Wanderlust

Tag: RS Blue

  • Color Chart: 1994 Audi RS2

    Color Chart: 1994 Audi RS2

    The Audi RS2 Avant remains the stuff of fantasy thanks to its limited production by Porsche and its form as an Audi station wagon. Paired with quattro all-wheel drive, the car reached legend status as tuned versions outran supercars like the Ferrari F40 in period.

    We’ve gotten our hands on the 1994 product catalogue via AutoCatalogArchive.com and so are able to index each of the standard colors for that year. Some Audi specially painted models are known to exist in this time when Audi exclusive was a very rare thing. Most of those deviating cars appear to be using the Audi Lifestyle Colors, though we’ve always wondered if Porsche had built any Paint to Sample versions in their own hues.

    As we run across either, we’ll highlight them here on this blog, but here are the standard colors for now. Worth noting, the scan of this catalogue is not terribly true-to-color, so we’re using this more as a reference of what colors were offered as standard and not what those colors look like on the actual cars.

  • Color Focus: Audi RS Blue – M8

    Color Focus: Audi RS Blue – M8

    CODE: LY7F

    TYPE: Pearl Effect

    CONTENT ARCHIVE: RS Blue

    SUMMARY:
    In the world of OEM paint colors, we sometimes see name changes without reformulation. One example is Audi’s RS Blue (rsblau; pearl effect UNI; M8; Audi) that is perhaps the most iconic (and likely most popular) color of the Audi RS2 stock color offerings. By the time the color returned on Audi’s B5 S4, it had undergone a name change to Nogaro Blue (nogaroblau; pearl effect UNI; Z5M; Audi), but the color itself remained the same.

    Given the lineage, tracing its roots to the wagon project conceived between Audi and Porsche and built in Stuttgart by Porsche themselves, Nogaro Blue has become an icon in and of itself, highly sought after in Audi exclusive builds or the rare times when Audi offers it on the occasional limited production special edition.

    Few, other than RS2 aficionados, know it as RS Blue though. And whatever the name, the color can likely point towards the pre-war national racing color of French Blue for its inspiration. Rumor has it that Audi designers in the Simi Valley design studio sprayed out a marine blue in a request back to the factory for company car specification, which inspired the development of RS Blue.

    Don’t confuse RS Blue (or Nogaro Blue) with Porsche’s Maritime Blue, a then-current Carrera Cup color at the time the RS2 rolled new out of Porsche’s factory. Models wearing Porsche badges such as the 911 Carrera RS (type 964) and 968 were rolling out of that same manufacturer painted Maritime Blue. The timing, Porsche DNA and and their similar appearance would suggest they might be the same code by another name, but park them next to each other and you’ll see a difference.

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