They were all painted his signature white with blue stripes. After that he fielded Maseratis, new E-Type Jaguars and Corvettes. The following year he had a team of Jaguar-powered Listers. In 1957 he became a Jaguar importer and sponsored a trio of D Jaguars. At the end of the year Cunningham shut his company’s doors.Īlthough he stopped building cars on his own, Cunningham was still consumed by racing. That was when the Internal Revenue Service declared his business a nondeductible hobby because it had not made a profit in the previous five years. He raced his cars at Sebring and larger events in the U.S. In fact, in subsequent years twin stripes were referred to as “Cunningham stripes.” Briggs Cunningham never did win LeMans, even though in 1952, when his co-driver became ill, he drove for 20 hours by himself. With this paint scheme Cunningham’s cars became instantly recognizable. American FIA entries had been painted white so Cunningham chose to paint his cars that color, with a pair of blue stripes running up the hood, over the top and extending down the rear deck. They were painted in the American racing colors of white and blue.They failed to finish at LeMans in 1951 but won major events at Elkhart Lake and Watkins Glen later that year.īriggs Cunningham with some of his racecars the Cadillac known as Le Monstre is at the top right.Ĭunningham liked the white and blue color combination. The cars, appropriately called Cunninghams, were powered by Chrysler’s new Hemi engine. The following year Cunningham entered a pair of sports cars of his own design and manufacture (he had purchased a small auto manufacturing business). It was nicknamed “Clumsy Puppy.” The other was an aerodynamic-bodied racer dubbed “Le Monstre” by the French. One was a stock two-door with the only modification being a dual-carburetor manifold. Millionaire American sportsman Briggs Cunningham had a dream of winning the most prestigious sports car race in the world, the 24 Hours of LeMans. The different colors, keyed to each entrant’s country, helped race fans tell them apart. In some classes, especially Formula 1, the cars tended to all look alike – especially at speed. American entries were painted white (if frame rails were exposed they were painted blue). In the 1950s, FIA rules stipulated that race teams use colors which represented their countries: Italian teams painted their cars red, British green, Belgians yellow, French blue, Germans silver.

Blue racing stripes