More than a hundred years have passed since Henry Ford, half-jokingly and half-seriously, was going to offer Model T buyers a choice of “any color as long as it’s black.” Today’s automakers have gone to the other extreme — they’re constantly inventing new colors and shades. Or rather, they’re simply coming up with fresh names, since these “new products” are usually easy to describe using familiar terms. True, some of these inventions don’t immediately make it clear what part of the spectrum we’re talking about.
Rape Yellow
This was an offer in the Bugatti online configurator, where buyers can choose options for their future car. The creators had “rape yellow” in mind, but few people know the English word for “rape.” For most people, including the British and Americans, the first word in this phrase means “rape.” That’s why, for example, rapeseed oil is usually called canola, not rapeseed oil.
It later turned out that this was a translation error, and Bugatti corrected it. The most offensive thing is that the color is ordinary yellow, nothing special.
Freudian Gilt
In translation, this means something like “Freudian gilding”. This dubious term was used by Ford for the Cougar, Falcon, Mercury and Mustang models in the late 60s and early 70s. Ordinary people called this color bright yellow, those with more complex ideas called it caramel bronze, but what do they know about psychoanalysis?
Tangerine Scream
“Tangerine Scream”. Another name that pierces to the depths of the soul, and again from Ford. This time, for the modern Focus ST models. It remains unclear who should shout, and why, if the orange car speaks for itself and attracts attention without unnecessary words.
Amberlite Firemist
One of the options in which the 1976 Cadillac Eldorado was available. It is difficult to say exactly what it means. The dictionary defines amberlite as “a light yellowish brown that is lighter and redder than khaki, nut brown and cinnamon”. If that is not enough, then firemist can be translated roughly as “fire fog”. Now put it all together and try to imagine it – it should turn out to be a completely ordinary light brown.
Any color of Opel Adam
Someone in the Opel marketing department really likes wordplay based on the names of famous films and songs. “James Blonde,” “White Saturday Fever,” “Let There Be Blue,” “Dancing Green,” “Whiten My Fire,” “Grey Father,” “Purple Fiction,” “Pink Kong” — these are just some examples from the Adam palette that can be translated more or less recognizably.
And a little advice for the end. If your car has a non-standard color, and you need to paint it or paint over a damaged area, the VIN code will help you choose the exact paint: its number is encrypted in this code along with a lot of other information. You can get a VIN report through one of the online services. This is probably the only way to gild according to Freud or reproduce the cry of a mandarin – it will not work by eye.
