So Chris V6 255 asked me if i knew why Racing blue was never a V6 option. a long answer to a short question as it's often not a simple decision.
Most of the time colour options were decided in a sort of colour committee. the normal way cars get designed is that the proposal starts with the product planning department not the Design department which you might think. PP present a document to Design saying this is the size of the vehicle, where it fits in the market, who will buy it, how old they are, what they want from a car, how much it will cost etc and then it is up to design to come up with the proposals and then later for engineering to try and produce what Design came up with without too much in-fighting.
Sometimes things can work backwards especially when Design come up with a concept that is new and then it's a case of can PP be convinced there are customers for it. The Avantime is possibly an example of this where there were no other 2 door full 4 seater coupe/ estate high riding/ seating cars on the market but Design felt the growing popularity of SUVs meant there was a market. and all I will say is that they were right. Witness a certain 2 door coupe/estate/suv today that people cant get enough of....the range rover evoque which now everyone is rushing to try and follow.....
anyway back to this,the 3rd way a car can get designed is the rare one where it comes from a specific need from within the company, in this case a race car was needed and a halo model for the newly introduced Clio II. or for example when i was at Honda and the NSX was produced, that car was so completely out of its comfort zone for the company that sold low and mid market family cars and sports cars for under £25k then introduced a £55k supercar! yet it was all about trying to connect with all the F1 world titles they were winning and show the world what they could do plus add some glamour to the american Acura brand.
So when the idea of the mid engined Clio came up to follow in the history of the 5 turbo it then has to be approved by PP and a financial case made for it. and that's the big one. the financial case. Many people comment that they can't believe Renault ever even built the V6 and it's true that you have to convince the accountants otherwise it won't happen and that's why 99% of cars like the V6 never get off the motor show stand.
Now remember that the previous Renaultsport project was the Spider and it did sell fewer than expected worldwide. We in the UK committed to 100 and that is what we got but the launch of the Lotus Elise at the same time didnt help. So with that in mind the only way to convince the accountants is to propose a production run of several years and of several thousand not hundreds.
So looking at the market in the late 90s what was selling was sporty but refined coupes like the Audi TT and BMW M3. So the only way that PP could see the car selling good numbers was to make it a car to be used every day not an occasional use car like the Spider. So the engineering brief became one of making it a more sophisticated touring car not a hard core racer. now that might sound a bit weird especially today because a Clio with a V6 engine in the back instead of seats was never going to be a Lexus and no one else has ever done anything like it for production but you see the point. the accountants were never going to sign off another hard core racer that sold a few hundred. It would lose a load of money. been there, done that.
So Design get told that the target is refined performance and customers who might buy a TT or M3. so that means air con and cruise control etc and that same message goes to the colour and trim people. so no Recaros but some alcantara and leather instead.
and so to answer your question, the colours have to be "sophisticated" metallic colours that will appeal to the "trend setters". Racing Blue is a non metallic colour more associated with Alpine so even though its on the 182 maybe its not for the V6 as its too "boy racer". Instead illiad blue which was introduced on the Avantime at the same time is a more refined blue, as mars red is compared to a fire engine red plus of course silver for all the TT customers
On a low volume car you also have to look at what the factory can cope with so with the ph1 built by TWR all the first cars were silver because that is all the factory would paint for the first 6 to 12 months , hence the rarity of blue and red.
In Dieppe for the ph 2 there were three launch colours in 2003 then after a year the factory paint shop was improved for the introduction of more colours including the id special colours because at this level of the market people are prepared to pay extra for a special colours. so in early 2004 black gold was introduced plus 3 id colours for the more "sophisticated " palate.... Lunar grey , Deep bronze and acid yellow.all very unusual colours non of which were on any other Renault. at the same time the id leather interiors were also introduced but again thats another story, shame the company doing them went bust after 6 months hence again why there are so few of them around.
finally in late 04 came moonlight blue and inferno orange metallics and liquid yellow and petrol blue id colours. I can't remember whether it was 2 or 3 times the liquid yellow cars had to go through the paint shop to get the layers of paint to give the illusion effect compared to just once with the standard metallics hence the extra cost of these id colours .
So, there were no non metallics on the V6 as it simply didn't look posh enough....... probably :rollseyes:
Most of the time colour options were decided in a sort of colour committee. the normal way cars get designed is that the proposal starts with the product planning department not the Design department which you might think. PP present a document to Design saying this is the size of the vehicle, where it fits in the market, who will buy it, how old they are, what they want from a car, how much it will cost etc and then it is up to design to come up with the proposals and then later for engineering to try and produce what Design came up with without too much in-fighting.
Sometimes things can work backwards especially when Design come up with a concept that is new and then it's a case of can PP be convinced there are customers for it. The Avantime is possibly an example of this where there were no other 2 door full 4 seater coupe/ estate high riding/ seating cars on the market but Design felt the growing popularity of SUVs meant there was a market. and all I will say is that they were right. Witness a certain 2 door coupe/estate/suv today that people cant get enough of....the range rover evoque which now everyone is rushing to try and follow.....
anyway back to this,the 3rd way a car can get designed is the rare one where it comes from a specific need from within the company, in this case a race car was needed and a halo model for the newly introduced Clio II. or for example when i was at Honda and the NSX was produced, that car was so completely out of its comfort zone for the company that sold low and mid market family cars and sports cars for under £25k then introduced a £55k supercar! yet it was all about trying to connect with all the F1 world titles they were winning and show the world what they could do plus add some glamour to the american Acura brand.
So when the idea of the mid engined Clio came up to follow in the history of the 5 turbo it then has to be approved by PP and a financial case made for it. and that's the big one. the financial case. Many people comment that they can't believe Renault ever even built the V6 and it's true that you have to convince the accountants otherwise it won't happen and that's why 99% of cars like the V6 never get off the motor show stand.
Now remember that the previous Renaultsport project was the Spider and it did sell fewer than expected worldwide. We in the UK committed to 100 and that is what we got but the launch of the Lotus Elise at the same time didnt help. So with that in mind the only way to convince the accountants is to propose a production run of several years and of several thousand not hundreds.
So looking at the market in the late 90s what was selling was sporty but refined coupes like the Audi TT and BMW M3. So the only way that PP could see the car selling good numbers was to make it a car to be used every day not an occasional use car like the Spider. So the engineering brief became one of making it a more sophisticated touring car not a hard core racer. now that might sound a bit weird especially today because a Clio with a V6 engine in the back instead of seats was never going to be a Lexus and no one else has ever done anything like it for production but you see the point. the accountants were never going to sign off another hard core racer that sold a few hundred. It would lose a load of money. been there, done that.
So Design get told that the target is refined performance and customers who might buy a TT or M3. so that means air con and cruise control etc and that same message goes to the colour and trim people. so no Recaros but some alcantara and leather instead.
and so to answer your question, the colours have to be "sophisticated" metallic colours that will appeal to the "trend setters". Racing Blue is a non metallic colour more associated with Alpine so even though its on the 182 maybe its not for the V6 as its too "boy racer". Instead illiad blue which was introduced on the Avantime at the same time is a more refined blue, as mars red is compared to a fire engine red plus of course silver for all the TT customers
On a low volume car you also have to look at what the factory can cope with so with the ph1 built by TWR all the first cars were silver because that is all the factory would paint for the first 6 to 12 months , hence the rarity of blue and red.
In Dieppe for the ph 2 there were three launch colours in 2003 then after a year the factory paint shop was improved for the introduction of more colours including the id special colours because at this level of the market people are prepared to pay extra for a special colours. so in early 2004 black gold was introduced plus 3 id colours for the more "sophisticated " palate....
Lunar grey , Deep bronze and acid yellow.all very unusual colours non of which were on any other Renault. at the same time the id leather interiors were also introduced but again thats another story, shame the company doing them went bust after 6 months hence again why there are so few of them around. finally in late 04 came moonlight blue and inferno orange metallics and liquid yellow and petrol blue id colours. I can't remember whether it was 2 or 3 times the liquid yellow cars had to go through the paint shop to get the layers of paint to give the illusion effect compared to just once with the standard metallics hence the extra cost of these id colours .
So, there were no non metallics on the V6 as it simply didn't look posh enough....... probably :rollseyes:
