Continental orange clarification

[lvporschepilot]

Hi all,

I have noticed quite a bit of ambiguity regarding continental orange and just what shade of orange it in fact is. There are several pics of cars that are not quite continental orange but are calling themselves just that. I suggest this is no fault of the owner as the misinformation rolling circulating is significant and seems to be coming from all levels of fandom.

Recently, I ordered a gallon of Glasurit single stage continental orange to cover the car I am restoring. When received I thought it didn't look quite right. I thought it looked almost tangerine (blood orange) with too much red, so I performed a bit of research on the Porsche website, specifically the 'Historical documents' section which shows the swatches offered specifically in 1978 when continental orange was on offer.

The swatches below show continental orange is not only a very red orange, it is almost tangerine as is demonstrated in the below sample. To muck the water a bit more is a photo of the gallon of single stage Glasurit I recently received with their supposedly 'correct' continental orange which I photographed in varying light to try and give an idea of the spectrum this interesting color covers.

Anyway, here it is for future reference.

[rattlsnak]

Tangerine has a little red. It looks almost exactly like a real orange, or an orange M&M. Continental Orange has much more yellow in it.

For more confusion, look here: Help Me choose an ORANGE!

[IROC]

My car is Continental Orange and when I had it repainted (per the factory color code) it came out a "less red" shade than the original paint. And...I would say that this is not due to fade from the sun over the years, etc., even places like the trunk that never saw sun are a darker, more red shade of orange than the original.

I can say, too, that even the original Continental Orange is less red than blood orange.

Just for fun, here's a super old pic (1994 or so) with the original factory paint:



And a more recent picture:



Obviously photographs and lighting can be deceiving, but there is a difference for sure. I painted those Cookie Cutters in the first pic with Rust-Oleum "Farm Implement Orange" paint which was an almost perfect match for the Continental and now it is too dark.

[lvporschepilot]

Yeah great example. Continental is definitely a lot more red than many examples on the web calling themselves continental. Even Porsche's 918 Wiessach they say is continental simply doesn't appear it as it looks more like gulf orange.