Our Two Cents: Our favorite factory color names
Paint doesn’t make the car for some, but others have indeed seen a lot of memorable colors on machinery. There’s where this episode Our Two Cents comes into play, as the team at Hagerty Media winds up creating content about colors with every new vehicle release and every passing model year. So let’s ask them a pressing question: What’s your favorite factory color name?
Tangerine Scream
“Although it’s not my favorite Focus ST color—I’m a Performance Blue guy—Tangerine Scream is the best name.” — Chris Stark
Evening Orchid
“Evening Orchid, as created by GM designer Blaine Jenkins in the 1960s and seen on certain 1965 Chevys and Pontiacs.” — Joe DeMatio
Nori Green Pearl
“LEXUS NORI GREEN PEARL YOOOOOOO!” — Nathan Petroelje
“Slappy White”
“A long time ago my team combined several near-empty cans of paint to spray a dirt-track race car. We called the color Slappy White. Some of the car was flat, some was gloss. It wasn’t pretty, but it sure was funny (looking).” — Steven Cole Smith
Mystichrome
“Ford Mystichrome, of course!” — Greg Ingold
Radar Blue
“Radar Blue on the 1998 Corvette pace car special editions. It was clearly purple, but Corvette had good color naming: Sebring Silver. Competition Yellow. Bowling Green. Polo White. Torch Red. Laguna Blue.” — Todd Kraemer
Blanc Paros/Parian White
“My friend’s 1974 Cadillac is painted Victorian Amber Firemist, which is a $10 way of saying bronze. Detroit marketers were experts at coming up with $10 names for colors. Of course, every color sounds better in a foreign language. The Lamborghini Espada is painted Verde Pallido, which just means pale green.
But I think Citroen did it best; the DS and ID were offered in an amazing variety of colors with charmingly specific names, like Capucine (nasturtium, a type of perennial flower), and Escaille Blonde (pale tortoiseshell). My ’64 ID19 was pained AC102, Blanc Paros or Parian White, a reference to a type of marble commonly used in statuary, which is a perfect description of a white that is slightly grey, slightly blue, or slightly green depending on the light.” — Aaron Robinson
Indian Yellow
“Maybe it’s my tiny bit of Dutch heritage, but I’ve always loved orange. My first car was a 1974 Saab Sonett III in Indian Yellow. It was always fun seeing the look on people’s faces when you told them your very orange car was actually yellow.” — Ben Woodworth
Punk’n Orange
“PUNK’N! The name for Stellantis’ orange has my vote. Through the years, Chrysler, FCA, Stellantis—whatever you wanna call ’em—has been the most bombastic with their color names, especially the High Impact glossies sprayed on its muscle cars. Sassy Grass, Tor-red, Top Banana—woo hoo! I’m glad they haven’t abandoned that schtick.” — Cameron Neveu
Medium Brown Metallic
“I somewhat dislike frilly frou-frou names for colors, as it reminds me of creative types that use 20 extra words to add impact to their statements. Sure, fancy words are great for marketing, hype building, etc. but colors don’t evoke imagery worthy of naming for me.
We have enough filler material in our lives, so give me straight-up Medium Brown Metallic all day!” — Sajeev Mehta
Blazing Saddle Pearl
“Mopar even had a great name for brown that Sajeev will appreciate. I remember I was at a Ram event and they debuted a color called Blazing Saddle Pearl.” — Brandan Gillogly
“Nope, that’s light brown pearlescent . . . a better name for such a lovely earth tone.” — Sajeev Mehta
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how is sublime a hi-impact color?
Just take a good look at it.
Remember Statutory Grape?
I had a ’97 Saturn, SC2 that was Black Gold. Black with gold metallic. The sun and mercury vapor lamps gave a nice reflective effect.
I submit: 130R White
One of my favorite color names is AlfaRomeo’s “Luci di Bosco.” It translates as “Forest lights” and I find it very romantic. It was a metallic brown sold in the 70s and early 80s.
How could you not include mopars plum crazy?
How about British Racing Green
First color, top left!
Right?! HELLO ..!
Which was originally Statutory Grape….I think lawyers were involved
Absolutely. Best ever
Dodge gets credit for still doing it.
AMC could have a whole article: Big Bad Colors, the not “special” colors with wild names in the musclecar era and the quirkiness that continued into the 80s.
I like my F150’s “Magma Red” If you look at the shaded side, most people say its a black truck. When the sun hits it, I think it looks like root beer. Not sure what kind of magma the marketing dept. at Ford was looking at.
Pontiac’s Solstices had interesting names. However you’d have have good memory to keep track of them.
Silver = Cool
Gray= Sly
Red = Aggressive
Black = Mysterious
Green = Envious
Blue = Deep
Yellow = Mean
Orange = Brazen
White = Pure
Pontiac in general was that way. The Vibe had “colorful” color names:
Black = Abyss
Dark Grey = Shadow
Silver = Satellite
White = Frosty
Green = Envy
Orange = Fusion
Red = Lava
Maroon = Salsa
Blue = Neptune
“Maximum Steel” on my 2021 Ram 1500 (kind of a blue/silver/purple/graphite metallic depending on how the sun hits it). I have had more “That color looks great, what’s it called?” questions than any other vehicle I’ve ever owned. And it sounds cool when you say it. I’m thinking of using “Max Steele” as my “bar alias”, as in “Steele, Max Steele”.
How could you not include mopars plum crazy?
I find “Night Race Blue” very evocative. Loved driving my Corvette at night and seeing stars and tall buildings through the transparent targa top.
MG had a yellow that was also more orange, it was “Dragonfly Yellow” and a greta color!
Don’t forget the MGB purple of 72/73 that was called “Black Tulip”
My ’54 F100 is vermilion. Fancy name for red. Everyone loves an old red truck…but an old vermilion truck?
My wife drives a “Tiger Eye Pearl” Acura MDX. Cool color with a cool name.
Acapulco Blue
I still wonder how they came up with the colour name on my AH frogeye Sprite – Whitehall Nevada Beige. Yes, beige, doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s a very subtle shade, with a touch of red in it – yes, hints of desert sand.
Plum Crazy was always a favorite of mine
59 Chevys had Crown Sapphire and Cameo oral. Other divisions used same colors with different names. 1960 Suntan Copper was also cool.
My dad ordered a new ’60 in Suntan Copper. A similar color some years later was Aztec Bronze.
B5 Blue gave my 68 Charger 200+ extra horsepower
I liked it when all the Corvette colors were named for race tracks.
My father-in-law, Joe Pike was the one that named the Corvette colors after racetracks.
Recently became a fan of GM Atomic Orange. A limited corvette color I believe. Also wish my Russo Red 72 240Z still wore its original color. 104 Kilimanjaro white, but really want to change my White 89 conquest TSI to Fiji blue.
@ Charlene- Joe Pike is a Corvette Legend and Hero! War Bonnet Yellow is, in my opinion, the best Corvette color name.
Awesome! Although it’s a ’65, I too have a Lynndale Blue convertible. It’s often commented upon, very favourably, and I enjoy telling those who ask the origin of the color’s name, about the Wisconsin farm that was converted to a racetrack from 63 to 67, then to a subdivision still based largely on the original track layout.
Ox blood red
On my buddy’s Oldsmobile
Bali Blue