Fiat Mephistopheles color

[ah100m]

Is there any contemporary evidence that the LSR attempt FIAT was really painted black in July 1924? The only evidence of color seems to be a B&W photo of the car. The body looks black but film back then rendered red as black so it may be wrong. And why would the FIAT museum have it painted red, the wrong color? It's easy to determine the original color of a car by looking under body mounts, mirrors, etc. as long as it hadn't received a body-off restoration before. And why would an Italian LSR car be painted black in the first place??

Any help would be appreciated before I start on the Italeri kit!

[daniel]

Now that is an interesting topic. I went for red on my built

Well there are a LOT texts about the MEfistofele and that it was black when it belonged to Eldrigde. Eldridge used an Fiat engine but the car was no Fiat...if you could say so. So there was no reason to paint it red in the first place !?

[Orso]

Colours are a difficult topic. The legend of the red colour on Italian cars is that it come from the Itala that won the Peking-Paris race in 1907 but the problem is that it wasn't red, it was grey.
Black would fit in with the name of the car as Mephistopheles was a demon in German folklore.

[BMW]

Yes, even newspaper articles of the time could not be trusted as journalists sometimes took a very creative view on things. The descriptions of the Itala 1907 mentioned by Orso, being a good example.
But I would however still see if there are any texts, as if there are several articles describing the same, then perhaps that was the way it was.

Good luck with the kit, and be sure to post it here!

[sky1911]

https://web.archive.org/web/20080719175 ... heles.html

[daniel]

Another question I have is the exhaust. There are pictures with a matt/rope wrapped exhaust and with a glossy not wrapped exhaust. Did they re-restore the car in modern times ??

[ah100m]

I emailed the museum which has on display the Mephistopheles ( Centro Storico Fiat) about the color and they responded (in less twelve hours!) as follows:

"In reference to your question, we are sorry to inform you that there are no official documents attesting that Mephistophele was originally black.
The only vintage photographs we have are in black and white and it is not possible to determine the original color.
You can see it in attachment
The car was purchased in the 60s and, unfortunately, our colleagues of the past did not indicate on any document why they decided to paint it red.

unfortunately we are not able to help you


Kind regards


Centro Storico Fiat
Via G. Chiabrera, 24/A
10126 Torino -Â Italy
centroarchiviostorico@fcagroup.com"

[ah100m]

OK, now I'm thinking black body, red wire wheels, redish leather seats. Suitably sinister.

[Orso]

Just a random thought: As Ernest Eldridge was British, could the car have been dark green?

[ringleheim]

A good question might be "Why would the car have been painted red back in the day?"

This was NOT a FIAT factory produced vehicle. It was a sort of Frankenstein heavily modified old race car tweaked by a wealthy Englishman for purposes of setting a land speed record.

Why would such a car be painted "Italian red" under these circumstances, especially if the old car he modified was not red in the first place?

Why would FIAT want to display the car as red NOW? Well that's obvious--marketing.

This may be one of those things we never really know the answer to.

My guess is that the car was NOT red back in the day.

I am about 30% through my build of the car.

I intend to paint it an old-fashioned sort of dark, blood red color!

Why? B/C that is what suits the car IMO. I will NOT be putting on the "MEPHISTOPHELES" decal as surely that was never written on the real car though.

LOL