) would be the closest
you'd get to Japan's official racing colo(u)rs. Honda used this scheme on the
Ginther/Surtees F1 cars in the 1960s. Some Honda F1 cars also had red lower
side panels, others had a red stripe running down the top of the car (through
the roundel) and others had red stripes running front to back either side of
the roundel - there was little else raced internationally before then - the
class winning 1958 Australian Mobilgas Datsun was red whilst the other car
was white. After that virtually all Nissan//Datsun rally cars were red or red
with a black bonnet (sorry, hood) until the late 1970s/early 1980s.
I've got a couple of interesting Polistil 1/43rd scale 1960s die-casts of the
BRE Hino Samurai prototype in white with a red roundel and Italian plates.
Anyone else seen this model? Check out the full size car on
http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/BREHino.htm
Regards, Rob
<A HREF="http://www.datsun.org/fairlady/";>The Classic Fairlady Roadster
Register</A>
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