My view is somewhat coloured....

... yup it's time for another J-ho musing from yours truly. Now I am registered colourblind even though I've never had a problem distinguishing the red grass from the green sky, as a result of being uninterested and not wanting catch nits from the school nurse (it was tough living in Pensilva in the 80's), but even I can see that the rule of "neutral colours" simply isn't working. Back when God was a boy (hard to believe Bill Batten was once a spotty teenager), the rule book stated that your roof colour had to be painted down to the "waistline" of the car. The "waistline" being everything above the lower reaches of the cab. Everyone knew the rule and it worked. Then Brisca decided that the drivers number on the cab quarter panel. Then, the drivers (notably grade players) complained that they had to respray and re-sign aerofoils. And so they started to push the limit, and wrong colour/grade combos, and Brisca did act and brought in the "neutral colour rule".

Basically, it's a bit like Henry Ford's mantra - you can have any colour, as long as its not red, white, yellow, blue, gold, silver, black and white cheques, green and white cheques, gold stripes, silver stripes, red and yellow cheques. It's a bit like going into a fast food restaurant with posters of burgers and fatty foods outside, and being given a choice of salad, gravel, and granola (although there's not a lot of difference between that and gravel). It's not what you want, but its all you can have.

So colour choice is limited, and rather than do the side panels every month and a lot of drivers have taken this rule, placed Stevie Wonder in a trolley in B&Q, sun him around and got him to choose a colour which would be good for a car. So far since this rule has been in place, we have had orange, lurid lime green, pink, baby puke "beige", terracotta and cow excrement brown.

Yeeewwuuuch. Look at the Tractor boys in Gearsentearsland. They don't have neutral colours - the roofs are all correctly painted - and if a driver has a brown car, then its because they are mad, or thought that they could drive incognito on shale!

The waistline rule worked, the drivers followed it. When the numbers where added, drivers pushed their luck and were left with the neutral colour ruling. What would have been better is if the number rule was placed below the waistline. i.e underneath the cab. A bit like Mr Moodie below (although Gordon you haven't been 79 for a few seasons now!). Then it's not interfering with the waistline and just respray away without masking.

Result.

Also the rule book states ...

"Rule 217. Grading Colours
The whole aerofoil must be painted in grading colour"

The only people getting rich of this rule are the signwriters and local paint stockists. Lets take this picture of Gordon Moodie (7). The source of some debate over at Ftooz, with clockwork salesman like Dave Wayne getting involved by feeding the Moodie trolls, er I mean loyal fanbase. Now I showed this picture to my friend's 6 year old daughter, and asked her what colour the roof was. She replied silver - so then Brisca, if a child of 6 can tell the difference, why cant you? Signwriting jobs are expensive- even with the sticker brigade - so what is wrong with the panel being a different colour to that of those. I used to love the white panels with centre painted in the graded aerofoil. I do think it looks better too. Aslong as the perimeter is the same colour, its clear to see!

Its also about time the superstars had some kind of form of identifying themselves, with out the need for a closed circuit diagram. There are few superstars that actually bother with lights - the easiest way to identify them would be with a black roof or some other colour to distinguish, and distinguish them when they jump the start! Lights often don't work, a bit like daytime firework displays.

The argument has gone over time that "superstars would be changing roofs every month". Is that no different to any other grade? Take the perennial grade changers, those "purple" tops, too good for blue, not good enough for red. "I'm gonna keep my blue roof on 'cos that's what I'll be next month". Err, no. Start at the back and be a good boy now, says the Steward.  This season I have only seen one superstar with the flashers going, so it's not like they make the effort anyway. With the new broom of Superstars about to be created, it would be nice if these newbies fully embrace this half arsed effort to show they are the best.
This rule is a bit like impressing the girlfriend to be with a new car.
"Look at my new GTi Sport babes, isn't it cool". "
Yeah my ex Darren had a GTi too, what's the difference?"
"Well mines got a set of complimentary pink furry dice and an extra cup holder"
"Hmmm, looks the same though hun"

But what if that GTi Sport was dramatically different, had a bigger engine, had a fancy spoiler and the like. Easily distinguishable to "Babes" that your motor is different to dear old Darren's. The "Superstars" would be different with a different roof colour to distinguish them from being "just another red top", and that girl would be in the arms of yourself and not back with Darren.

So with the application of common sense, rather than a jobsworth mentality would aide Brisca to earn some brownie points with the fans and with the drivers...

Over to you - use the comment button - I'm dying to know what you think...