06/17/2026
I PROMISE. IF YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES AND WANT TO HEAR A AWESOME STORY REGARDING THE FLORESCENT COLORS ON THIS CAR, YES, THERE IS A GREAT STORY BEHIND IT AND IF I DIDNT HEAR ABOUT IT FROM BUGSY, I WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN.
During especially the 1980s and throughout the 1990s so many cars were pieces of art. There were no such thing as wrapping cars back then. Paint booths, old school lettering and detail work from guys who were steady with a brush. Even when it came to developing the paint itself atleast the SHERRI-CUP TEAM got creative. I mentioned down below saying "when they were at the start of perfecting that bright florescent Orange". If you never heard the story behind how the team solved there fading problem of the florescent Orange from the sun throughout the day, its pretty cool. These days we can get the most florescent colors we want mixed up. Back in these days this florescent color scheme barely had even made it onto a Lamborghini yet lol. Anyway.....
Before fluorescent paints were widely available or resistant to UV rays, the Sherri-Cup Race Team combatted fading by turning to advanced automotive chemistry themselves but could not keep the florescentcolors from fading in the UV rays of the sun. Teams throughout the automotive industry were trying different things to combat this problem but it wasnt on any kind of to do list of any kind for a while. Infact it was never on a todo list for any auto manufacturer because a couple race teams needed it done before any manufacturer thought abkut florescent colors. For example, Sherri-Cup was working on this problem themselves since the late 70s when Kenny Bouchard drove for them. I cant find the story, but the different creative things they tried that i remember hearing were quite amazing. Although they never figured it out themselves, its a cool story of this bright colored paint scheme. Now if you recall, Darrell Waltrip teamed up with Rick Hendrick and TIDE in 1987. Obviously they ran into this UV RAY FADING PROBLEM. I am not sure how Bill Corazzo heard about Rick Hendricks dream team having this same issue. But it was no coincidence that Bill Corazzo also ended up contacting the German company called Sikkens which he already knew Hendrick had them working on solving this problem for the #17 TIDE CAR. With that being said, they conquered the fading issue by partnering with Sikkens, a specialty coatings manufacturer in Germany, to develop a specialized, sun-resistant fluorescent orange paint. Sikkens formulated a durable, fade-resistant variant of this notoriously finicky color, which was applied to the team's race cars, show vehicles, and trailers.Fluorescent colors generally fade very quickly in harsh sunlight because their bright pigments rely on absorbing ultraviolet light and emitting visible light, breaking down under continued UV exposure. To make them pop and last, prior to Sikkens coming up with a solution, painters often had to back the fluorescent layers with a bright white base coat to make the fluorescent last as long as it allowed. Although Rick Hendrick contacted Sikkens, Darrell Waltrips #17 TIDE car was a significantly less fluorescent orange then what Corazzo was looking for and you can see the difference clearly between the two. So Corazzo had to make his own call to Sikkens to have them work on the shade of Orange he wanted which also was partnered witb a florescent yellow. So as it comes to florescent paint in the automotive industry, its safe to say that TIDE ORANGE, aswell as the SHERRI-CUP ORANGE AND YELLOW were the first colors that were developed with this new lasting UV formula before it became available in all sorts of different fluorescent colors.
Talk about a cool story that I would imagine not all that many people know about. I personally heard it from Bugsy when he was hanging out at the museum with my father. He use to tell all sorts of fun fact type stories. Stories that youd otherwise would not even think yo ask about but Bugsy had one hell of a exclusive story archive stored in his memory lol thats a fact!
Below is a link to a guy who was involved with the marketing of the TIDE sponsorship with Waltrip and he tells the story from that point of view.
https://www.purethunderracing.com/2024/03/a-brief-but-interesting-nascar-odyssey.html
IF ANYONE WHO WAS ON THE SHERRI-CUP TEAM OR WAS INVOLVED OR IN GENERAL HAS FACTUAL ADDITIONAL DETAILS THEY WOULD LIKE TO SHARE, WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM!
