But it’s mellow yellow, why is it called Spa??

This post from the Upstate outpost is related to the names that Honda has given to its colors. Glorious names echoing visions of historic tracks far and near or the clear association with race “formula” cars, and racing terms like apexes and chicanes. Having come of age in a community with a liberal sprinkling of color snobs I have been harshly rebuked for the folly of my ways and for not knowing the difference between Silverstone Metallic and Sebring Silver (I still cant tell the difference, but keep that a secret wont ya 😛 )

Having been a forum whore for a little over two years I find myself screaming blasphemy as and when a new member innocently calls their car silver or (gulp!) Oceanic Blue. It is I believe for their own good. I would not want them to be subject to the verbal lashing that Upstate Member Tadashi unleashed on the poor sales guy over at Friendly Honda for not listing the colors correctly, when we were there to pick up my S. If my memory serves me correctly my beloved Laguna Blue Pearl was listed as Dark Blue or some such and am I glad that they had not listed their Suzuka as Bathroom Tile Blue or some such odd variant, for I’m sure Tadashi would have well and truly exploded 😆

Humor (or the lack of it aside), to me the colors and their names express and imply that not only did Honda go all out in engineering the cars but also chose an amazing color scheme with names that reinforced the S2000’s track and racing credentials. New Formula Red to me conjures up visions of the glorious red cars with the prancing pony adorning their flanks, just as Suzuka/Nurburgring Blue flashes images of race cars rounding the Spoon corner or the Carousel. Every North American color can lay claim to drawing parallels to racing. Then along came the S2000 CR and the amazing Apex Blue Pearl (that some unkindly deride as smurf blue) which reminds me that in this car you will always hit the apex correctly and out-accelerate past lesser cars (though they may be pricier).

For all those interested in learning about the colors Honda offered for the S2000 in the US, you may click here or better yet check out the official colors thread on S2KI (). You may proceed to join your color group and then rather pompously gloat about how the other colors are so inferior to the one you picked 😛

Should you be an avid S2000 geek like my friend Tadashi is (she’s memorized the VIN’s of both her S2000’s and Civic and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Honda), then you may also want to print out this beautiful color chart courtesy of S2KI member DarrenDriven to adorn your office cubicle. You may then proceed to educate your co-workers about the 10 differences between a Spa and a Rio (they look so alike 😆 ) and the ways of the Honda druids.

So to conclude and answer the question. While Spa may look mellow, it is anything but that. It is a color that’s named after a track with sections like the Eau Rouge and the Bus-stop and the SPA S2000 is a screaming track beast.

Here is what the other colors mean to me:
Rio – is a place in Brazil and by way of association reminds me of Ayrton Senna (God is my co-driver)
Sebring – the amazing 12 hours of Sebring race
Silverstone – the home of british racing
Chicane Silver Metallic – reminds me of the bus-stop chicane at Watkins Glen.
Laguna – Corkscrew
Grand Prix White – cant get any more obvious than that 🙂
BERLINA BLACK – What was Honda even thinking? Whats the word BERLINA mean anyways. Wikipedia says “Berlina is the word for a sedan in the European Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and Spanish languages”. Does it mean the Berlina is an S2000 living in denial 😆

Could they have just called it CARBON Black thereby eluding to Carbon Fiber or MOTEGI Black as one of my aformentioned friends thought it should be 🙂

Images courtesy of S2KI members Triple-H, Tadashi, Zzziippyyy

NOTE: S2KI welcomes the opinions of its members on the S2000 and on all topics related to the S. Should you feel the creative urge to pen a few words then by all means do so and PM Energetic, Aashish2 or Onehots2k OR send us links to what you would like us to write about and we will feature you (or your community) on the S2KI Home Page.