DYNOgreen Is Here to Kick Open a New Golden Age
First DYNOgreen installation on a Posrsche 992. Installation Credit: REFLECTED IMAGES
Despite its simplistic name, DYNOgreen is not just a generic shade of green. This latest addition to our colored PPF lineup is based on a hue that holds a special place in the hearts of countless motorsports enthusiasts, British racing green. So, what exactly is British racing green, and what makes it so special?
Where It Started
A Car is Born
Replica of a Benz Patent-Motorwagen. With a max speed of a whooping 16mph, you literally can't drive 55 on this bad boy! Photo Credit: Bring a Trailer
To discuss the origins of British racing green, or BRG for short, we need to go waaaaaaay back to the beginning of the 20th century. Throughout history, there have been a number of vehicles that were built by some of the most brilliant minds to ever grace this planet. However, it is generally accepted that the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, introduced in 1886, is the first commercially available automobile making it pretty much the common ancestor of all modern cars.
Let There be Motorsports
1895 Chicago Times-Herald Motocycle Race was the first race in the United States. Picture above is the winner of the race, Frank Duryea, and his Motorized Wagon. Photo Credit: Bang Shift
Because it was such a new technology with such massive potential, the automobile immediately fascinated nerds around the world. And those nerds were extremely competitive. They started building their own automobiles and held competitions to see whose vehicle could go faster and longer. By 1900, there were already several established races with fleshed-out rules. Sure, compared to modern motorsports, it looks like child's play. Still, these competitions were well-organized and well-documented enough that some winners were immortalized with short Wikipedia articles.
Out of all of these competitions, probably the most significant one would be the Gordon Bennett Cup which was held annually from 1900 to 1905. While it didn't last for a very long time, this annual competition is considered the predecessor that paved the way for today's Grand Prix.
James Gordon Bennett Jr, the madman from New York who funded the competition with his namesake, was so unhinged that his name itself became an idiom.
Gordon Bennett Cup was billed as a competition between nations. It had a rule that every vehicle must be built using parts from the entering team's country, and the driver also has to have the nationality of that country. To really drive the point home, the vehicles also had to be painted in the pre-designated color representing the country.
Things Just Didn't Go Their Way (Part 1)
So, what would be the easiest way to decide on a representative color? It would be to simply borrow it from their national flag, which is what most other countries participating in Gordon Bennett Cup did. But not the United Kingdom. They wanted to be different. Or, they were just too late to the game. By the time they participated in this race for the first time in 1902, the red, white, and blue that make up the Union Jack, their national flag, was already taken by other countries.
1971 Porsche Targa restored in olive green. Fantastic restoration work but my god, this color is dreadful. Photo Credit: karolyi74
So which color did the UK go by? They went with olive green. Why? To be honest, I had to do many hours of research before writing this blog, and I could not find out why they went with olive green. I don't think we will ever find out why they went with the drabbest color imaginable out of all the other great colors out there. Anyways, Selwyn Edge from the UK won the race, bringing home the rights to hold the next Gordon Bennett Cup in the UK. Or so they thought.
Things Just Didn't Go Their Way (Part 2)
Survived by the "Oi, you got a license for that?" memes of today, the governing body of the UK is historically infamous as a massive party pooper. In 1903, they were already enforcing a speed limit of 14 mph (roughly 23km/h), making racing pretty much impossible. As massive party poopers, they obviously were not going to make exceptions to that law because they couldn't let people have too much fun.
And that 14mph was a massive improvement too. British motorists literally had a celebratory "emancipation run" in 1896 when the government increased the speed limit from 4 mph to 14mph. The boys had it real bad back then. Photo Credit: Cor Draijer
Thankfully, Ireland, which was still part of the UK then, adjusted their local laws to allow races within Ireland. With Ireland as their home ground, the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland was able to avoid the embarrassment of not being able to hold the event and have the first internationally recognized motorsports event on UK soil.
Sunbeam GP 1923 in shamrock green. Photo Credit: Moto Windfall
As a sign of gratitude towards the local government of Ireland, every driver competing for the UK painted their automobile in a more vivid shade of shamrock green instead of the dreadful olive green. The shamrock green stuck around as the representative color of British motorsports even after the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup and eventually became British racing green.
This is the origin of BRG. But if you have keen eyes, you would have noticed that shamrock green looks nothing close to what BRG is today. So, where did this dark shade of green we call BRG from?
The Dark Green Rises
Post 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup
Holding an internationally recognized event brought the legitimacy that the UK motorsports scene constantly sought. UK motorists will actively participate in more international competitions donning this shamrock green color for roughly the next two decades. One of the most prominent British auto manufacturers of that time would be Sunbeam. Several British drivers competed and won in various international competitions, driving a shamrock green sunbeam.
The Darker, The Better
A 1928 Bentley 4.5 Litre in British racing green. This one was probably restored couple times throughout the years using a much darker shade of green. Photo Credit: Vanden Plas
While shamrock green was the preferred shade of green for two decades or so, many British drivers began to opt for a darker, deeper shade of green. One of the earliest examples of this on record is the Bentley vehicles that competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance races in the 1920s.
And in 1929, one event solidified the identity of British racing green. William Charles Frederick Grover was a young but experienced British race car driver who first took up the pseudonym of W Williams to hide the fact that he participated in motorcycle races from his family. As an avid driver, he started seriously competing in races in 1926, driving a Bugatti Type 35. Winning the 1928 French Grand Prix, he was a dark horse participant entering the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix of 1929.
Honestly, W Williams' life story is super fascinating. I strongly recommend you read up on it whenever you have time! Photo Credit: Motorsport Magazine
While there was no doubt that W Williams was a great driver and Bugatti Type 35 was a great vehicle, everyone believed that they were no match for the Mercedes-Benz SSK driven by Rudolf Caracciola, one of the greatest German race car drivers of his generation.
Needless to say, when W Williams won the race with his dark green Bugatti Type 35, it left a deep impression on everyone. This unusually dark green color has become the baseline for the British racing green, which many British motorsports teams painted their vehicles for the next several decades. This coincided with the golden age of the UK's motorsports and auto manufacturing industry, elevating BRG to an iconic color that represents something special.
The Fall and Rise Again
Corporate Sponsorship Will Tear Us Apart
As motorsports became more popular and competitive, running a motorsports team, especially at the highest level, became too expensive for a team to exist without the sponsorship of massive corporations. For brands, sponsoring a team in top-level competitions such as Formula One became a great opportunity to get their name out.
Lotus, the well-established British auto manufacturer, was the first Formula One team to paint their car in a brand color to advertise their sponsor Golden Leaf, a tobacco company. Photo Credit: Goodwood
By the end of the 1960s, this shift in the motorsports scene had made corporate sponsors of teams strongly demand the governing bodies of the competitions to abandon the designated coloring based on nationality. And instead, allow teams to paint their vehicles in different colors to represent the sponsor's brand. At first, these governing bodies were not too fond of moving on from a long-lived tradition. But the threat of corporate sponsors pulling out of the motorsports because they are not getting enough return to what they are investing was too much for them to ignore.
They succumbed to pressure and lifted the restriction starting with Formula One in 1968. This opened a floodgate that pretty much killed the tradition of nationality-based coloring throughout the industry. BRG was abandoned over other colors.
Back To the Good Old Days
2000 Jaguar R1 in metallic British racing green that first reintroduced BRG to the motorsports world again. Photo Credit: Bonhams
It took about 30 years for British racing green to be reintroduced to the top-level competitive racing scene in 2000 by Jaguar Racing, Ford's new Formula One team established to promote the Jaguar brand. Interestingly, since the reintroduction by Jaguar Racing, a number of British manufacturers returning to motorsports after an extended absence have adopted BRG as their color.
This return was well-received as it is a nostalgic color representing British motorsports' heyday. While it had this nostalgic value, it was also out of public consciousness for quite a while. Long enough that it was a cool new look for younger generations that did not live through the golden age of British motorsports. This resurgence also led several automotive manufacturers to make their sports models available in BRG to consumers.
A Modern Interpretation
One thing to note regarding the reintroduced British racing green is that they slightly differ from the classic variant of this color. Despite the fact that metallic paint has been around since the 1930s as a luxury option, existing color photos and recollections indicate the "old school" BRG painted on racing cars was in solid color. However, most new vehicles painted in British racing green have metallic paint.
There are probably many different reasons why this became the case. Still, it is undeniably challenging to find a manufacturer that offers their vehicle in classic solid BRG, barring exceptions such as Porsche, which offers a custom color painting at an additional cost. So what do you do if you want a vehicle in the classic British racing green? This is where our new DYNOgreen colored PPF comes in.
DYNOgreen Is Making BRG More Accessible Than Ever
Now that we are pretty much done with talking about the color itself, let me explain why we believe Our new DYNOgreen colored paint protection film is the best way for you to get a vehicle in British racing green.
Finding an "authentic" BRG Color Is Surprisingly Difficult
We couldn't be more proud of this labor of love.
One thing about British racing green is that it is more of a concept than a specific color. British teams participating in Formula One operated under the vague idea that as long as the car is painted in a deepish and darkish shade of green, it should be good. And it usually was. Hell, Ecurie Ecosse, a Scottish team which means they were technically British, just went with a deep blue color, and the governing body of Formula One just kind of shrugged it off and pretended it was not a violation of the rule.
Ecurie Ecosse really just said ????♂️ and Formula One was like ???? Photo Credit: Bonhams
Because of this chaotic nature of BRG, developing DYNOgreen was not easy for us. When developing a new colored PPF, we start by color-matching with iconic car paint colors and tweaking the color mixture to make it our own. With other colors, we were able to finalize the paint mixture by the time we made the first PPF sample. But with BRG, because there was no clear point of reference, we had to go through a lot, and I mean A LOT, of samples to get the right color combination. We held multiple company-wide polls to see which sample color we should go with. But we think this painstaking process really paid off. We created a stunning shade of BRG that embodies the golden age of British motorsports with some updates to ensure it is fashionable on modern cars.
It Takes Less Commitment
DYNOgreen PPF is simply the best way to transform your vehicle to British racing green. Plus, it is perfectly reversible! Installation Credit: REFLECTED IMAGES
Despite British racing green being a cool color with extensive history, the truth is that there is not much demand for green cars. Sure, it is a bit more popular than other exotic colors, but in most markets, green cars make up only around 1% of cars today. This means most manufacturers don't offer their cars in BRG. Even if they do, it will either be a limited edition or custom-made based on order, making it more expensive than popular color options.
This puts you in a situation where you are paying more for a car that will be more difficult to resell in the future because people are boring and mostly want black, white, or gray cars. DYNOgreen is the perfect option to help you avoid getting in that kind of a pickle. DYNOgreen transforms your vehicle into a gorgeous shade of green that can be reverted to its original color by removing the film. It also provides the same protection to the paint layer under the film as DYNOshield, our flagship paint protection film.
It Is Better Than Any Other Aftermarket Options
Unlike vinyl wrap, we use the same pigments used for painting cars. This makes the color much deeper and more vivid. Plus, with our industry-leading manufacturing technology, DYNOgreen has virtually no orange peel. We are confident that DYNOgreen will look as good or even better than factory-painted BRG for a long time As long as you take proper care of it. (We recommend using our FORMULA Car Care product line!)
Plus, when it comes to durability, it is better than both vinyl wrap and aftermarket paint. No matter how much care you put into it, making a vinyl wrap last more than a few years is practically impossible. The accumulation of scratches will look too damaged to keep on your vehicle. Aftermarket paint is not that great as well. Body shops can't use the massive industrial oven that auto manufacturers use to cure car paint. This leaves them to use paint that can be cured at a lower temperature, which tends to be significantly more fragile. It is often so fragile that many film manufacturers don't cover damage to the aftermarket paint that occurs during film removal under their warranty.
These problems don't apply to DYNOgreen. It is self-healing, so it won't accumulate scratches, making the film look old and damaged as vinyl does. Also, being resistant to other road elements that can damage the paint on your car, it won't get ugly dings and chips aftermarket paints are extremely prone to getting.
Where Can I Get It?
If you are an installer looking into carrying DYNOgreen, please submit this form.
If you want to wrap your vehicle in DYNOgreen, you can find the STEK installer nearest to you here!
Watch the first ever DYNOgreen installation!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5hlS_CfnZg&t=8s&ab