Yahoo Autos Why Do Automakers Put That Strange Camo On Cars?
Question: Why do cars prior to launch have that strange black-and-white paint job?
Answer: Once in a while, you may happen upon a vehicle on the road wearing a lot of black and white. No, it’s not a police car, but a new vehicle stretching its legs with the public as part of its ongoing testing before hitting the production line (and thus, your nearest showroom floor) months later. Some manufacturers like to be creative with their black-and-white camo schemes, from swirling graphics to fake body panels meant to obscure the shape of the new vehicle as much as possible.
The big question, though, is why opt for black-and-white camo in the first place? It’s certainly not stopping spy photographers from delivering their work to automotive publications whose audiences salivate over every detail of the next big thing to roll out of Detroit, Stuttgart, Toyota City, or Seoul. Why not green-and-red, or blue-and-orange?
Short answer: It’s not meant to stop the photogs; it’s meant to confound the competitors.
Back in World War I, the Allied Powers (specifically the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom and the United States Navy) were having a difficult time hiding their ships from the Central Powers in all weather conditions during combat. British zoologist John Graham Kerr devised a solution to this problem, penning a letter in September 1914 to future prime minister Winston Churchill, who was the Royal Navy’s First Sea Lord at the time. Kerr’s suggestion to Churchill was to use disruptive coloration and countershading on the ships, the latter involving the guns painted in lighter tones below, darker tones above. The goal was to make the ships harder to hit by destroying completely “the continuity of outlines by splashes of white.” Alas, this tactic lasted until Churchill left the British Admiralty in 1915, and the Royal Navy went back to plain gray.
