Colors We’d Like to See on the C8 Corvette: Hugger Orange

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Colors We'd Like to See on the C8 Corvette: Hugger Orange


Welcome back to Colors, the occasional column where CorvetteBlogger weigh in with the exterior paint options we would like to see made available on future eighth-generation Corvettes. While it will always be your author’s first paint choice, America’s sports car has a spotty relationship with the color orange.

After a grand total of zero C5 Corvettes left the factory wearing a shade of orange, Chevrolet made up for this oversight by offering a new hue for the inaugural year of C6; Daytona Sunset Orange Metallic. It only accounted for 8% of production (2,378 coupes and 602 convertibles) in 2005, but it was brought back for a sophomore campaign in 2006. It was even rarer this go around, receiving 1,729 orders split between coupes, convertibles, and Z06 in decreasing quantities (930, 571, and 282, respectively).

2005 Corvette in Daytona Sunset Orange Metallic

2005 Corvette in Daytona Sunset Orange Metallic


Despite coming in second to last place on the color RPO sheets, DSOM earned itself a successor for 2007 in Atomic Orange. AO proved to be more popular and was retained for three model years, selling 3,790 units in 2007, followed by 2,246 in 2008, and wrapping up its run with 726 ‘09s (including just 35 highly desirable ZR1s).

The Corvette team took a sabbatical from the divisively bright color for one year before raiding the reborn Camaro’s order guide for its best paint, Inferno Orange. Inferno picked up almost directly where Atomic left off with 790 deliveries in 2011. IOM soldiered on in last place for the final two years of C6 production, finding 471 homes in 2012 and just 33 in 2013 on a limited run that ended in September.

2011 Corvette in Inferno Orange

2011 Corvette in Inferno Orange


After another year off, the seventh car to wear the crossed flags received its first optional orange paint in a near-rehash from the early days of the C6; Daytona Sunrise Orange Metallic. 2015 saw orange’s triumphant return to four digits with 1,417 builds followed by an oh-so-close 965 units in 2016 (better than two other colors!).

Orange was then removed from the rotation until late in the already abbreviated 2018 model year when 85 Sebring Orange cars snuck out of Bowling Green before the switchover to building 2019s.

Sebring Orange Tintcoat was then applied to another 2,980 C7 Corvettes in the final year of front-engine production and was retained for the color pallet of the revolutionary C8.

2020 Corvette in Sebring Orange Metallic

2020 Corvette in Sebring Orange Metallic


While 2020 Corvettes continued to be manufactured, it was announced that Sebring would remain on the books for 2021, netting it a modern orange record, fourth year of availability. Based on recent history, the current orange has to be on thin ice with its makers, which is where our suggestion for its replacement finally comes into play!

If a changing of the guard is in order and Chevrolet finds itself sending Sebring Orange out to pasture, we don’t see them leaving orange out of the 2022 choices as it is one of the hottest colors in the industry right now. Ferrari has added an Orange paint to its notoriously traditional options, while the other two major players in the mid-engine sports/supercar game, Lamborghini and McLaren, give their customers the choice of four different shades of orange each, before even having to look at paying extra for a one-off hue.

By looking back in time, the General will find one of the all-time great exterior colors, ripe for a debut on an exotic, modern shape. The color in question is Hugger Orange, thought by many to be GM’s (and the entire industry’s) best exterior option of all time. Many Corvette and Pontiac fans might argue that it should be called Monaco Orange or Carousel Red, but we can count out the GTO color-coding because it definitely isn’t red and Corvette faithful and elitist locations like Monaco don’t want anything to do with each other, so, Hugger, the best of the shade’s names, is the one we believe should be brought back into the fold!

By any name, though, the heavy-hitting, non-metallic orange is precisely the color that we hope to see adorning the C8 Z06 when it finally shows its face in the next few months!


Source:
Photo Credits: CorvetteImages.com

Related:
Colors We Would Like to See on the C8 Corvette: Montreal Green
Colors We Would Like to See on the C8 Corvette: Purple!
Colors We Would Like to See on the C8 Corvette: BMW’s Atlantis Blue Metallic

 



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7 COMMENTS

  1. I ADORE the Inferno Orange that was on the 2011 Z06 Carbon Edition (and yes, the Supersonic Blue was equally amazing). That color made every curve on the C6 Z06 just look good.

  2. I love Orange Corvettes. My first Corvette was a Corvette Orange 77 and my newest is a Daytona Sunrise Orange Metallic 16. I really like Hugger Orange and Inferno Orange Metallic but ultimately I’d like to see a color like House of Kolor Ultra Orange Pearl on the C8.

  3. Inferno and Atomic do it for me. Sebring doesn’t seem to photograph well, might look a lot better in real life.

  4. The color of my ’07 Z06 is (full name) Atomic Orange Metallic Tintcoat. The tintcoat feature was used on only two colors that changed each year. It appears to be kind of a very fine gold metallic that went on after the color and before (or with) the clear coat. It’s gorgeous in the sunlight. I love my Corvette.

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