Friday 6 November 2015

Colour coding

Some Mini derivative manufacturers made a brochure for their car - only the ones that had real confidence in their products I guess, so they are quite rare. I have collected several of them over the years and in some the paint colours available for the cars (or shells) are just named. I like the simplicity of that. Quoting from some of the brochures:

Stimson Safari Six (showing an orange car): "Colour impregnated main body, and body panels (part numbered and replaceable). Pirate Red, Golden Yellow, Charred Cedar"

Camber GT: "Price (sprayed Red, White or B.R. Green) £435"

Maya GT: "The bodies are sprayed in one of the following colours: White, Red, Pale Blue, and Fiesta Yellow. Other colors can be had at extra cost"

ABC Tricar: "Colours: White, Sunset Red, Willow Green, Pale Blue, Marigold, Bronze Yellow"

Ranger 80: "Colour range of panels: Red/White/Blue/Khaki or to special order"

For the TiCi as well as the Status 365 you had to like yellow (there was no other colour available) while the Siva Moonbug came in 'Royal Purple' as a standard. Yep, that was in the early 1970s.

But I also found out that a few manufacturers had actual colour charts. The Mini Marcos Owners Club recently unearthed a very simple one for their beloved Marcos, showing a range of eight solid colors available, while Radford-fan Neville Smyth found a much posher one for the Radford Mini De Ville on Ebay recently. But nicest of them all has to be the very rare colour finishes brochure for the Broadspeed GT that Chris Wooden showed me. Ralph Broad offered no less then 30 colors, made by Docker Brothers, and ranging from the well-known Broadspeed Opalescent Dubonnet to bright Lilac. How would that look on the GT?


Rare Broadspeed GT colour chart with a wide range of paint colours
Picture Jeroen Booij archive


Understated colours for the Radford Mini De Ville, from Mole Sable to Shell Grey
Picture courtesy Neville Smyth

No metallics for the Mini Marcos, but Acrtic White and Bahama Yellow
Picture courtesy Mini Marcos Owners Club

1 comment:

  1. Colours for the 60s Minisprints anyone?

    ReplyDelete