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click "rickcarey.com" to return to the site index page Rick Carey Automotive History, Personalities and Passion AxioMedia 18 Grove Avenue, Mystic, Connecticut 03655 USA 860 245 3681 voice 860 833 3681 mobile |
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Sebring 12-Hours Endurance Race Hourly Standings and Time Sheets for Sebring 1964-1967 Automotive History, Personalities and Passion |
Color Names Precision in color names is important both in conveying an accurate word-picture in describing cars and in maintaining an accurate account of the restored and original cars offered at auction. I have begun carrying around in my Motion Tablet computer a pdf document copied from Wikipedia of colors and their names to help differentiate between terminology and -- more importantly -- to be consistent. It helps me differentiate between "pumpkin" and "saffron" but doesn't take into account the gloriously enthusiastically named colors affixed to some of the most sought of American cars in the Sixties and Seventies. It's possible to imagine the delightful debates that went on among stylists, designers, artists and others during lunchtime debates during the era trying to come up with appropriate, characteristic but also whimsical names for colors. It must have been a wonderful exchange of ideas. Full credit goes to the managers who let names like "Plum Crazy" sneak through, and that is the impetus for this page. The Mopar designers in '70-'71 did marvelous things, but few of them are more appreciated today than the whimsical, topical names they gave to the High-Impact / High-Performance colors adorning Plymouths and Dodges of the day. The double entendres were lying around on the ground, twitching and smiling, waiting for today's collectors to catch on. My favorites (aside from the ever-popular Plum Crazy and attitudinous Sassy Grass) is Green-Go, which begs to be pronounced like Warner Brothers' cartoon's Speedy Gonzalez would have said it, "Greengo", and Citron Yella, the color for people who want to keep mosquitoes away. Today it's hard to separate Plum Crazy from In Violet, so I've compiled the following table from published sources (referenced lest I be accused of plagiarizing) to give Mopars their correct color names. There are no more excuses. On the Mopar fender tag the color code is the left-most set of three characters on the second line from the bottom. The
High-Impact/Performance Colors
The Standard Colors
Source: Original Challenger and
Barracuda 1970-1974: The Restorer’s Guide by Jim Schild; MBI Publishing, 2003
and Catalog of American Car ID
Numbers 1970-79, Cars & Parts Magazine; Amos Press 1991
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