We tend to forget how popular bright colors were back in the sixties. Bright
reds, yellows, blues, greens, etc. It probably reached a peak around 1970
with the "day glow"colors- "Big Bad Blue", "Big Bad Orange", etc. Many years
ago I spent a good deal of time talking to Hugo Pfau and a number of other car
designers. I learned a great deal about basic design and colors. On was that
small cars are best painted either light colors or bright colors, dark colors
are not good. The reason is that light colors tend to blend in with the
background and bright colors draw your eye. Dark colors provide a sharp break
with the background and emphasize the cars smallness. Interesting, it is
better to have painted head light rims on an Alpine as that emphasizes the
cars length-making it appear longer then it is (desireable on a car like the
Alpine). Chrome headlight rims cause the car to look almost "choppy". They
noted that the use of Chrome rims on the Minx was a mistake-they blamed
Raymond Lowey. Use of the painted rims on the Alpine (along with the fins)
great emphasized length-they credited that to Bourne and thought it was much
better.
Sooooo a bright red Alpine with painted headlight rims is artistically an
excellent choice. A BRG Alpine with chrome headlight rims is a designer's
no-no!
Many years ago I was a member of the Board of Directors of the Society of
Automotive Historians (I was a founder) and thus had access to many people of
note in the auto industry. Alas, business and family caused me to drop out.
Jan Eyerman
1973 Hillman Avenger DL (bright yellow)
1963 Hillman Minx Series IIIC Convertible (Moonstone with painted headlight
rims)
jumpinjan <jservaites@woh.rr.com> wrote:
Jan Eyerman wrote:
> My least favorite color on any Alpine is "rust red"!
Jan,
I think the over popularity of Carnival Red is a shame. I wish Rootes
make available a third choice for red car. I think this color is very
cool which is painted on a Harrington series D example:
http://www.sunbeamalpine.org/jans_pics/seriesD_red.jpg
>From what I can see, it's like a purplish&brownish-red. It's very
interesting to me. Both the car and the paint.
jan
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