BELIEVE IT OR NOT

The Ghost Car

Japan’s first Grand Prix since the Second World War was held at the Suzuka circuit. Most people felt that Masao Asano would win. His racing car was a white Austin Healy and its number was 42. The choice of the car number shocked the Japanese as it is considered inauspicious. The Arabic numerals for 42 translate as shi ni, closely related to the Japanese word shingu (‘to die’). But Asano did not care for these superstitions.

Unfortunately, in that race, Asano had an accident and died. The Japan Auto Federation (JAF), which controls the country’s motor sports, reviewed the accident and a few weeks later, banned the use of the number 42 on vehicles used for racing.

The second Grand Prix was held a year later and the JAF developed a new system for determining the running order of the racing drivers. Two teams of spotters took their places in the control tower and recorded the number of each car as it completed a circuit. During the race, the spotters would call out the numbers on the cars as they flashed by, without concentrating on any car number because there were too many cars and they were very speedy.

After the 25-lap race, when the two teams compared notes, they discovered that a car with the number 42 had completed 8 laps. Nobody could tell what kind of car it was or who the driver was.

The Unlucky Number: The Japanese are very superstitious about certain numbers. Four is considered an unlucky number in Japan because it sounds like shi meaning 'death'. This is why there are two readings for the number four — shi and yon. Whenever possible, people try to avoid using the deathly one. License plates  having the digits 42 which sounds like shini ('to die') are strictly avoided. Many housing complexes, hotels and hospitals skip the fourth floor. Forty-two is also said to be themost unlucky age for Japanese men.