Car Color Inspirations

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GTPlanet, after a long while from not really posting in the Cars in General thread, I decided I'd come back with a variation of one of my old threads. One time on the show "MotorWeek," there was a segment about inspirations in coming up with different car colors. I am an art person, and nowadays, I've been imagining car colors. Personally, I like just-right red colors, vibrant blue colors, or even a deep red like Burgundy Metallic for the old-school Camaros in GT4. Speaking of old-school muscle cars, I can recall cars such as the Plymouth Superbird, Dodge Charger, and new-schooler Honda/Acura NSXes with 15 or so colors. For example, take these color names that I can recall offered by car companies I can recall: Bay Side Blue Metallic (Nissan R34 Skyline), Blu Daytona Metallizzato (Daytona Blue Metallic; Alfa Romeo GT 3.2 V6 24V), Long Beach Blue Pearl (Honda NSX), Lancia Blue (Autobianchi A112 Abarth), Pacific Metallic (Jaguar XKR R-Performance), Piedmont Red Pearl Effect (Audi A3), (Nissan 350Z), Seminole Red (not to be confused with the Seminoles of Florida State University (Toyota Sports 800)), Wine Red Mica (Tom's X540 Chaser), and even Moonraker Black Metallic (TVR). GTPlanet, I want to discuss inspirations in car colors. (singing theme to the James Bond movie "Moonraker") Ahem, anyhow...

During the Motorweek segment on car color inspirations, I believe one Saab 9-3 had a color based on a wine or a certain beverage. When I look at cars like the Dodge Charger Super Bee 426 Hemi or one of my favorite muscle cars, the Plymouth 'Cuda 400 Six Pack, there are a huge multitude of colors to choose from. You want deep blue? You got it. A nice shade of orange? You got it. A bright, but not too bright red color? You got that too. I usually wonder what inspirations are possible in coming up with car colors, in addition to the names to these colors. It seems like you look anywhere for any inspiration for car colors. And it shows. The more inspiration you have in a car's choice of colors, the more just-right color choices you give customers.

So GTPlanet, what are some of your favorite car colors, and how do you think some car manufacturers come up with such inspired colors that look good on that certain car? Now, I didn't include "British Racing Green" because that's like as historic of a color as Burnt Orange for the Texas Longhorns.
 
There was a great Porsche commercial dealing with this about 15 years ago. It showed the designers sitting around, thinking of colors. Then, out of no-where, in some regular, everyday situation, they would see something obscure, and it would strike them as a great color. Like, one guy was sitting there eating some jelly beans. Looks in his hand, and one of them is a great bright, bold blue color.....quick jump cut to a 911 in the same color flying through a twisty bit of road. Another sees his wifes dark, burgundy-red lipstick in the bathroom one morning.......quick jump cut to a 911 of the same color getting in some laps at the test track. Again, same thing with one of them who sees a canary as he's walking past the pet store. Just showing how some of the colors they the designers use might be decided on. It was a great commercial, one of my first ever "Porsche" memories.

Personally, I've had a few colors I'd like to see done sometime. One would be great now that they can do it. I think it would be great looking to have a car done in the new "satin-flat" finish, but a dark black. You call it "Black Hole". It would work great, because the satin finish doesn't reflect light as much, and has less gloss, so just like a black hole, no light can escape it, in escense. I think that would be neat. Obviously, those satin paint jobs are expensive as hell, and you can't do "touch-ups" on them, so from an OEM, its all but out of the question.

The other one I think would be great is "Heineken" green. You do the car in a silver under coat/base. Then, you throw the "Candy" Bright green over that. The car would look like a glossy green Heine bottle. That would be kick ass.

Those are just a few of my favs, and some of my ideas.

Hilg
 
Yeah, it seems that there are usually a lot of inspiration for certain car colors. You can even argue for some inspiration for stuff like TVR car colors. I even heard of a color called "Fireball Orange," which appeared red at some point, then looks more orange. You know the tuner types would want stuff like color shifters. Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars had some interesting car color names. Here are some examples:

Vitamin C, Panther Pink, Plum Crazy, Go Yellow, Banana, Go Mango, Curious Yellow, Moulin Rouge, Sassy Grass Green, Lemon Twist

Many of these were unique colors with nice names to them. Anyone else want to talk about what really inspires some car designers to look for unique and creative colors?
 
you forgot Top Banana

personally, I prefer the metallic dark orange they started with on first year foci, and that deep red I've seen on Ferarris...the one with enough black in it to look good. chrome yellow also appeals.
 
AMC had some creative color names: Big Bad blue, Go-Green?

Was it Ford that had Tor-red?

How Do you guys forget Sublime??
 
I think, often, the color that looks best on a car is the color derived from the race versions. My car is a case in point, Imprezas have always looked best, by far, in blue. I consider myself very lucky to have found mine with such a nice coat of World Rally Blue Pearl.
 
Cars don't look better in a color derived from race versions, cars look better in the color in all the press pictures. You'd get laughed at for having a yellow Mazda Protege 5, except every photo they ever took of the damn car was in yellow, so it became the norm. Once you see it a few times, you start thinking 'that color looks nice.' That's why manufacturers usually take press pictures in extra-cost colors.

My car, by the way, is Doug Kicks Ass Silver.
 
For the record, I remember Plymouth having Tor-Red. Going on GT4, many of the muscle cars had MANY colors. I think I counted 31 for some vehicles. It seemed like with the old muscle cars, you could have any high-displacement, high-horsepowered beast in a great number of colors. Then you have some cars with specialized colors unique to that company. Like, take Ferrari. Many of us probably know about Ferrari Red, or should I say "Rosso Ferrari." The other red cars which plan on returning to America in a few years, is Alfa Romeo's "Rosso Alfa." The old Alpines had "Alpine Blue," which was kind of like a sky blue color, only lighter.

Some car companies see certain color combinations which seem completely unique and completely special to that certain car or the manufacturer. I think one Honda tuner painted up his car red. But it was Viper Red, from the Dodge Viper! I think most auto designers come up with colors that would only look good on that certain maker's cars. Would you put Ferrari Red on a Corvette or a Honda Odyssey? Probably so, but wouldn't look all that nice. From what I've heard from the "MotorWeek" segment I was talking about all this time, there was a car color that many people can live with for years, silver. Of course, you can't talk about silver unless you're talking about "Brilliant Silver" from Mercedes-Benz. Their silver color is kind of blue, but is greatly done on all or most Mercedes-Benz models past and present. In fact, they look good in only two colors (at least to me), silver, and black.

Anyone else want to share favorite colors, or what inspires auto makers to come up with unique and satisfying car colors?
 
House Of Kolor (or is it PPG?) Tangelo over Metallic silver basecoat with scallops. Or, House Of Kolor Candy Violet over metallic silver with scallops.

Limetime shimrin is another cool color, as is Lime Gold.

I think Auto Makers are trying to offer a myriad of colors for people with offbeat tastes, But also are offering the long-time favorites such as black or red, and are improving on past hits.
 
Plum Crazy and Top Banana:tup:

My favourite colour is Ascari Red.
 
Would some of you agree that if there was a color you could live with for years, that color would be silver? I'm not really a silver guy, unless it's Mercedes-Benz, or some really nice luxury car. The 1969 Camaro SS featured Burgundy Metallic which is a very deep red color. Just now on Motorweek, I seen the very nice BMW M6 (not coming to America for at least a year or so) in a sort of burgundy color which looked nice. I think if you're going to have your favorite car, at least have it in a color you know you'll want to live with for as long as you have that car.

Did it seem like a lot of muscle cars have all sorts of color options? I've seen different variations of blues and reds and such. But a lot of muscle cars seemed to have all sorts of colors, like the ones I mentioned (Top Banana, Moulin Rouge, Plum Crazy, etc). Any color you wanted, as long as you were riding some sweet American muscle in this sense. To me, stuff like color-shifting paints and pearlescents are more like inspirations in terms of trial and error. Many people think chameleon paints and such are dumb, but pretty interesting to think about how such colors come together. From one angle, it's one color, but close by or at different angles, it's a different color.

Carry on about your favorite car colors, what inspires auto makers to offer so many colors for their automobiles, or whatever you'd want to discuss about car colors. Heck, it's a beautiful mostly sunny and HOT day in Houston, maybe if I were an auto designer, I'd come up with "Houston Blue" or something like that.
 
Who cares about colors!? I don't even know the colors of all my cars. Christ. It's about performance John! Make a thread about that!
 

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