Three Colours Up Close

[rowan]

Better late than never I suppose.
I still see debate about what each of these colours looks like so, at the Canadian International Auto Show a couple weekends ago, I tried to get good closeup photos of each colour to show off how it looks in direct light and also with a bit of shadow. The titanium was the hardest to get as it wasn't lit particularly well on the show floor.
Enjoy ... the JPEGs are big but I didn't want to compress them and risk wrecking the nice metallic flecks in the paint.

Orange - Mazdaspeed Protege 2003

Yellow - Mazdaspeed Protege 2003.5

Titanium - Mazdaspeed Protege 2003.5

It seems Mazda is rolling out this "mica" style paint on the entire product line .. even the white paint of the Mazda 6.

White - Mazda 6 Sport Wagon

 

[t3ase]

I'm still liking the orange.. I just hope I can get the money in time to grab one and not be too late. Anyone wanna loan $2000 to me?

 

[Limited Edition]

Excellent Pictures rowan! (2thumbs)
that is as close and as exact as you can get to the real thing w/o actually having to be there..
although the white in the mazda6 sport wagon doesn't look white.

 

[Newf]

Sorry, but I'm seeing the orange quite a bit lately, and the orange is more pale then that above. There's no way the orange is that bright

Although, these are the best pics I've seen yet to show the sparkles.

I've noticed the rx-8's have the same effect as well. Cool paints. It's not MICA though, it's metallic. My MP3 is MICA, and there are some very tiny sparkles in it, but it's not like the speeds at all. The metallic flecks, at least in the orange because that's the only one I've seen so far, the flecks are so much bigger, and more dominant.

That titanium seems to have like a cold blue steel kinda look in most of these TO autoshow pics. Completely different from other pics, easy to tell there's no lighting on it.


Having seen all 3, would you say the sparkles effect in the titanium is very close to the orange?

 

[Newf]

I gotta ask....


Got any more pics from the show lying around?

Speed pics of course

 

[Limited Edition]

Sorry, but I'm seeing the orange quite a bit lately, and the orange is more pale then that above. There's no way the orange is that bright

Well, you'll only see the orange that bright under show room lighting. Under the sun, it's similar but not as insanely bright. The sparkles are just the right amount. I think that camera show is very close to what you'd see in real life on a sunny warm day. There are times when the orange in real life is pale, because of the sky setting. Especially when the car is dirty, the car doesn't shine at all what so ever. It's actually pretty dull. :'(
Sucks to have a dirty MSP under grey skies and slushy road conditions. That is what it has been like in Toronto for the longest time. Aurgh. :mad:

 

[rowan]

I gotta tell ya .. I didn't really take any distance pics of the Mazdaspeeds. Figured we'd all seen enough of them! hehe. Any photos from Mazda or press release images should be more accurate.

No the white of the 6 doesn't really look white .. shadows, etc. I think the camera was overcompensating for the glare from the lights. Too used to a manual camera and not this digital one I was using to fine tune them. Srry.

I mostly wanted to capture the cool looking sparkles . haha

 

[Newf]

some more colors up close

Sunlight Silver

Yella in the sun

Titanium - note , flash makes this real bright.

And the color I'm going with....yes I'm serious.

I've come to the conclusion that the pics from the TO autoshow are just in horrible light.

Take a look at http://miata.cardomain.com

Do a search for 2001-2003 Miata's

The Titanium/yellow was 2002, so was silver. Silver was also 2001.

OOOODDDDLES of pics in various lights.

My take:

The paint on all of them is sweet. But in sunlight is when they really look great, this metallic stuff just needs sunlight to really shine. Otherwise they look kinda pale, except silver and grey which just look like a darker silver and grey without light. Yellow can look really pale at times, then it can get really bright in sun. Silver just looks like....ummmm silver. The metallic flecks are there, but since the car is already silver, they are hard to see. Silver is really nice, but how many silver cars are already out there?

 

[Newf]

don't mind me, I'm on a picture hunting thing today

titanium up close. I don't know wtf is up with the sunglasses and crap so don't ask.

 

[turboge]

Mmmmm Titanium, I can't wait till it arrives.

 

[Newf]

What do you guys think the chances are that the laser Blue Mica will have the same metallic flecks in it as the other colors?

On one Hand, since the rest of the speeds have it, I'd say it's only fair that the blue has it as well....if that's the case, the blue is going to be really sweet.

On the other hand. It seems Mazda is taking colors from previous miata's, and special editions models from around the world, basically paint they already have in inventory somewhere. Unless the Rx-8 has it( it only has winning blue metallic has it unless the rx-7 had it ), there doesn't seem to be any Mazda's, at least none I know of, that have a metallic blue paint like the orange/yellow gray etc. Am I wrong?

I'm questioning this because a metallic blue, with the flecks in it would be WOW! And if I get grey over metallic blue.....I'll be very very mad.

 

[JasonH]

I'm questioning this because a metallic blue, with the flecks in it would be WOW! And if I get grey over metallic blue.....I'll be very very mad.

I believe it will be the exact same color that was on the MP3s and is available on other Proteges currently. It has the same name and presumably the same paint code. I think the blue and silver MAZDASPEED Proteges will both be the stock Protege colors. Was the black mica on the MSP any different than the black mica on the regular Protege?

P.S. - We shouldn't have this much time to make up our minds. I think it's making us a little crazy.

 

[Newf]

it is making me crazy!

But, the black is different I do believe. it has green and grey speckles through it.

AGR!!!! can you confirm?

 

[jroof]

My roommate has a black ES and I have the black MSP. There is definitely a difference in paint. The ES sparkles but not with as many different colors. The MSP seems to have green and purple flakes in it while the ES just has smaller silvery flakes.

 

[Grimace]

Why are we bringing up Lazer Blue Mica? Has a new colour been announced? What did I miss (I've been in Amsterdam for the past week)?

 

[jroof]

Why are we bringing up Lazer Blue Mica? Has a new colour been announced? What did I miss (I've been in Amsterdam for the past week)?

Wow, life is tough, huh?

 

[Grimace]

Wow, life is tough, huh?

LOL, yeah, it's tough.
Summary of my trip:

(beer) (stoned)

'nuff said.

By the way, I love the Mazda 323F! I had never even heard of these vehicles until I saw one in the flesh, and wow! I wish we got these on our continent. A Mazdaspeed version would be a real ride! They were made from 94-98.

See here for more photos: http://www.323fclub.nl/va1994.htm
Awesome car!