Sport 350 Flame Red

[MartynB]

I think my colour query went via exactly the right people, at the right time, to get a favourable response.

Our "big car" is a Honda CRV with full ADAS pack, so adaptive cruise plus LKAS. It basically drives itself, while you keep an eye on it. But I still found basic cruise was useful on my MX-5. As you say, Arun, for when the roads are quiet but long.

[Crouchy]

I find cruise really useful on mine too. Makes the early morning drive to the track that bit easier.

[TheKevlarKid]

Im the other way around, I never use it on the motorways, even when its quite. However, i use it all the time in 30/40 speed limit areas where it's easy to be caught out at a high % over the limit for small amount of mph...

 

[Arun_D]

2 hours ago, MartynB said:

I think my colour query went via exactly the right people, at the right time, to get a favourable response.

Our "big car" is a Honda CRV with full ADAS pack, so adaptive cruise plus LKAS. It basically drives itself, while you keep an eye on it. But I still found basic cruise was useful on my MX-5. As you say, Arun, for when the roads are quiet but long.

TBF I was expecting a non-Lotus colour to cost the earth, like you say, so didn't pursue it further with mine, opting to revive a discontinued Lotus colour for the same cost as normal metallic paint. Still took a bit of convincing at the factory, apparently!

Can we make sure ours aren't ever parked next to eachother, please, otherwise you will find mine actually turning a shade of green!

[MartynB]

Can't have that can we?

Interestingly, I realised that the MX-5 I traded in (a Sport Graphite in Zeal Red) was pretty much an exact match for the Canyon Red. I parked it up next to the S1 Evora that Stratton had at the time. Nice, sophisticated colour.

The Flame is going to be a bit more lairy

[Gashead1105]

2 hours ago, Arun_D said:

TBF I was expecting a non-Lotus colour to cost the earth, like you say, so didn't pursue it further with mine, opting to revive a discontinued Lotus colour for the same cost as normal metallic paint. Still took a bit of convincing at the factory, apparently!

Can we make sure ours aren't ever parked next to eachother, please, otherwise you will find mine actually turning a shade of green!

The price for non-lotus colours makes my sprint colour scheme seem cheap! 

I think Silverstone did a flame red evora not too long ago. Looked pretty special!

Edited September 16, 2016 by Gashead1105

[MartynB]

Ahh, I suspect you mean this one in Fire Red...

How confusing. Different colour. Rather nice though. Probably cheaper paint job than mine.

[Rancid]

I've met that car in person (small world, but he was in my village visiting relatives) its an absolutely stunning colour.

[The Pits]

How much does Renault charge for these whizz bang colours? Can't be too much on a Clio surely?

I'm not familiar with flambé rouge but I'm yet to meet anyone who didn't like Arun's Canyon Edition Cup. Cool that it's a Lotus colour too. Much easier explanation!

Can't wait to see some pics of the 350 though. I enquired about reflex charcoal for my Cup. It's a TVR flip colour but changes between black, metallic grey and emerald green. They should have called it Mallard a Green. The most gorgeous paint I've ever seen on the car but hideously expensive. It was a £5k option on a TVR 10 years ago! I think Lotus wanted something similar. Suddenly Motorsport Green looked like a bargain and I wouldn't swap it for anything now.

[Gashead1105]

I think liquid yellow is about £800 on a Clio.

i don't think it's fair to post up how much I was told it would be on a V6, but you can imagine costs of 20 hours in paint... 

 

[The Pits]

Renault give a Clio 20hrs in the paint shop for £800?! That sounds very reasonable! I'm amazed it's worth their while. 

[MartynB]

I figure its a heck of a lot simpler to get a robot to electrostatically spray a steel Clio than to get a bunch awesome chaps from Norfolk to spray a set of curvy fibreglass panels with a tricky set of coats that the poor buggers haven't used much if at all before.

I found a great youtube video from The Gunman showing how to spray the Mazda Soul Red, and then a PDF of the training course of how to spray the Renault NNP (Rouge Flamme) by one of the paint companies. That helped me appreciate how non trivial this paint job was going to be. I'm pretty relieved the TVR flip job was costed at more than I've put down.

And yes it was counter intuitive to have to budget so much more than the robo-sprayed Renault option.

Then I thought of how epic it should look. Then I went for it.

Hope it doesn't suck

[Gashead1105]

For what it's worth, they do an awesome job. The finish on my Exige is superb. I'm sure it's going to look great.

actually I think 5k for the Tvr flip job is ok, could have been a lot worse! 

[The Pits]

I think they came back with that rough estimate just to put me off, which it did. I also hesitated as it's a TVR colour (originally Nissan I believe) and I was feeling like this one ought to have a Lotus colour, plus one that would contrast better with the matt black panels. But if I was going completely off the charts again it would probably be with this:

[Arregueti]

Interestingly, that TVR looks similar to mine, which is Lotus' BRG. Probably differences are light dependant. Probably last green on a red thread. :-)

[MartynB]

Both smashing colours.

Jonny, that's the green to purple flip isn't it? Always thought that was a stunning effect. These days there are a couple too many slammed Saxos etc done out in it though. I think your call on the Motorsport Green was spot on.

Ah, here we go, so Jorge can see what Jonny's on about...

 

[The Pits]

Yes it was one of the more subtle flip colours by TVR standards. It was mainly black to charcoal grey but you'd get a glorious green flare in direct sunlight just like a mallard drake's head. I love LRG too and was seriously considering it but again went for MSG because of the matt black panels Cup cars had in them days. Looks great on an Evora, very much a green version of Nightfall Blue which I had and loved on my Elise. Very dignified, I'd probably go for that on an E400 if I could just see past MSG!

Not wishing to bang on about TVR but the Sagaris show car was Candy Apple Red and wildly expensive then as no-one was able to recreate it. Totally jaw dropping though and must have sold a few Sagari on the colour alone. It's taken years for mainstream manufacturers to really nail the metallic red but I think a few have managed it now including Alfa Romeo.

[Chrisc]

I wonder if they will do the same colours on the new TVR! Tuscan was the one that always stuck in my mind. 

[MartynB]

Obviously we'll see how it comes out, but I'm hoping to end up with something quite similar to a Candy Apple Red, like the show Sagaris.

Traditionally, Candy Apple Red is a silver metallic base, red "candy" midcoat then clear on top. The modern 3 coats make it less hit and miss by including colour in the base. It's often quite a pinky red metallic base. The midcoat is quite a thick, deep red dyed clear. This means that the colour gets deeper as the bodywork curves away from the viewer. Very pleasing.

Chevrolet have got a similar colour called Crystal Red Metallic Tintcoat. I think it was seeing pictures of Corvettes in this that finally tipped me over, for example...

If it looks half as good as that I'll be proper chuffed

[The Pits]

You can see why they called it Candy Apple Red!

YUM!

[The Pits]

Dare I even mention this?

Always thought it was gorgeous!

[The Pits]

Mclaren's Volcano Red has to be right up there too. Totally lickable!

Think I better stop now or I'll need a lie down!

 

[MartynB]

Yeah, Volcano Red was my stretch target, but I couldn't imagine them saying yes and still being an expense I was happy with. It's apparently a large number of coats, with candies and pearls etc. Sooo pretty though!

[The Pits]

I think we're all sufficiently stoked about seeing your car now too. A definite shared experience!

Have you had (or still have) experience working with paint yourself, you clearly know your stuff.

The Swizz Beats Evora (sorry everyone!) was said to be ground breaking in some way, can't remember what the fuss was, something about it being the first chrome ruby red car ever or something. Might even have been a wrap!

Anyway, bring on the Flambe Rouge!

 

[TheKevlarKid]

No it was deffo paint, and it cost north of 10k to do when new...

4 years later with it sat outside the back of Lotus the paint had suffered with serious sun bleaching! Looked like someone had got the cheapest, shiniest, Christmas wrapping paper they could find and daubed it all over... it looked shite!!

 

Sorry, but if your putting something similar on your own car just make sure it has good UV properties!!