Sachin “Tendulcar” – Ferrari – and shades of Colour

Have you heard of Cerise, Chestnut, Coquelicot, Flame, Fuchsia, Garnet, Mauve taupe, Persimmon, Rosso Corsa & ………

India won the Test at Jamaica – the architect was Rahul Dravid – Sachin is miles away taking rest – still he is making waves.  There was lot of coverage in media about a Surat builder [Jayesh Desai] buying  “tendulcar” – yes the Ferari presented to Sachin by Michael Schumacher on behalf of Fiat in 2002 when he equalled Sir Don Bradman's record of 29 Test centuries.  Reports are agog with the description of Desai driving away the red two seater from Sachin’s Bandra flat – not sure whether it was a straight drive !  No doubt it would make heads roll as it would whizz past by – but do we really have roads for such sports models ?

The famous symbol of the Ferrari race team is the Cavallino Rampante ("prancing horse") black prancing stallion on a yellow shield, usually with the letters S F (for Scuderia Ferrari), with three stripes of green, white and red (the Italian national colors) at the top. The road cars have a rectangular badge on the hood (see picture above), and, optionally, the shield-shaped race logo on the sides of both front wings, close to the door.

This is nothing about why Sachin sold this prized possession or what Desai would do and where it would be parked. There earlier was some controversy in 2003 when there were reports that Tendulkar had sought customs duty waiver as he had got it as a gift and the car was not a prize in any tournament.   There were also reports that in Aug 2003,  the finance ministry had exempted Tendulkar from paying around Rs 1.13 crore (approximately $245,000) towards import duty for the vehicle, valued at Rs 75 lakh (approximately $162,600).

Recently there were repots that Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials  at Chennai seized an imported Maserati car whose ownership was traced to somebody of the political family.  The car was seized as the vehicle  worth about Rs 1.75 crore had been shown at a much lesser value at the time of landing. 

Maserati is an Italian luxury car.    Ferrari is also from Italian stables -  Ferrari S.p.A. founded in 1929  is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Throughout its history, the company has been noted for its continued participation in racing, especially in Formula One, where it has had great success.  It is told that  Enzo Ferrari never intended to produce road cars when he formed Scuderia – but the  first Ferrari road car was the 1947 125 S, powered by a 1.5 L V12 engine, which reportedly was built and sold.   There are reports that in May 2009  at  Maranello, Italy, a 1957 250 Testa Rossa (TR) was auctioned, by RM Auctions and Sotheby's, for $12.1 million — a world record at that time for the most expensive car ever sold at an auction. That was however eclipsed by the auction of  a Bugatti Atlantic.   

It is claimed that most Ferraris were  given designations referring to their body style.  Conventionally  M ("Modificata"), placed at the end of a model's number, denotes a modified version of its predecessor and not a complete evolution. 

Recently,  India had the honour of having the official presence of Ferrari – becoming the 58th market of the Prancing Horse, as the first dealership in the heart of New Delhi opened. The Grand Opening, dedicated to the local and international medias, was hosted by Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa, Ferrari Commercial and Marketing Director Enrico Galliera, and Ashish Chordia, Chairman of the Shreyans Group, the Ferrari importer for the country. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, already in Montecarlo for next race, sent their greetings to the guests through a video message, looking forward to coming to India in October for the first Indian GP. The street facing the New Delhi location was panelled for the occasion with great images of the Ferrari past and present, to tell the story of the passion, the races and the style. The special preview for the medias was held in the over 500 square metres on two levels of the dealership, with the ground floor entirely dedicated to the range, and the personalization area to support the client to uniquely configure their new Ferrari.

What you read at the beginning  are the ‘shades of RED’ -  Rosso Corsa is the red international motor racing colour of cars entered by teams from Italy.  Since the 1920s Italian race cars of Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, and later Ferrari and Abarthhave been painted in rosso corsa ("racing red"). This was the customary national racing colour of Italy as recommended between the world wars by the organisations that later became the FIA. In that scheme of international auto racing colours French cars were blue (Bleu de France), British cars were green (British racing green), etc.

Those were the colours not determined by the country of make nor of the driers but  by the nationality of the team entering the vehicle. National colours were mostly replaced by commercial sponsor liveries in 1968, but unlike most other teams, Ferrari always kept the traditional red but the shade of the colour varies. Since 1996 Ferrari F1 cars are painted in a brighter, almost orange day-glo to adjust for colour balance on television screens. The original Rosso Corsa may appear almost dark brown in older television sets.

I have always held that colour is the visual perception i.e, what meets the eye and what we can differentiate.  There are basically some – Red, Blue, Green, White, Yellow, Orange, Black…..

Scientifically some would say that white is not the colour as colours derive what they are from the spectrum of light.  Color categories and physical specifications of color are also associated with objects, materials, light sources, etc., based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra.   Colour stems from the cone cells in the retina and the science of colour sometimes is called chromatics.  It includes the perception of color by the human eye and brain, the origin of color in materials, color theory in art, and the physics of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range – which simply is referred as light.

This photo tells it all : 

For others who perceive so well and are well informed  :

Scarlet is a bright red colour with a hue that is somewhat tinted towards orange and is redder than vermilion.  Lust is a rich shade of red.  Taupe is a dark grayish brown and Mauve taupe is shade of red.  Raspberry is the colour that resembles the colour of raspberries.  Rufous is a  colour that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron.  Cerise is a deep to vivid pinkish red.  Sinopia (named after the Turkish city Sinop) is a reddish-brown ochre-like earth color pigment used in traditional oil painting. Rose Madder is the commercial name sometimes used to designate a paint made from the pigment Madder Lake - a traditional lake pigment, extracted from the common madder plant.  Persimmon is a color that closely resembles the tint of a very ripe persimmon fruit. Persimmon can also be described as a medium orange-red. The color flame is a medium scarlet hue.

With regards

S. Sampathkumar.