Mefistofele Red

Mefistofele Red, the red of a record car with an aviation engine

The Mefistofele Red shade belongs to the items whose subject is a single car in the world. The nickname Mefistofele is carried by a special built on an older Fiat chassis and fitted with an aviation engine, that is a machine built today precisely for the sake of its story.

The car behind the name of the shade

The basis was a racing Fiat of 1908, into which Ernest Eldridge built a six-cylinder aviation engine of nearly twenty-two liters. To fit it into the car the chassis had to be lengthened, and that with parts from a bus. On the twelfth of July 1924 Eldridge reached a speed of over two hundred and thirty kilometers per hour with it on the road near Arpajon in France and took the world speed record. It was the last record of its kind set on a public road. A model of such a car is made up of a long hood, exposed mechanisms and a minimum of body surfaces, so the red appears in large continuous bands and plays the main role.

Where the color is used

• the hood and the body bands of the record special
• historic racing cars of the 1920s in red
• frames and accessory parts matched to the body tone
• display pieces where color takes the place of missing decals

Who the color is for

Meant for builders of historic machinery and of large display pieces, where the cleanliness of one large surface decides. The color also suits where a collection of record and speed cars of the first half of the twentieth century is being made.