Color Focus: Audi RS Blue – M8

CODE: LY7F

TYPE: Pearl Effect

CONTENT ARCHIVE: RS Blue

SUMMARY:
In the world of OEM paint colors, we sometimes see name changes without reformulation. One example is Audi’s RS Blue (rsblau; pearl effect UNI; M8; Audi) that is perhaps the most iconic (and likely most popular) color of the Audi RS2 stock color offerings. By the time the color returned on Audi’s B5 S4, it had undergone a name change to Nogaro Blue (nogaroblau; pearl effect UNI; Z5M; Audi), but the color itself remained the same.

Given the lineage, tracing its roots to the wagon project conceived between Audi and Porsche and built in Stuttgart by Porsche themselves, Nogaro Blue has become an icon in and of itself, highly sought after in Audi exclusive builds or the rare times when Audi offers it on the occasional limited production special edition.

Few, other than RS2 aficionados, know it as RS Blue though. And whatever the name, the color can likely point towards the pre-war national racing color of French Blue for its inspiration. Rumor has it that Audi designers in the Simi Valley design studio sprayed out a marine blue in a request back to the factory for company car specification, which inspired the development of RS Blue.

Don’t confuse RS Blue (or Nogaro Blue) with Porsche’s Maritime Blue, a then-current Carrera Cup color at the time the RS2 rolled new out of Porsche’s factory. Models wearing Porsche badges such as the 911 Carrera RS (type 964) and 968 were rolling out of that same manufacturer painted Maritime Blue. The timing, Porsche DNA and and their similar appearance would suggest they might be the same code by another name, but park them next to each other and you’ll see a difference.

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