8 Car Colors That Need to Return

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Beige, gray, or white. How exciting. New cars offer tons of tech and options, but most offer only a few real colors. Rather than making a vehicle into just another household appliance or iThing, manufacturers should look through their history books and add some of these great colors and themes to their product lineup.

Plum Crazy

plum crazy purple car color
The 1970 Dodge Challenger had an awesome color of purple with an appropriate name. It looked great on the classic muscle, and usually came with a segmented side strip. It was classic cool, and when Dodge brought back the Challenger, “Plum Crazy” returned as well. However, it was quickly canned, and now the best color you can get on a new Challenger has the imaginative name of “blue.” Ugh.

Sunset Orange Metallic

sunset orange metallic car
Fourth generation Camaros had questionable styling, but Chevy just nailed the paint. SOM looks good in pictures, but pops in person. Sunlight turns it from burnt orange to nearly gold, and it looks stunning on big coupes. Unfortunately, there is no SOM for the new Camaro, about the best you can get is Bumblebee yellow.

Electron Blue Pearl

electron blue pearl paint
If you have a sixth generation Civic Si, it should be Electron Blue Pearl. Back in the days before the first Fast and the Furious, this is the car, and the color, that became associated with the import tuning explosion around the turn of the millennium. EBP is a deep blue, but the pearl helps it stand out from boring dark blues. Honda quickly killed the fun a few years later though, axing the NSX, S2000, and EBP.

Orbit Orange

orbit orange car paint
The GTO is arguably the first muscle car, and defined the class in several ways, including outstanding paint options. Among the best is Orbit Orange, available in 1970 only, and strictly on the high output Judge models. Pontiac jumped on the space race fascination, and made this color as homage to the astronaut’s Tang drink. That is why this searing color looks exactly like orange juice. You definitely won’t see a Camry painted Orbit Orange.

Pepper Gray Metallic

pepper gray metallic car
You know this color best as worn by Eleanor in the 2000 reboot of Gone in 60 Seconds. Nic Cage destroys half of LA in a GT500 wearing this perfect silver. It’s reminiscent of 1950s fighter jets, but the pearl makes it sparkle. To be truly authentic, the twin racing stripes should be Ford flat black. The current Mustang is a sweet ride, but falls a bit short since it doesn’t come in Pepper Gray.

Mystic

mystic paint mustang
Speaking of Mustangs, Ford has released a few special editions that make people scratch their heads. Mystic paint was available in the SN95 and New Edge years, only on loaded Cobras. The paint was more commonly known as “flip-flop”, as it would change colors from purple to blue, or even green or gold. Due to the complex painting process, each car is different, and because of the price, few were built. If you find a Mystic Cobra for sale, jump on it.

Black/Gold

bandit t/a paint job
Black and gold can be done so wrong, as evidenced by the early ‘90s Camry with a gold package. It can also be done so right, with deep black paint and just the right gold highlights, as seen on a late second generation Trans Am. Burt Reynolds made it famous way back when, in the Smokey and the Bandit movies. While the movies were of questionable quality, there’s no arguing that a Bandit T/A looks bad to the bone.

Lizstick Red

lizstick red paint
Nope, that’s not a typo, Lizstick was a color available on the super exclusive supercar, the Saleen S7. The mid-engine American hero car was offered in a number of exclusive colors. Lizstick takes a Redfire base coat and applies an orange pearl. The $10,000 painting process makes an eye-catching and unique red that slips to orange at the right angles and sunlight. Still, on a car as rare and flat out crazy as the S7, the paint compliments it nicely. Lizstick needs to return, preferably on a new second generation S7.