What color for my Spyder?

Hi folks, newbie here...

I was wondering if you guys can help me out here...my spyder will be done sometime mid-year next year but I still can't decide what color it should be. My personality dictates that I deviate from the norm and the usual silver/silver blue color. I recall seeing a red spyder in one of the Porsche books, it was a special body Sauter Bergspyder, of which only 2 were made, both were red but not "guards red" as the 356's were and not similar either to the new red they paint on the new porsche's. I also see some black spyders around which are also very nice and very very period looking.

So my question is, which is a better color, red or black? If red, black interior? If black, red interior? or black on black?

My girlfriend was thinking sunburst yellow but i'm a purist by heart so yellow is a big no no for me. =)

Anyone kind enough to help me decide would be forever in my debt. =)

- Matt

Black is a great color for a car, but it gets dirty immediately. Watch out for going too dark on the Spyder also as it's hard to see as it is.

What about that wonderful blue?
I've seen a few original 550's that are a blue similar to the "bugatti blue" made famous in the 20's.

Very nice, with white darts

How much does a good paint job cost anyway?
I'd love to repaint my spyder someday.

Keep it quiet will ya "theo mack", I don't want too many blue Spyders out there! That's the colour I'm going to on the current rebuild but with yellow darts.

White with red and yellow flames. :)

Oh btw Peter, is that something like a light apple green colored spyder i saw on your files page? Now, that's what I call eye candy. =)

Lovely color!

ok now i'm confused! =)

White with red/yellow sounds pretty good George and, oh, what a color Peter. Two thumbs up! I agree with you Theo! Blue is beautiful! Don't worry Peter, i'm halfway across the world from most of you guys so I don't think having another Blue colored spyder would make much of a difference. =) Although i'm deviating away from blue since my Lotus Super 7 (replica) is colored blue silver already. But i've yet to see the original bugatti blue colored 550's. Can anyone direct me to pictures of the original blue colored 550's?

I agree with you Bert that black can get dirty easily but I think after having 3 black volvos in our family, not to mention most of our other japanese cars were black by sheer coincidence, i've grown to love the color. Of course, it helps to have cleaning tools around the house and a friend who owns a auto detailing shop where I can easily get my car cleaned weekly for free! =)

Hmm...that's odd, it seems no one likes red? Has anyone seen the red Bergspyder i mentioned...i'll try to look around the 'net for a picture but if not i'll see if I can get to scan the Porsche book where I saw it in so you guys can tell me what you think.
(Message Edited 10/27/2003 9:19:24 AM)

here's one
(Message Edited 10/27/2003 10:48:03 AM)

peter,

your car in the pic is lookin' GOOD!

do you have a shot with the yellow darts?

Matt this must be the Bergspyder you mentioned.
Matt what is your location?

Hi Peter! Pardon for the late reply...yup...that's the one! =) Its so lovely in red! But i'm also thinking of black...so far no final decision yet.

Btw Peter, i'm located here in the Philippines.

Hey Matt, if you want a Beck spyder, you can get one around February. It was an ordered car which became available from Chuck Beck Motorsports. Its Black with tan seats.
I just bought myself a Vintage 550 spyder and I love it!

Hey Matt, these are the pictures of my 550.

Hi Guido,

As much as I would love to import a Beck or a Vintage here, the cost of shipping it here, not to mention the taxes and duties that I will have to pay amount to more than that of a luxury sedan. Unfortunately, we have weird automotive tax laws here. Even though I love the Spyder that much, the import cost will outweight its fun value. But not to worry, we are taking our time in constructing the car as faithful as possible. The replica manufacturer has done 550 Spyders previously, and very faithfully I might add so much so that 2 of them have been raced already. Some have original Porsche engines in them.

In fact, I believe he has met Mr. Beck before and discussed certain technologies with him to enable faster production. There is actually a Beck Spyder here but the owner has no plans to sell it so i'm stuck on getting one from the local replica manufacturer. My car will be the 8th Spyder in our country and will be the second to the last according to the manufacturer since he's tired of producing the Spyder and thinking of moving on to replicating speedsters this time. :-) They have been producing replicas for almost 20 years now, ranging from MG TD's to TF's to Lotus Super 7's and Cobras. They produce replicas in very few numbers and produce them like works of art that they are which is why one car takes about 14-16 months to build. They import some parts and source some from here which lessens the cost by about half. My Spyder still has about 6 months to go before I can enjoy thoroughly enjoy it. Everything is perfectly hand-made the old fashioned way so things are quite slow.

Anyway folks, I've decided to match my 550 as close as possible to Mr. Hans Stanek's production car, but unfortunately, Mr. Karl Ludvigsen, of the Ludvigsen Library has the photo in B&W only so we are studying it very carefully. So far i've not been successful in researching about the car online, so if anyone knows more information about it, I would gladly appreciate it.

Again, thanks for all your suggestions, I'll be posting pictures as my 550 progresses. :-)

Hi Matt, red is fine I have seen one here in Mexico and it looks pretty cool very sport but I think that red is more for ferrari, I think porsche look better silver, mine is silver with black stripes although I like the one that Spydermike has very much, it is silver with red stripes, silver is a great color for vintage cars, it has many variations between gray and blue, that depends on you....

Hi Matt:
What country are you from?

I believe it was the old tradition of Formula 1 to assign colors to cars based on country of origin. That is why British Racing Green came into being. Red was assigned to Italian cars, and Silver was given to German cars like Auto Union, Mercedes, and Porsche. So you could do a little research and paint the car according to the country you built it in. I don't remember what color was assigned to America.

George - I think white or white with blue stripes was USA.

That would make sense. I seem to remember Briggs Cunningham's cars were white with blue stripes and had Cadillac power.

I think the color for US is the one that is shown in Austin Powers movie, red, whitw and blue, like the flag....., but I do not know which one was for Mexico, perhaps the flag colors ?