Getting a new car for the new year is already a sign of prosperity. Doubly so when said car is a sports car, or even better, a supercar. But there are a million colours (quite literally) to choose from, especially since any car manufacturer worth their salt has a customisation division that will slather your new car in the colour of your choosing.
Oftentimes these involve lengthy consultation processes, because why not. When you’re paying an absurd amount of money (entering well into the five figures) for a personalised paint job, you can also expect a commensurate level of personalised service.
But understandably, this process can be a little bewildering, with the agony of choice and all that. So, with that in mind, here are some auspicious colour suggestions to get your huat on during this Year of the Ox.
Really, no bull. With these two reds and two oranges, you’ll have so much huat, you won’t know what to do with it.
And yes, we know that four is an unlucky number, but if you’re lucky enough to have a car from any one of the manufacturers below, you probably won’t need the extra help. You’re doing fine enough on your own…
Ferrari's Rosso Corsa
The colour red and Ferrari are inextricably linked, and a more iconic pairing we could not name. So much so that in recent years, Ferrari has made a conscious choice to put out press photographs of its cars in any colour but red. Because ostensibly, Ferrari has more colours in its palette than red and yellow.
Take its two most recent cars, for instance. The Roma? That was greyish-silver. Or silvery-grey, depending on how you want to look at it. As for the F8 Tributo? A sort of electric blue.
Still, nearly half of all new Ferraris sold today are still specified in some shade of red. To be fair, that’s a far cry from what it was in the 1990s where some 90 percent of all Ferraris were specced from the factory in red.
That being said, if we were ever to come into possession of a Ferrari, be it through legitimate or illegitimate means (but most likely the latter), we’d have it in red. Rosso Corsa (racing red), specifically.
Lamborghini's Arancio Xanto
Unlike Ferrari, Lamborghini doesn’t really have a signature colour, as such. Yes, yes, the Miura’s orange is iconic, as is its Campagnolo wheels. And yes, some Diablos were painted in the imaginatively named Diablo Rosso.
Fast forward to the modern age (that is, post-Volkswagen Group buyout in the late 1990s), and Lamborghinis have been photographed in all manner of colours, including some that are almost non-colours. We’re talking about the sinister, stealth fighter-esque matte black paint jobs featured on the Sesto Elemento concept car and Murcielago-based Reventon supercar.
But if there’s one colour that we wish could be Lamborghini’s signature shade, it would be the Arancio Xanto, a new colour conceived specially for the Huracan Evo’s launch last year. Pictures don’t quite do it justice, and depending on the light and angle you’re viewing it, the colour shifts from a brilliant vermillion to tangerine.
Absolutely jaw-dropping, and with a correspondingly jaw-dropping price tag. It costs—are you sitting down—a cool SGD56,200 for the paint alone. Without GST and other applicable taxes, of course.
McLaren's Papaya Orange
While the Woking-based carmaker’s Volcano Orange may have stolen the limelight in the past few years, that metallic orange-bronze having been featured on the P1 hypercar and various others after, one colour remains an integral part of its DNA.
And not just in the figurative sense either, because Papaya Orange was the colour Bruce McLaren chose in 1968. Coincidentally, that was the year his team scored its first win at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Even more interesting is how, despite it only being in use for just four years, from 1968 to 1971, and only having been resurrected as the Formula One team’s primary livery colour in 2017, Papaya Orange has always been a fan favourite.
In addition to featuring prominently across McLaren’s showrooms and marketing materials, the colour also featured on some of its most celebrated road cars. One of them being the lunatic F1 LM, a hyper-limited barely street-legal hypercar built to celebrate the manufacturer’s win at the 1995 Le Mans endurance race.
Recently, McLaren paid homage to the original F1 LM with the Senna LM, a limited-edition (just 20 were made), even harder version of its Senna hypercar embellished with a host of details recalling its illustrious ancestor. And of course, it came in Papaya Orange.
Porsche's Guards Red
You know what the funny thing about Porsche is? It’s that it never seems to want to talk about its iconic exterior colours. Perhaps because Porsches seem to flatter just about any exterior shade, for some reason.
Even the seemingly outlandish, improbable ones, like Robin’s egg blue, and the metallic magenta made famous by the 993-generation 911 (Riviera Blue and Arena Red respectively). So, if you thought the Germans are a serious bunch who only have love for serious things, well, you’d be wrong.
Anyway, there is one colour that’s been a staple in the Porsche range since its introduction in the early 1970s, offered on countless models and specced on countless cars since then. We’re referring specifically to Guards Red, a perennial favourite and a colour that the Porsche Club of America rates as an extremely common colour.
However, common, desirable and beautiful are mutually exclusive, as evidenced by a quick image search on Google. Yes, you’ll return several million hits, but we challenge you to find a model Guards Red is ill-suited to. Heck, it even makes the first-generation Panamera look good, and that’s a car most will agree is rather an acquired taste.
