Veneno Grey

Veneno Grey, the gray of the Lamborghini Veneno

A shade named after one of the rarest Lamborghinis. The Veneno was created in 2013 for the brand's fiftieth anniversary and from the start was meant as a demonstration of how far the shape of a body can be pushed.

The real subject

Technically the car was based on the Aventador: a six-and-a-half-liter V12 mounted behind the crew. The body shares little with its donor, as it is assembled from sharp wedges, vents and edges, among which hardly any smooth surface was left. Only a handful of examples were built, so most people know the car from photographs alone, and in those it is the gray body with narrow colored stripes that stands out most.

Why gray in particular suits that shape

On a rounded car gray is unremarkable. Here it is the other way round: every edge casts a shadow of its own and the light skips along it, so the shape reads even without a contrast in color. A model benefits from that just as the real car does, because a continuous gray surface shows whether the edges have been taken all the way.

Where to use the shade

• bodies of the Veneno and of other angular cars where the shape is meant to speak for itself
• a ground under narrow colored stripes added with a decal or a mask
• accessory parts and interior surfaces where a cool neutral gray is wanted
• test sprays where the color is not meant to draw attention from the shape

Who it is for

For builders of modern supercars and for modelers who want a shade tied to a named car. Anyone building the Veneno gets a gray named directly after it.