Tell us about your race number?

I grew up in Quebec. Gilles Villeneuve was my racing idol, hence #27 on my cars over the years......

When my dad was a racer in the 70s, he used 93 on his Spitfire. When I started autocross, I used 93 as well.

First year we went to Nationals, someone got 93 before me so we went with 63 since magnets are easy to flip around.

The next year, I registered as soon as it opened and got 93. This was a mistake. Not only because I was quickly told "the guy who had 93 before had been running that number for 10 years" but because people in the 90s are suuuuper serious. We had TomO and Dave Montgomery's CRX next to us (94/194). When the car came back from a run, the Wood Brothers pit crew descended on it. Tires came off and went into vats of cold water while cooled tires went back on. There were people, umbrellas, jacks, impact wrenches, tires, etc etc everywhere. In the meantime, when our car came back we'd change the numbers, check the tire pressures, and sit back to watch the beehive of activity going on next door.

Obviously they were doing something right as they wound up 3rd and 9th out of 39 and we wound up 33rd and 39th, but it still was glaringly obvious that this was not the neighborhood I wanted to live in.

The following year I decided I wanted vinyl numbers since I could never put magnets on straight, and those numbers were now 139 instead of 193. That got us out of the super serious business neighborhood, plus all but eliminated the likelihood of running into someone else wanting to use that number. And, it turns out, that while my dad's Spitfire was 93, he actually started out road racing in a different Spitfire, and that car's number was 39.

I have always used 68.  That number comes from the 1968 Dodge Charger that my parents owned and I got to drive while in high school. Yes - thats been a few years ago. I was a lucky kid.

Recently we have been using 995 in Champcar since my son is involved and didnt want to use my number. Figured that no one else would use such a high number but found out another guy had been. Felt like we stole his number. Now building a new car so perhaps we can pick a new one.

I like quirky cars. 

53. Because Herbie. 

in 2015 when LeBron came back to the Cavs I adopted 23 and vowed to never change it if we won the championship.  2016 came and my number is 23 in perpetuity 

I have a thing for mathematics and numbers so I went with 314 (Pi minus the decimal point) inside a circle.  Oddly, people frequently ask me when I am out what the 314 means. The most common guess is it's the horsepower number. (Ha, in a Miata!!??)

167hs

At first, when I was running tape numbers, I just took whatever was available. The registration system only accepted numbers below 200. I remember watching a pair of drivers swapping places on the same car rearranging their numbers between runs. I was kinda new here, and didn't want to rock the boat, and I wanted flexibility when I ordered numbers. I started brainstorming for a while, and settled on ordering 167hs in die-cut magnetic sans serif.

By rearranging and flipping digits, I could run the following below 200:

1hs

6hs

7hs

9hs

16hs

17hs

19hs

61hs

67hs

71hs

76hs

79hs

91hs

97hs

167hs

197hs

176hs

179hs

1hsL

6hsL

9hsL

16hsL

19hsL

61hsL

91hsL

@DeadSkunk................he is why I use 27 as well. As much as the 14yr old me wanted to be Lauda, my style is way more Villeneuve.

#46

I've always loved racing since I was a little kid but I never followed a certain series or driver.  Then I met my best friend when we were both stationed in Italy and he introduced me to MotoGP.  After watching "Faster" and "Fastest" I realized what a god Valentino Rossi is.  He dominated during three different eras on different bikes.  He is far and away my favorite racer. I've now been to three MotoGP races; Once at Mugello Circuit in Italy and twice at Circuit of the Americas.

Great idea to start this thread!

When I started autocross, I decided to make my own numbers with magnetic vinyl.

Once again, an 11 is easy to make, and it wasn't being used by anyone in my class in the local SCCA or Martin Sports Car Club, the two closest groups for autocross.

I like the classic look of meatballs on a sports car, so I cut some out using the lid of my stock pot for a stencil. At that point, I realized I didn't have the skill to perfectly locate the numbers in a circle, so I ended up at the local sign shop.

They were cheap, and I like supporting local businesses, so I had them make my class letters, too.

When I started attending events with FAST, a club from the West coast of Florida someone already had number 11. They don't use class lettering, so everyone at one of their events has to have a unique number.

For that, I did make my own, and went with 41 since I could start with the one from the sign shop number for a template and a 4 uses all straight lines.

I've also made a 1 to add on to make my 41 a 141.

While we're on the subject, I like to share my method of securing the numbers. If you look closely, you can see the little rare earth magnets that I glue to the magnetic vinyl. 

They're very secure. Sometimes people ask if they're rivets.

I've run 14 when I could get it - A J Foyt. The man could drive and win in anything; sports cars, Indy cars, stock cars. And wrench on them too. 

#50. Hugh school football number. Also my odds of winning anything. 

I ran #523 on my Sentra.

In Japanese: 5 = Go, 2 = Ni, and 3=San.

#67

It is the first 2 numbers of my work ID.  Also when my daughter was born it was the 1st 2 numbers on her little wrist ID tag.

I had always run 76 up to that point because Merica! But from that point forward 67 has been it.

my nephew was grabbing magnets out of my car that I leave inside my car.  He grabbed 488 and gave it that number.  Its the number that just kinda stuck since then. 

I'm not very creative: it's 190 because the car is a 190E

The team name is pidgin German for "Hammer Time" (a stupid play on AMG Hammer). 

Futurama takes place in the year 3000 so we're y3k. We always had to sign up for races on day one, because our number gets taken very early for obvious reasons. . We've also run under 116 with a magnetic number to cover the nice vinyl .

Photo from our first race in fall 2013

fidelity101 (Forum Supporter) said:

Mine is #74 

sometimes if I had too much to drink and this topic comes up I say that 74 comes from a state a balance, in western cultures the #7 is lucky, whereas in eastern cultures the #4 is unlucky, it is how we have balance on the circuit that makes them compliment eachother as we balance our chi...

I like it.  Sort of like the idea of driving a Swedish car with German electronics and turbocharging, a Japanese transmission, an English rear drive, Italian brakes, American suspension, and French tires.  It's the whole world come together to create the most perfect motor car.  But instead they made the S60R, which given the culture clash, turned out pretty good regardless.  I ran that car, when I ran it, with 588, because Night Witches is the best Sabaton song ever.  Well one of them anyway.  Picking "the best Sabaton song" is like picking your favorite child.

but in reality, the numbers were easy to do with tape...

I think it is an RX-7 thing.  Because okay, you ran 74 on your FC, right?

moxnix ran 74 on his PR/MR FC, now owned by EvanB because I guess he was jealous of how much my car broke vs. his Miata's granite like reliability

And then there is the '81 that I got from Charles Wright, which was also a red car, and he ran it with, you guessed it:

'65 is the year I was born. Super original.  I use 165 or 651 as required. 

Although I can't confirm that's why she chose it, DD#1 was 16 when she started driving in autocross with me.

44 Cause I was a "Hired Shoe" for a couple of years and the owner said I couldn't change it to my fav number 9.  It became me on the net so I've kept on using it when I changed back to racing motorcycles.  I've also run 144 and 944 on bike often cause i have loaners and many times I compete against my own bikes...  I do run one bike with 71, it was my best friend's bike and I race it for his widow.

Love the bikes, especially the RD because like most guys who started riding in the 70s it was my first performance bike.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

I like quirky cars. 

53. Because Herbie. 

Been there, did that myself!

My first "race car" was a 1/4 midget I bought when I was about 10 YO with lawn mowing money. It had the #14 on it already. Didn't realize at the time but I think it was painted like one of A.J. Foyts cars who also ran the #14. Anyway, whenever I can choose a number I still use 14.

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I also run 46, in the proper font - I was a big BRE fan back in the day.

When I was a kid and all my race cars were 1/25th scale I started using the #50 because it was relatively easy to paint and I didn't know of any professional drivers that used it.  I now think of that as my number and use it when I can.  That's what's on my Camaro.

My Miata used to be co-owned with a buddy of mine and he picked the number.  When he moved across the country I bought his half.  If I ever paint the car it'll change the number but for now it's the #22.

My Formula Ford was sold to me at a ridiculously low price from a friend who has since passed away.  His race cars were always something 63.  This one was 263 and I'll probably keep that number in his honor.  I am going to put my name on it however.