The inspiration for this feature came from Paul’s story a few days back about the AI-generated images in a certain repro parts company’s website. From the comments, I’m sure we all had a good laugh at that. Aside from mostly looking inexcusably fake, what I noticed straight away was the glorious colour they were all illustrated in. Purple.
It’s not my favourite colour, but I rather like purple. Even if it was all washed-out looking, liked the AI’s purple.
That got me thinking. How many purple cars have I built?
Too many for one story, as it turns out. I’m going to have to set up some fences here around just what constitutes ‘purple’. While I could wax technical about the wavelength range of purple light, that’s largely irrelevant, except to scientists. What counts is what our brain identifies as ‘purple’. Your brain is not the same as mine. Although not colourblind, I often seem to get colours wrong, calling something purple which my wife and daughter declare is blue.
So I’ll err on the side of keeping this feature short – if in doubt, it’s left out. Hmm, is 46 too many? Ah well, I’ll just have to get picky then.
They’re not all cars that were meant to be purple, of course. Sometimes I’ll have two models of the same car, but in two different purples. That sort of thing happens a bit around here. One car is even two tone purple and purple. It’s an Edsel, of course. Or is one of those ‘purples’ blue?
Anyway, here we go.
My oldest purple is this 1934 Ford pickup I built around 1976. A sixties AMT tool, it reflects its roots in the choice of motivation, a full-on Ford FE. Paint was Gloss-Masta enamel from the hardware store, dried in front of the gas fire. Dad said that made it baked enamel. It used to be shiny once;
Much more up to date but still twenty-odd years old, this Deuce coupe runs Ford Windsor power. The flames are a decal, not paint.
Another sixties tool, but this shoebox Ford custom has a Caddy for power. Hot setup once upon a time, I guess;
I never really went for the monochrome look. Although it does allow the underlying shape to shine, that assumes the shape can stand alone without accent. The eye (well, mine anyway) needs a break. While I did choose not to chrome the side trim on this Ford, I deliberately left the bumpers and window frames chrome, and went with the oh-so-nineties billet wheels, Funny how some styles are timeless, while others don’t last;
A ’60 Ford in a nice rich purple;
Why yes, I do like the 1962 Dodge;
I know we’ve seen it recently but I have to include this beauty;
This might be blue, but my brain calls it purple. It’s nice, either way. Yes, those are Mustang wheels;
Purple became popular in the muscle car era;
Purple Camaro. Not a factory colour;
Period Ford Australia Wild Violet, on a Torino;
And on a Charger;
Ford Australia Mulberry on a Javelin AMX;
Moving on, how about a purple Subaru?
A purple Civic?
Maybe an Evo?
I’ll let this guy have the final say;
These are all amazing. There have been only a handful of purple shades that I have thought looked terrific on production cars, and I’m thinking of that color Ford had in the ’90s. The Dodge Polara was the perfect lead car. I, personally, like their style as seen from 2025. I don’t know what they looked like in the ’60s.
That ’71 Charger also looks particularly fetching in that deep grape bubble gum color. I will also never turn any Javelin away. Too many favorites here for me to list. Great work.
Colour perception is I think very much a subjective experience. My wife has always been wild about purple, to the point where I think she must see something more than me in it. On the other hand a colleague of mine is entirely colourblind, for him purple is just a word. For me turquoises and teals really pop. Great models as ever.
Very nice work Peter! You again demonstrate your expert application of colour, by having the confidence to present so many nuanced, and different variations, of a challenging colour like purple. That is not easy to do, at all! Some are bold and assertive, others rich, and more elegant. And each purple variation, works differently for each car.
I definitely have great respect for your ability to assess best specific colours, for such a wide variety of cars. And a challenging colour like purple is a great colour and method, to demonstrate this great skill!
Very nice – I love PURPLE although I haven’t built many that color. The scale models I own in purple off the top of my head are prebuilt Anniv Vettes, a mid-90s Trans Am promo, an experimental Vette, stuff like that. I would say my favorite colors are yellow, purple and British racing green. Had plenty of yellow and BRG 1:1 scale vehicles, one of each right now in fact, but racking my brain to think if I’ve ever had a purple one…..
I’m very partial to the JoHan ’62 Dodge, the body sculpture is interesting. After that I’ve never seen a ’71 Javelin AMX. good work
Those are some great purple cars. Although, I’m straining to see the 1934 Ford pickup as purple. Or blue. It looks brown to me.
Good point though about how some people see some purples as blue, or vice a versa. That’s one thing that I love about my own car’s color – Monaco Blue (Blau). Mostly it’s a dark blue, but in just the right light, it’s nearly as purple as Barney the Dinosaur. It’s lovely how it changes.