If your reaction to finding a car finished in an ultra-rare colour is no less joy-filled than when stumbling across something built in small numbers, then you’ve come to the right place. Who can say why some enthusiasts gravitate towards quirky and uncommon colours, because there’s usually a reason why they’re seldom seen (i.e. nobody wanted them) but in the sea of resale-friendly black, white and grey, a Forest Green, Nogaro Blue or even a Rubystone Pink can feel like a sight for sore eyes to a classifieds trawler.
At the time of writing, there are some magnificently unorthodox colour combos up for sale, such as this 27,000-mile E36 BMW M3 Evo in Dakar Yellow or this 996 Porsche 911 Turbo believed to be the only one in the world finished in Light Green Metallic. At the other end of the spectrum we’ve got this achingly cool Carrera GT resprayed by Porsche GB in Vesuvio for £1.15m, and you can expect to pay multiples of that to get your hands on this one-of-31 Giallo Modena Ferrari F50. Then there’s the car we have here: a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren finished in a deliciously deep shade of Fayalite Green Metallic.
‘Hold up, wasn’t the SLR only available in two colours?’ Officially, yes. When the super GT went on sale in 2004, buyers had the choice of either black or silver, with the latter outweighing the former, though extra shades were added down the line along with the odd special order like this yellow Roadster that cropped up on the Classifieds a while back. Then there are the MSO cars, which were drastically overhauled by McLaren’s Special Operations team with completely re-trimmed interiors and new colour schemes not available through the official Mercedes channels.
This example, however, is a little bit different. The ad doesn’t say what colour it was originally painted in when it was first registered in the US in 2006, but it was sent to Avantgarde Automotive, an independent SLR specialist, for a full respray in Fayalite allegedly to the tune of £10,000. It’s a factory colour that’s appeared on a handful of special order SLRs, with large metallic flakes providing a slight sparkling as the light catches it. Of course, we all know dark green looks good on just about anything, especially paired with a tan leather interior (this one has a less divisive black cabin), but we like to think it serves as a small nod to the SLR’s British connection.
Beyond the stunning respray, it’s a standard SLR, which is to say a grand tourer engineered by McLaren with the oversight of Gordon Murray. And in true Murray style, a bonded carbon centre section sat in the middle, onto which carbon fibre body panels to keep weight as low as possible. It was still on the portly side at 1,740-odd kilos thanks in part to a cabin lined with acres of leather, but with 626hp and 575lb ft of torque from a supercharged 5.4-litre V8 it’s got more than enough grunt to push it along.
Had this car been special ordered in green from the factory, it would have almost certainly commanded an asking price higher than the £299,990 listed. In fact, it’s actually on the cheaper side, with this older, silver example of similar mileage commanding a £15k premium. But wait, there’s a budget option: this SL 320 is finished in factory-specced Designo Viviante Green paired with a grey leather interior. All for £14,999. That’s the great thing about hunting for unusual colours: no matter your budget, there’s always something out there that bucks the status quo.
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