My latest project, early 1985.1 Series I 944. Picked it up for a song $400. This 944 #353 was born at Neckarsulm "Mahogani Braun Metallic". Ok, not my fav, but uber rare late 80s' style paint. Now it needs a total repaint. I've got it scheduled to go into John Buffum's shop - Libra Racing for a repaint and need some of your thoughts to keep it original or change it!!! I would like to keep it near or close to a dark red/burgundy/garnet/arena/aberguine reddish tone so I don't need to really respray the door sills and jams with out looking too wacked out. Brown interior already, so whatever is close to this is fine with me. This is NOT going to be show car - just won't be worth it. I'm going to hillclimb and autocross with it.

Getting it back to snuf required a new gearbox (replaced w/LSD unit and submitted data into Tifo's poll) and some rear bodywork, radiator and minor normal things to be fixed. I swapped over the tach to the center position - totally sweet. I jumped at the chance to mount up an AIR front end and all the lights - good part was the SO said fine. Came with 7&8x15 Fuchs and new PP S-03s. I'm planning to update to a 951 rear valance, side skirts and possibly a front splitter, euro rear bumper, yayaya.. aka "Tifo / Cup / GT Gruppe" replica...

Back on track now... help me out with da paint guys...
Keep it Mahogani Braun? Naaa right? or
Garnet Red, Arena Red, Burgundy..
or
go total retro '73 Aubergine mit silver Carrera graphics for the total GT Gruppe look?

 

I vote for a retro look if silver with red graphics and red fuchs, but that's just me.

On a side note, JB is one heck of a nice guy. And a damn good driver. Hopefully he gets you in like a lamb and out like a lion.

 

I vote LM3V Ruby Red Metallic - it's very similar to that color, but a little more red and less brown

 

You don't see many brown cars anymore--for a good reason, IMHO!

I've seen a Nugat(?) Brown that is more of a copper color...I would go with something like that. Any red will look nasty with the brown door sills!

 

wow..no wonder there were so few of them made....

 

ouch - be nice. I'm changing the color!!! My gut feeling says "retro GT Gruppe" guys... possibly Aubergine mit silver bumper strip in place of the rear bumper pads, Carrera fender script and some other surprises. But NOT brown anymore.

Tifo, yes JB is a very genuine person. Agree, can drive very well too. He signed a limited edition illustration print of mine back in '96 when he won the Camino del incas Rallye in Peru in his Audi quattro S2. Man that car is quick. Check out the video on my site when we were chasing it (trying too at least) in the red 951 as Paul Choinere (JBs son) blows by us out on BIR.

Also, I posted up some images of the AIR front end. This "mold" of the fiberglass 951 front end is very nice and NOT flat at all, like my other one that I had on my '87 Diamant Blau. I think that it is very close to the real deal. Everything fit very well, with this install. I didn't use the OE 951 bumper support. I'll keep posting (to the correct thread next time...) up as the job progresses along.

 

Ah, yes, I dare say Paul is even a faster driver than JB in his day. Paul blew by us on a stage of Sunriser one year, when there was an incident and he showed up late to the start control (in the middle of the Group 2 seeded cars). Needless to say when I saw him coming up behind us on the stage, at twice our speed, I got out of the way fast........

Sorry for the OT digression............

 

My brother looked at an 84 with sport seats, LSD, and 39k in that brown color a few months back. His 10 year old daughter said now way to the car because of the color as we were pulling up to the guys house.

I say add a tint of red to the brown and see what happens. Kidna like when my wife goes to the hairdresser and they ask my opinion I said "add a shot of chestnut" a few years back and haven't heard the end.

Add a shot of burgandy to the factory color. see what happens.

 

Home brew paint nice! A touch of burgundy/red/purple to the brown paint and viola! Now that would be Vermont fursur. Ben & Jerry's paint brew. As an artist, I like Purple or Aubergine, just my fav. so I'm feeling this direction. I might put a twist in it with some brown and metallic with a deep clear coat. Here's where I'm aligning towards...

GT Gruppe look 944
Aubergine deep purple metallic paint
Dark silver "Carrera" fender script
Dark silver graphics rear bumper strip (like a euro black strip)
Dark silver Fuchs centers
Chocolate Truffle interior - did I hear brown? I didn't hear anyone say brown... naaaaaaa.

Thanks for all the help guys - it inspried me some more! Now I've gotta photoshop up the beast so I can see what it might look like before it gets painted - just to make sure.

 

How about a lighter shade of brown, like Kalahari Beige? My '85.5 is Kalahari/Brown, with color-matched Fuchs. I've grown to really love the combo. Here's some pics

 

How much work was it to fit that frontend?

 

My dad had an '84 n/a that was a deep chocolate brown, almost black looking in pictures...I saw one on the road in Indy and it looked awesome, could have been our old car. Im a sucker for sticking to original colors unless you plan on a total respray of sills, engine compartment, etc....

 

Just get all the colors in - chameleon

 

^^^I'm with Sam on original colors, especially when they are obscure ones. If I'm going to change the color on a 944, i'll start with a Guards Red one..

By the way, that interior looks like a big vat of Nestle's Quick and Hershey Chocolate bar!