Color	Code	Comment	tag	sticker
Colorado	002	One of only four colors offered on early series 1	X	X
Ceylon metallic	008	3,003-cc versions (Models 3451 & 3452) only		X
Siena Brown	009
Inka	022	One of only four colors offered on early series 1	X	X
Verona	024	One of only four colors offered on early series 1
Garnet Red metallic	025
Fjord Blue metallic	037	Most common color: 20 to 25% of CSLs	X	X
Baikal Blue metallic	042	3,003-cc versions (Models 3451 & 3452) only
Polaris metallic	060	Available with tri-color side stripes on 3.2-liter CSLs.	X	X
Turquoise metallic	065
Golf	070	One of only four colors offered on early series 1	X	X
Taiga metallic	072		X	X
Turf	073
Chamonix	085	Available with tri-color side stripes on 3.2-liter CSLs.
Black	086		X
Special	098
Special	099

RHD 2285 color distribution (9/72-1/73)

Color	Quantity	%
Fjord Blue metallic (037)	118	23.6
Polaris metallic (060)	114	22.8
Ceylon metallic (008)	56	11.2
Chamonix (085)	54	10.6
Taiga metallic (072)	45	9
Verona (024)	44	8.8
Golf (070)	38	7.6
Inka (022)	30	6
Turf (073)	1	0.2
Total	500	100

 

CSL Bat 2 color distribution

Color	Quantity	%
Polaris metallic (060)	25	43.6
Chamonix (085)	13	22.8
Client request (98 and 99) e.g. 2x Schwarz, 1 Taiga	6	10.5
Taiga metallic (072) 5 in total with 1 client request	4	7
Golf (070)	3	5.3
Fjord Blue metallic (037)	2	3.5
Garnet Red metallic (025)	1	1.8
Turquoise metallic (065)	1	1.8
Inka (022)	1	1.8
Siena Brown (009)	1	1.8
Total	57	100

 

BMW used color codes 099 and 098 for the special cars:

2210-2211-2212 1 client request
2275 (non bat) 4 client requests
2275 (bat) 1 client request
4355 6 client requests

 

 

 

 

I assume left is leather and right is cloth/velours. I further assume right is standard, left is optional.

Other considerations: scholars assume that most of the complete run of 2285 cars were painted in batches of about 6 . This was because the very early cars were painted using cellulose and the paint guns had to be cleaned after about 6 spraying sessions. Later cars, and we have never been able to discover a date, were painted with two pack which considerably increased the painting rate because they also used drying ovens (less exposure time to dust etc). Karmann changed to two pack, which is in effect a polymer paint, which is mixed with a hardner, self “cures” (dries) in an air heated oven in about an hour. In modern times, it has been replaced by water based paints because, like cellulose, its solvents are atmospheric pollutants.

Advanced technical paint information for all E9 2800 CS 30 3.0 CSI

Video demonstrating the paint batch size

Thank you / Reference / Credits:

Many including John Castle and Nick Hull