Colours

P

PeterZRH

Well-Known Member
OK, Looking back Rover seems to have a quite bizarre policy on colours having quite a limited palette and then retiring one colour and replacing it with something very similar and often near identical, especially the white and blue shades and really what was the point of the mexico brown/brasilia change? When they went further afield, they really went off-piste - I'm looking at you Paprika and Avacado! Even lunar grey is actually quite an odd colour on a car of that period.

My question is, in the rest of the Leyland empire quite a bit of "swapping" went on. What Leyland colours do you think should have made it to the P6?

My starters:

Darker colours
Admiralty blue - Why this didn't cross the P5/P6 barrier I'll never know especially given how popular it is today as a "non original" colour.
Mallard Green - After Arden Green was retired, Cameron green never quite did it for me, neither dark nor light and somewhat yellowish in some lights.
Black tulip - A very striking colour on an MGB and landcrabs.
Black - Really, any! Seems mad this was not available as a standard colour.

Lighter colours
Ice Blue (triumph) - Blue seemed to suffer the same fate as green on the P6, neither dark nor light but somewhere in-between. Nice to have a light alternative. I believe one or two NZ cars were in this colour.
Primrose yellow - P6 looks great in April yellow. Must have failed as it barely managed a year. Can't understand why Almond was such a hit in comparison.

Any thoughts?
 
It's the lack of a black that seems the most odd to me, especially as Rover painted P5's with it. The odd P6 that has been sprayed black always looks the business.
 
The S1 in black on this forum from S. Africa really does look incredible. However I really think the S2 with the polished stainless stripe in black would really be special.

Steel blue and Burgundy from the P5 would also have worked nicely. For some reason P5 owners were spoiled for choice when it came to green.
 
Black Tulip is a lovely colour, some early Mk3 Minis were in this shade of deep purple and I'd agree it would sit very nicely on a P6, particularly a S2 with some nice period baubles thrown at it too. 3500S wheel trims and a Mango interior would be a legal requirement on P6 s in this colour!

Nidge :wink:
 
Personally, I really like the P6 colour palette...

However, I do find it a great shame that some nice subtle metallic colours were never offered to really spice things up a tad.
 
PeterZRH said:
The S1 in black on this forum from S. Africa really does look incredible. However I really think the S2 with the polished stainless stripe in black would really be special.

Steel blue and Burgundy from the P5 would also have worked nicely. For some reason P5 owners were spoiled for choice when it came to green.
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Here's my 3500S but has a S1 front.
 

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Heres a side view. This was at the making of the film Titanic Town.
 

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That's a great looking machine Brabus at a triumph of the polisher's art. I definitely think P6s tend to look better in dark colours.

In an ideal world I'd choose black or dark blue, trouble is dark colours on any car tend to be completely ruthless in revealing any flaws and in a car without aircon has obvious summer issues. Hence mine will likely remain "water emptied from a carpet cleaning machine brown" aka Tobacco Brown or possibly April Yellow/Jaguar pale primrose.

The maroon colour looks pretty similar to the P5 burgundy to me and would really work on a P6

The admiralty / Silver birch combo is definitely my favourite on the P5. I've seen it on the P6 but it doesn't really work around the rear pillars IMHO. If Rover were to offer two tone I think they'd have needed to remodel this a bit along the line of the P5 with the chrome finisher.
 
neilc said:
Thankfully we never had Harvest Gold and Limeflower P6s
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there's nothing wrong with limeflower



I used to hate the colour but think it kind of makes the car now.

I wonder what a magenta p6 would look like, I had a dolomite sprint in that colour many years ago, got towed away and never seen again.
 
Oh, the Minor I like very much!

Funny how a polish and strong light actually changes Limeflower a lot, it almost looks tobacco brown. In its more common oxidized unwashed form on a 1970s Marina, it looks like an old florescent safety bib.

Still happy it didn't make it to the P6 though.

Now how about a line up of a Magenta Dolomite, a Paprika and an Avocado P6 and a grasshopper green Hillman Avenger? I will confess Paprika with a black interior is probably my favourite 70s combo.
 
Hmm, I think my only solution is to own a series 1 V8 in the original colour of April yellow AND a series II V8 in Woodcote green with vitesse alloys and custom made engraved Vitesse script badges in an MG RV8 style update......
 
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