What is "the" Corvette color?
12-01-2011, 11:27 AM
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
What is "the" Corvette color?
Ferrari has Red.
Merc has silver.
Porsche... has silver too.
Does the Corvette have a signature color? Is there one color that is "quintessential" Corvette? If so, will they offer it on the C7?
Merc has silver.
Porsche... has silver too.
Does the Corvette have a signature color? Is there one color that is "quintessential" Corvette? If so, will they offer it on the C7?
12-01-2011, 11:50 AM
#2
Race Director
Those are "national" colors...........
It used to be that race teams showed their national colors on their cars; thus the ones you list. Similarly, English cars (think Jaguar and Lotus, for example) raced in green - "British racing green", and French cars were blue. American race teams were white - the Briggs Cunningham cars and their Corvettes ran in white with blue stripes.
That practice was displaced by the advent of commercialism and advertising on the cars, and the use of corporate colors. The old guard in F1 was horrified when Team Lotus showed up in the John Player Special (tobacco) colors of black and gold instead of the tradional green.
Today, race teams do pretty much what they want based on their sponsors desires. Factory race teams - like the ones you list - still run national colors in some cases.
So - why is the corvette race team using yellow instead of white?
That practice was displaced by the advent of commercialism and advertising on the cars, and the use of corporate colors. The old guard in F1 was horrified when Team Lotus showed up in the John Player Special (tobacco) colors of black and gold instead of the tradional green.
Today, race teams do pretty much what they want based on their sponsors desires. Factory race teams - like the ones you list - still run national colors in some cases.
So - why is the corvette race team using yellow instead of white?
12-01-2011, 12:06 PM
#4
Le Mans Master
I don't think Porsche really has a color. Silver is a German thing, but I don't really think of silver as the quintessential Porsche color. In fact, when I think of the 911, I imagine black or very dark gray first, with white and silver and red and dark blue right behind....
History buffs would say that Corvette's signature color is white -- specifically Polo White with a Guardsman Red interior -- in reference to the Motorama show car and the first production Corvette. And I think it's true that Corvette has kept white as an available color even if sales figures would otherwise call for its replacement.
Others would refer to the book "All Corvettes Are Red," which got its title from something John Heinricy once said in frustration in a meeting about colors for the C5 -- "All Corvettes are red. The rest are mistakes." Of course, there are hearty disagreements on this forum about precisely which red...
Then there's LL Cool J's "Goin' Back to Cali" which mentions a black Corvette, and Chris Tucker's character's black 1969 Stingray in "Rush Hour." Black has been the most popular color over the last few years in terms of new Corvette sales, which makes the Centennial Edition a nasty case of price gouging (in 2012 black is effectively a $5000 option), btw.
But I don't really think of any of these as the quintessential Corvette color -- like 911, Corvette has worn a lot of colors over the years, and could be identified with any or all of them. This icon is not monochromatic.
.Jinx
History buffs would say that Corvette's signature color is white -- specifically Polo White with a Guardsman Red interior -- in reference to the Motorama show car and the first production Corvette. And I think it's true that Corvette has kept white as an available color even if sales figures would otherwise call for its replacement.
Others would refer to the book "All Corvettes Are Red," which got its title from something John Heinricy once said in frustration in a meeting about colors for the C5 -- "All Corvettes are red. The rest are mistakes." Of course, there are hearty disagreements on this forum about precisely which red...
Then there's LL Cool J's "Goin' Back to Cali" which mentions a black Corvette, and Chris Tucker's character's black 1969 Stingray in "Rush Hour." Black has been the most popular color over the last few years in terms of new Corvette sales, which makes the Centennial Edition a nasty case of price gouging (in 2012 black is effectively a $5000 option), btw.
But I don't really think of any of these as the quintessential Corvette color -- like 911, Corvette has worn a lot of colors over the years, and could be identified with any or all of them. This icon is not monochromatic.
.Jinx
Last edited by Jinx; 12-01-2011 at 12:10 PM.
12-01-2011, 12:47 PM
#5
12-01-2011, 01:48 PM
#6
Successful Plumber
Member Since: Feb 2001
Location: Top of the hill, 3rd mailbox on the right. Texas
Posts: 43,830
Likes: 0
Received 13 Likes
on
6 Posts
CF NCM Ambassador
CI 6-7-9-10 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '06-'07-'08-'09-'10
NCM Member '09
I think Corvette has worn yellow to go racing for more years than the original USA white and blue scheme.
That seems to be the factory works color.
That seems to be the factory works color.
12-01-2011, 02:07 PM
#7
Race Director
All corvettes should be RED! although the best selling color is black..
As far as what is america's traditional racing car color????
White with blue stripes......or blue with White stripes..
As far as what is america's traditional racing car color????
White with blue stripes......or blue with White stripes..
12-01-2011, 06:05 PM
#10
Instructor
white
12-01-2011, 06:22 PM
#11
Burning Brakes
Member Since: Jul 2011
Location: Saint Johns Florida
Posts: 1,168
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
I prefer black, but think of the darker reds (monterey red, crystal red, and such) as the quintessential Corvette color.
The following users liked this post:
Vettefanboii (09-26-2023)
12-01-2011, 06:26 PM
#12
Drifting
Member Since: Feb 2002
Location: Chapel Hill NC
Posts: 1,260
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Acar
As said above, ACAR according to a famous GM person which is why the first production C5 was red, 
Yellow is a visibility thing for Corvette racing. Yellow against black (the road surface) is the highest visibility for the normal human eye. Easier for the pit persons to see and easier for the slower cars to recognize.
By the by. the assigned (by the FIA) German racing color is white. At one GP race in the 1930s the MB GP cars were over weight, so the team sanded off the paint to reduce the weight down to the acceptable maximum. That started the "silver arrows" name and tradition for MB. The assigned colors for the US are white with a blue stripe. No one follows those rules anymore but tradition does carry some weight. McL has always been associated with the orange shade made famous in the US by the McL CanAm cars and the Indy cars
Yellow is a visibility thing for Corvette racing. Yellow against black (the road surface) is the highest visibility for the normal human eye. Easier for the pit persons to see and easier for the slower cars to recognize.
By the by. the assigned (by the FIA) German racing color is white. At one GP race in the 1930s the MB GP cars were over weight, so the team sanded off the paint to reduce the weight down to the acceptable maximum. That started the "silver arrows" name and tradition for MB. The assigned colors for the US are white with a blue stripe. No one follows those rules anymore but tradition does carry some weight. McL has always been associated with the orange shade made famous in the US by the McL CanAm cars and the Indy cars
Last edited by I Bin Therbefor; 12-01-2011 at 06:29 PM.
12-01-2011, 09:10 PM
#15
Racer
Member Since: Aug 2011
Posts: 448
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
please don't hate me,...but i think the vette looks awesome in yellow!,..whenever i picture a corvette,..for some reason, that's the color that pops up to me,..and i think the 911's classic color is that one they call "basalt black",...they all seem to look really good in black,...just my humble, useless 2 cents!
12-01-2011, 09:45 PM
#16
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
I think I tend to go with white myself, with yellow or black probably being the most common colors for the C5/C6 models you see on the road today. Blue is my favorite though; I went out of my way to get a blue one.
12-02-2011, 08:47 AM
#17
Pro
I would have to say red. Nassau Blue is pretty quintessential Corvette too... especially on a C2. But red is hard not to think of when you think of a Corvette.
