Hey drivers
I need help to make all of this work and look good. So far I have trusted Der Kommissar to do the group buy for tires and that went well so here goes agian.

We need a contact to deal with Rich to get our last names in white to go on our windshields. We will also need nicknames to go on the back of our cars .

If you don't have a Nick Name yet don't worry ... you will

SO who wants to help with this effort ?

hence forth asst namer.

Chris' favorite thing in the world (besides Hillery) is stickers for his car, so let's volunteer him! Seriously though, I can do this unless someone else wants to. Where do we want to place the nicknames? I was thinking the top of the rear window, but that could be a problem with the 3rd brake light that some of the cars have.

Chuck,

Couple questions and comments from team Snyder Motorsports: Micah, Gary and me.

Are these names optional or mandatory? Where on the front windshield are you looking to put the name? From past experience I have found that while the names on the front windshield look good, they are very easily damaged if you use the windshield wipers. Anyone driving to/from the track that uses their wipers will run into this issue and the stickers will start to look pretty bad really fast. Also, depending on the size/location it may create a vision problem. We are already using up 6" or so with the DART banner and adding a name could create an issue.

What is the purpose of the names, identification or something else? Is the name to help timing/scoring to know who is who? I've talked with timing/scoring and they say while the number panels are very large, the numbers are pretty small and hard to read from a distance (scoring tower to the track). If the name is supposed to help with identification, it won't do much since the name will be on the front of the car. I have talked with my team (Micah and Gary) and we are planning to put our last names in the rear quarter-window. This will be visible from the side of the car and should help with identification.

Finally, as for the nicknames on the rear of the car, I have to disagree with this completely. While I think it's fun that everyone has a nickname and we use those on the forums, it is inappropriate on a racecar. If we are trying to make the cars look good for sponsors and fans then this isn't needed.

Thanks,
Rick

What if we covered the windshield names with a rectangle of clear vinyl to protect them from the wipers, and placed them on the bottom passenger side of the windshield so that there's no vision problem? How could we make rear quarter window names be more visible than our numbers? It seems like that window is a pretty small space to work with, especially for people with longer last names. I know that T&S has requested that we outline our numbers so they stand out better, especially on the red cars. I'm just not sure how to do that and make it look decent, unless we get new number plates with that designed into it, so I'd be in favor of distinguishing our cars in other ways to help them.

Weston wrote:

While that sounds fine in theory, the problem is what happens when you are driving home from <insert track name here> and it rains and the clear vinyl comes off at highway speeds. Or worse yet, it actually rains for one of our events and racers need to use their wipers and the names come off. If these aren't mandatory, then I would suggest that anyone driving to/from the track not use these. As for the positioning, anywhere that doesn't obscure vision is fine, but it would have to be pretty low as we sit really low in the 944 and the horizontal view above the dash is critical for looking ahead while racing.

Weston wrote:

I don't think it will be more visible then the numbers, but it can only help. Sure some names are longer then others, but something is better then nothing and it's a space that isn't currently used for sponsor stickers and is visible from the side of the car.

Weston wrote:

While I love the look of the Hanksville number panels, the desgin makes it really hard to see the number. It's all red, silver and black. Ideally, the number portion should have been a contrasting color: white, yellow, bright green...something like that. Cars that look different can only help, but with 15+ cars this season and other cars on track, you can't make T/S learn which cars are which by their paint schemes...that's what numbers are for.

Rick

Basically consistent with what Rick has stated, here are my opinions, for whatever they're worth...

Nicknames: I don't have one, nor will I put one on my car -- don't see the purpose, and this will look unprofessional to anyone outside of our own internal group.

Names on front windscreen: What's the purpose? I don't see any reason to put anything on the windscreen that could obscure vision, and I can see a name in the lower right corner being an issue in a tight right corner, whether uphill, downhill, or flat.

Individuality: Do we really want identical-looking cars, other than exterior color? Do we want to look like the Bondurant or Skip Barber race school series? Personally I would like to express some team affiliation and individuality in terms of the appearance of my race car. At the same time I am all for supporting sponsors who support us, but no one will want to look at race photos of our cars if they all look basically the same...

Readability of numbers: To make a business analogy, a huge mistake folks make in constructing Powerpoint presentations is to clutter the slides with extraneous graphics, colored or textured backgrounds, and font that is too small. Human beings most easily and quickly perceive large, simple, clearly legible letters or numbers on a contrasting background. Given this, the challenges of scoring several cars bunched in a pack (a few of which will be silver/grey this year) are made significantly easier by a large, simple black number on a white background (ideal) or white number on a black background.

Thanks for reading/considering!

micah