Coronet Cream

[Joe_Healey]

To answer the very first question, in the AHCA 100 Registry I show 31 Coronet Cream cars recorded. 17 with blue trim, 11 with red trim and 3 unknown.

The first "Fawn" car was body #215, built mis Sept. '53, although I have body #121, built mid August '53 recorded as a Coronet Cream car. The last Coronet Cream car recorded is body #2344, built March 1, 1954.

Traveling right now and don't have my reference books with me but this is what the AHCA 100 Registry shows.

Randy

Randy

Thanks for the numbers. I think having 5% of the cars recorded is not bad, considering they are over 60 years old by now. Just as a side bar someone years ago, from the original Healey list, put me in touch with the owner of #924 also coronet cream and also the original owner. They were on the west coast but I've lost the contact info years ago in a computer meltdown.

 

[HealeyRick]

Found the reference:

Interview with Brian Healey and Gerry Coker

Here is the full text of the "Bic and Gerry Show " that was a standing *room only presentation at the 1991 West Coast Meet at Lake Tahoe. Gary Anderson, President of the Austin-Healey Club, Pacific Centre conducted the interview with the meet's guests of honor, Brian Healey and Gerry Coker.


"The Old Man called me into the office one day and said, "I've had a phone call from Buckingham Palace, boy." I said, "Well, that's nice. What do they want?" So he said, "Prince Philip, he's the bloke who married the Queen, you know, wants to try a Healey." I said, "Well that's even better. What do you want me to do?" "Well you will have to take it down." I said, "Well, that's all right, but I don't know Prince Philip or the Queen. I don't know my way to Buckingham Palace. I don't think I have even driven a car in London before." Well, he said, "Oh, you can do it. No problem. It's on the road."

OK, off I went. I put the bucket and sponge in the back of the car, and I went down to London. Got down there, stopped across the road from Buckingham Palace, filled my bucket from out of a fountain there and sponged it off. You could do it in those days.
Gerry: Director of Sales!

Brian: Drove up to the gate and these sort of soldier chaps there just staring into nothing. A chap came out from behind a pillar and said, "Mr. Healey, we were waiting for you. " Good. "Drive in around the back there, sir." So I went in around the back there. I got out. A chap trotted down the steps, "Mr. Healey?" "Yes, I've brought a car for Prince Philip." "Oh, yes, that's right. Do come in." So in I went. I was intro*duced to Michael Parker, who was a heck of a nice bloke. He was an Aussie and was the Equerry. No, not the Equerry, the Private Secretary. He took me into the next office for coffee with a chap called General Sir Frederick Browning, who was married to Daphne du Maurier. You probably heard of her. She wrote a lot of books. My not have got over here yet, but she did write a lot of books. And this chap was a Cornishman and we had a bit of a laugh and a joke and a cup of coffee and when I came out again the car had gone. It was whipped down to Woodward, which at that time was a racing circuit and the Duke of Richmond, who lived down there, was also a friend of Prince Philip, and they had great fun down there with this car. Well I can't tell you any more about it. It was quite ...
Gerry: What happened to the car?
Brian: Oh, I had to get down later to collect it from the Royal Mews. Bring it back again. Philip wasn't allowed to buy one because he couldn't get it insured.
Gerry: That tells you something, doesn't it?
Brian: Yes. They allowed Prince Charles to buy an Austin. But that guy named Philip was trying to insure a performance machine and not an Austin, wasn't he."

(So now I'm wondering if this is the same occasion shown in Reid's picture. "HRH the Duke of Edinburgh" in Reid's picture is, indeed Prince Philip. And the "Duke of Richmond" referred to by Bic was Freddie March, who built the Goodwood racing circuit around his estate and where Reid's picture was taken.)

 

[glemon]

I do love the color, with regards whether it was named to commemorate the coronation, Piggot's book, the Austin Healey 100 refers to BN1L 143710 finished in a color referred to as "fawn" "but was in reality the first car finished in Coronet Cream" (page 68) so apparently they decided to change the name of the paint color for some reason, while we don't know the reason (to my knowledge) the speculation as to why they changed the name and the timeframe certainly makes sense.

 

[pan]

GregW,
Those cream crackers would be nice dunked in Carnation Milk!
In the 'thirties there was a team of MGs titled the "Cream Crackers".
Come to think of it they were finished in a light fawn with brown mudguards.

Alwyn

 

[pan]

I am beginning to think that Reid is correct. If the colour had a royal connection, however tenuous, 'The Austin Magazine and Advocate' would surely had made something of a big deal about it?
What is the connection of 'fawn' with royalty anyway.

Alwyn

 

[glemon]

There is no connection between "fawn" and royalty (to my knowledge), my speculation was that they apparently renamed the color "coronet cream", this would appear to be a documented fact. Presumably they did this for some reason, perhaps to make some connection to the coronation for marketing purposes? That certainly makes sense, but as Reid has noted no one seems to be able to find a first person account of this, nor any mass market advertising stating such. I thought I had read the commemoration of the coronation statement in more than just the one book already mentioned, but couldn't find any other references in a quick look through my library this morning.

 

[Keith_M]

My wife likes this color and is thinking of possibly using it on the bugeye I'm restoring for her. Two questions for the collective intelligence:

1. Would this color would look good on a bugeye?

2. Does anyone have a paint code for it?

 

[glemon]

I know I have the old (ICI?) code in at least one of my Healey books, paint codes from the 50s and 60s are generally not usable at worst or not accurate at best with modern paints, but if no one pops up with a modern equivalent I will look up the old code tomorrow, Greg

Wouldn't be my choice for a bugeye color, but not my car, I like the basic standard choices, red green black white yellow.

 

[Editor_Reid]

My wife likes this color and is thinking of possibly using it on the bugeye I'm restoring for her. Two questions for the collective intelligence:

1. Would this color would look good on a bugeye?

2. Does anyone have a paint code for it?

There's an original Bugeye color that isn't far off: Nevada Beige. To my eye it looks kind of boring, uninspired, flat on a Bugeye. It looks like shiny primer. If you paired it with a red interior, that would help, but a Nevada Beige Bugeye with a black interior falls flat in my opinion.

They didn't write songs about a "little beige sports car" for a reason.

 

[CLEAH]

The ICI paint code for Coronet Cream is 2583.

 

[Keith_M]

I had never heard of Nevada Beige for a bugeye, but a google search yielded the picture below. I've placed it beside the Coronet Cream 100 that was posted earlier. To my eye they're very different colors, and I don't like the beige nearly as well. I'm still deciding if I think Coronet Cream would look good on a bugeye. I've seen a few pale yellow ones, and I think they look very classy. Of course, I'm not sure classy is the look you want with a bugeye.

The car was originally light blue (can't remember the name - seems like there were two similar colors used), and up until now we've been debating between that and yellow. Now we have a third choice - which is not necessarily a good thing!

Many thanks for the paint code, Hugh.

 

[CLEAH]

Keith,

The blues were called Speedwell Blue up to car 9420, and then called Iris Blue after that. My currently orange car was originally Speedwell Blue and I will change it back to that if I ever restore the car. I think a Sprite would look fine in Coronet Cream--Sprites tend to look good in pastel-ish colors, and to my eye Coronet is somewhat like that...but my wife would say I have exactly zero business advising anyone regarding colors, and she would be right.

 

[glemon]

Keith, here is a nice link pirated from the MG forum that shows a lot of different BMC/BL colors on old British cars

https://www.teglerizer.com/mgcolors/

 

[Keith_M]

Keith, here is a nice link pirated from the MG forum that shows a lot of different BMC/BL colors on old British cars

https://www.teglerizer.com/mgcolors/

Interesting site, Thanks! Can't show it to my wife, though. We don't need MORE choices.

 

[Joe_Healey]

My wife likes this color and is thinking of possibly using it on the bugeye I'm restoring for her. Two questions for the collective intelligence:

1. Would this color would look good on a bugeye?

2. Does anyone have a paint code for it?

Sorry for taking so long to answer but I had to find the old paint can. #923 was painted PPG MAE 3897 Medium Sand Beige. If you look closely at the inner fenders you will see the original paint. The color is a very good match. I hope this helps.

 

[busybrit]

You're not going to like this, I had a Coronet Cream Car, bought in a package of 3 in 2002.

This car was made in Dec 1953, it had a 100-M conversion, but could have been fitted at any time after it was made, it had std air filters fitted, not the air box, a bracket that held what I found out later was a bladder bag that held the windscreen washer water, the M carbs had the correct etching on them and wait for it, the engine block was plated with what looked like brass. I suspect it was some sort of cadmium plate. I have no idea why this would be, because at the time I had several engines and transmissions, non of which looked anything like this block. Sadly, it is no longer, :sorrow:

I cut the car up and took what I needed to build my car. The frame was totally rotted with several feet missing, the body was rotted out from the frame up to about 12" it was too far gone to save.

But parts of it still live on in my car.

 

[Editor_Reid]

Just to follow up, as promised, on my research on the alleged connection between the color Coronet Cream and the 1953 coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth II:

1. I have not been able to find any primary sources making the connection. A primary source would be a period article in a company magazine (I found none in any 1953-54 edition of The Austin Magazine and Advocate, the house organ of The Austin Motor Company), a period magazine or newspaper article quoting Austin company officials or an Austin press release - that sort of thing. Books published decades later - such as the McLavin/Tipping book or the Anderson/Moment restoration guide - are not primary sources in that they merely repeat a belief, held my some, in the connection, without citation. "Everybody knows" is not a source.

The absence of sources does not disprove the connection, but it certainly seems unusual that if the giant British Motor Corporation were trying to capitalize on the Queen's coronation with some special commemorative colors, that they would not have made hay over it and made sure that the information took the form of press releases, notations in sales literature, etc. If Coronet Cream and other colors were specifically conceived to honor the coronation, someone dropped the ball completely by not letting anyone outside of BMC's offices know about it.

2. I have found some people who are emphatic in their belief that the connection is there. However, a belief does not constitute a fact. That said, one states that there was a range of colors promoted to commemorate the coronation, including not just Coronet Cream but also Balmoral Blue, Windsor Grey, Buckingham Green and Sandringham Fawn. These were, reportedly, available on the Austin A40 Somerset and the A70 Hereford. Why only one of these colors - Coronet Cream - would have found its way onto the list of available colors for the Healey Hundred is not explained. I have not searched for primary references to substantiate these other colors, but give the level of detail and royalty-connected names, the connection seems plausible to me.

3. My conclusion is that the assertion of a coronation connection for the Healey color Coronet Cream falls squarely into the realm of folklore: Folklore (or lore) consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs included in the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. That doesn't mean that it isn't true. It just means that we can't - as yet - substantiate it with primary source(s), and therefore it is dubious to assert it as fact. Personally, I like the idea and choose to believe that the connection is quite possible and even likely, but I can't prove it. Further discoveries of fact may alter my conclusion.

 

[HealeyRick]

Reid,

A Google search turned up this paint code list for the Austin A30:

 

[Editor_Reid]

.
Interesting! My source at the BHIMT, who asked not to be quoted and so I won't quote him/her, stated that they had nothing to substantiate the coronation connection. Maybe the connection is found somewhere in the records for the A30 but not those of Healeys?

(I'd still like to see the primary source, being a fact-checker/skeptical kind of guy. The Bull Motif Spares webpage isn't a primary source although they state that they referenced "production records" - would production records really have specified that the colors were "coronation colours" or is this simply another case of the author of the website text assuming that and stating it over the colors listed in the records? I've never seen such editorial comment in "production records" and wouldn't jump to the conclusion that that is specifically stated in them. Production records are a dry listing of facts, colors, options, numbers, etc. I've never seen a job card with a note such as "Coronet Cream - one of BMC's new coronation commemoration colours"! Still, as I said before, it seems quite likely, but we're still lacking a primary source.)

 

[HealeyRick]

Here's some more:

"The coronation colours were a whole other optional range of colours
for 1953, but of course only apply to A30, Somersets and Herefords.
They tend to be creams,greys,blues, named after castles. They were
chosen by a "society woman" Kay Petrie who must have stroked Lord's
ego. She was employed to give Austin paint and
upholstery "contempoary fashion derived styling". Anyway she was
sacked after a short time as her design schemes were generally not
well liked. For some reason all the 1953 cars I have seen in NZ have,
in my opinion, carried the standard colours."

Source: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Austin_Counties_Cars_News/conversations/topics/408