What color would you pick?

Most of you should have seen the available colors on the Tesla website by now. For easy reference, here's what they are offering:

Solid colors:

• Fusion Red
• Racing Green
• Jet Black

Metallic colors:

• Brilliant Yellow
• Radiant Red
• Sterling Silver
• Glacier Blue
• Obsidian Black
• Very Orange
• Electric Blue
• Arctic White
• Thunder Gray

A special mystery is how Jet Black became categorized as a "premium color".

I figure the Roadster will look great in just about any paint scheme, but I've got to say I'm leaning toward the brighter colors. It's partly a practical thing, because it's a small car and you really want it to be visible to other drivers. It's partly emotional, because it's a fast, sporty, fun car and bright colors just seem to fit. You know this car is going to be an attention-grabber in any color, so why not paint it an attention-grabbing color? The colors I'm looking hardest at are. . .

YELLOW: Nothing catches the eye like a bright yellow car. It's instinctive, you just have to look. It's a cheery, fun color. However. . . I've heard that some bright yellow cars attract bees and other flying insects. That might be a problem if you are motoring along with the top off! It attracts speeding tickets too.

ORANGE: This has to be the most aggressive color you can get, even more than red. It's more unusual than yellow, more an object of curiosity. An owner of a "Chrome Orange" Lotus Elise once wrote that he could bring a small town to a standstill just by pulling up to their stop light. Kids love it. On the other hand, it might get old after a while. Some would consider it tacky, because it's almost like you're driving down the street saying, "Look at me! L@@K at meeeee!"

WHITE: Obviously white isn't in the same category of attention-grabbing, but it's visible. White is the color of spaceships: clean, futuristic and high-tech. That sounds like a good match for the Tesla Roadster too, doesn't it? The only problem is, there are so many white cars on the highway already -- not as many as silver, but close to it. White is the color of utility trucks, panel vans, fleet vehicles. Doesn't this car deserve something more special? I might still consider it only because most white cars are a solid color, but Tesla's Arctic White is metallic. I saw a metallic white Cadillac today and must say it looked sweet out in the sunlight.

BLUE? I fell in love with the rich, deep, pure blue that Lotus offer under the name of "Magnetic Blue". If Tesla offered it, that's probably the way I'd go. Unfortunately, Electric Blue just isn't doing the trick for me.

The WORST color in my book is Thunder Gray. Not because it looks ugly. . . Quite the contrary, I figure a Thunder Gray car with tan leather interior would be about as classy as you can get. The problem is, they should have called this Asphalt Gray. I wouldn't feel safe in a small, low-sitting car that blends in so easily to the road surface.

So. . . Those are my opinions, but I haven't decided what I really want yet. What colors would the rest of you go for?

GreenSpeed said:

Green!, green color for a green car, kinda cool but such an non traditional color to go for.

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Got to disagree there! The Roadster is assembled in England, and there could be no more traditional color for it than British Racing Green.

In the early days of car racing there was a lot of nationalistic rivalry, and several countries developed their own traditional colors to set their cars apart. The Italians went for bright red, which is how red came to be associated so much with Ferrari. The Germans liked a shiny, bare-metal look, which is how silver came to be associated with Porsche. And the British cars were done out in dark green, so it became popular with Lotus, MG, Austin-Healey, etc. Dark green with a tan interior became the standard.

I've read that in Britain itself most buyers have moved away from the green sports cars because they consider it a bit too obvious or trite. But lots of green cars are still exported because buyers in other countries want that traditional British sports car look. And I believe the Mazda Miata has always been offered in a British-looking dark green -- probably because it began life as a near copy of the Lotus Elan.

And incidentally, my current daily drive is dark green with a tan interior. But. . . It's not British and it's not a sports car, it's a 1995 Bonneville.

Silicon and Silicone are two completely different things. :

I really do think Arctic White will capture the spirit of it pretty neatly. Like an iPod or an iMac, sure. . . Or an Imperial Stormtrooper helmet. That's what I think a white Lotus Elise looks like.

Have you see the U2 iPod with the black body and red control wheel? I have a photo here somewhere of a black Tesla Roadster with black seats, but a red panel (is that what you'd call it?) in the center of each seat. I tried to UL that a few days ago, but the gallery wasn't cooperating.

Somebody here around town has a. . . Geo Tracker, I think it was, in a kind of bright green, like a metallic spring green, that was pretty striking. If they offered that I'd probably go for it.

I just thought I would add a little update on this topic. . .    The colors shown on the Tesla website are just Photoshopped mockups, they aren't terribly accurate -- especially the solid colors, Fusion Red and Racing Green.  So, I thought I would dig up some photos to illustrate them better.  Fortunately, most of Tesla's colors are identical to colors offered for the Lotus Elise.  So. . .

Racing Green is referred to by Lotus as British Racing Green:  http://zobeid.zapto.org/caviar/image/tesla/BRG.jpg

Note that this is not the same as the metallic "Signature Green" that we've seen on VP1.

Fusion Red is called Ardent Red by Lotus:  http://zobeid.zapto.org/caviar/image/tesla/ardent_red.jpg

It's the classic sports car color, but shouldn't be confused with the metallic red that we have seen so often.

I believe Brilliant Yellow is the same as Lotus's Solar Yellow: http://zobeid.zapto.org/caviar/image/tesla/solar_yellow.jpg

Not all colors are identical.  Tesla's Electric Blue is a mystery to me, as it doesn't really look like any of the *three* shades of blue that the Elise is available in. Also . . Although there have been photos of blue Roadsters from the test circuit, nobody can be sure if they are the same blue that will be used on the final cars -- to me they don't look much like the paint sample that was photographed on Tesla's color chart at Pebble Beach. Still it's hard to be sure, because even photographs never reproduce colors exactly the same way.

vfx said:

I heard those buying a Roadsterwill be getting sent roundish paint samples to choose from. You can put them in the street, your driveway, your parking spot at the office, your garage, the freeway, wherever you want to look at the lighting during different times of day and in different weather conditions.

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That's a good idea, I hope they do that.

Electric Blue!

Today we are a step closer to solving the mystery of Electric Blue.  Here is VP9. . .



For comparison, here is one of the earlier EPs that was tested. . .



These sure do look like two different shades to me.  The EP appears to be painted with a darker blue which Lotus refer to as "Magnetic Blue", and VP9 appears to be what Lotus call "Laser Blue", both of which are Elise colors.  The impression I got from Tesla is that VP9 has the real, official Electric Blue that will be used on production cars.

My uncertainty is because, as has been previously noted, there are dozens of ways to reproduce colors wrong on a computer.  So, I could be wrong about either or both of these colors.  (And Laser Blue is notoriously difficult to photograph.)  One thing I'm completely sure is that Electric Blue is not Magnetic Blue.  It's either the same as Laser Blue or it's some newly-formulated color that I haven't seen before.

To me it looks surprisingly good.  It might actually tempt me away from Very Orange.  Well, I've still got some months to make up my mind.   

Laser Blue in the sun. . .

And just for fun, check this out:



I dare anybody to gaze upon that and not fall in love, just a little. 

malcolm said:

Link to youtube video from the Green Wheels exhibition at The Forum In Norwich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK3TyNy7oRE

Is this Glacier Blue?

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Right!  These photos are probably the same car. . .





It does show dirt a bit, eh?

vfx said:

Glacier Blue would be my choice for that reason. Why not white? Because I've been there with the sporty 92 Prelude and the Photoshopped white version on the Tesla website is weak looking.

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You have seen VP4, right?




Admittedly not great photos, they need to get the tape off and take it out in the sun. I did seriously consider white.