Quattroporte

Quattroporte (pronounced Quat-rah-port-eh)

(1) An Italian term (literally “four door”) for a berlina (a four-door sedan) (not with initial capital).

(2) A model name for a Maserati berlina, produced over six generations since 1963 (with initial capital).

1963: An Italian compound, the construct being quattro (four) + porte (door).  Quattro was from the Latin quattuor, from the Proto-Italic kettwōr, from the primitive Indo-European ketwṓr, neuter plural of ketwóres (cognates of which include the Sanskrit चतुर् (catur), the Old Armenian չորք (čʿorkʿ), the Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares) and the Old English fēower (source of the Modern English four)).  Etymologists note the change of e to a is unexplained and under the usual conventions which evolved, the expected form would be “quettuor”.  Porte was from the Old French porte, from the Latin porta, from the primitive Indo-European root per- (to pass through), ultimate source also of the Modern English portal.  Quattroporte is a noun; the noun plural is quattroportes (with initial capital if speaking of Maseratis).

In Italian, things tend to sound better than in English.  An Italian could read from a lawn mower repair manual and to English-speaking ears it would sound poetic but occasionally, the Italians even improve Italian.  A (conventional three-box) four door car is in English a saloon or sedan which sounds OK but in Italian it’s the more pleasing berlina.  Berlina was from the late nineteenth century French berline (an automobile with the front and rear compartments separated by a glass partition, now most associated with the "limousine"), from the seventeenth century German Berlin & Berline (a four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage with a separate, enclosed compartment for two, noted for its lightness and durability and named after the city where it was designed).  However, pleasing to the ear though berlina might be, when in the early 1960s Maserati decided to enter the then quite novel (and barely contested) market segment of the high-performance four-door luxury sedan, they decided on a new name which, while etymologically merely descriptive, was the lyrical Quattroporte (pronounced Quat-rah-port-eh).  For Italians, the branding exercise would have been unremarkable but in the English-speaking world, one needed only to hear the word to know it was attached to something exotic.

1978 Benelli 250 Quattro.

Although Benelli’s 750 & 900 cm³ six-cylinder Sei (Six, 1972-1978) is better known, the 231 cm³ Quattro also has a following among collectors, one aspect of its charm being it remains the lowest-displacement multi-cylinder (four or more) motor-cycle offered for general sale.  Although the small pistons of BRM’s charismatic 1.5 litre V16 (1947-1955) always intrigued those who adore intricacy, those parts were really big because each cylinder was 93 cm³ compared with the 58 of the Benelli.  However, even that wouldn’t have impressed Honda’s engineers who in 1963 developed a 125 cm³ four for racing (with 31 cm³ cylinders) and not content to stop there, two years later the Japanese deployed a 125 cm³ five with cylinders displacing 25 cm³, the pistons truly jewel-like.  Only ten years earlier people had been impressed by Moto Guzzi’s 500 cm³ V8 with 62 cm³ cylinders.

1978 Benelli 250 Quattro.

On sale between 1977-1984, for those for whom the meaning of “Quattro” was obscure, the 250 Quattro was advertised also as the “Benelli 254” which recalled Armstrong Siddeley's Sapphire 234 (1955-1958) & Sapphire 236 (1955-1957) which denoted respectively a car with a 2.3 litre four-cylinder car and one with a 2.3 litre six.  Being as familiar with “badge engineering” as the British and Americans, the diminutive machine was offered also as the Moto Guzzi 254 which, although mechanically identical, varied in appearance with different moldings used.  An example of the principles Italian companies often brought to industrial design, there were nice touches such as the instruments being mounted in the gas (petrol) tank’s housing although this of course reduced its capacity so the range was limited to around 130 km (80 miles) which meant some potential export markets declined importation.

Quattro 1.0 from DOSDays historic review.  The drop-down menus were a considerable advance on the Lotus 1-2-3 interface which was fast and powerful but not intuitive.

Others in the English-speaking world also used Quattro to denote “four”.  First displayed to the press in 1987, Borland's Quattro was a spreadsheet program which ran under PC/MS-DOS before in 1992 being ported to MS-Windows 3.0.  The Quattro name had no overt Italian connection and was intended to hint at the product being the “next step” from Lotus 1-2-3 which, shortly after its debut in 1983, rapidly had emerged as the PC (personal computer) industry's first “killer app”, resulting in a symbiosis which encouraged sales of both hardware and software.  The cheeky semi-compliment didn't impress Lotus which sued Borland, resulting in a series of appeals which reached the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the US) before Borland ultimately prevailed although by then Quattro has been sold to Novell.  Remarkably, although Borland, Lotus and Novell no longer exist, a descendent of Quattro (Quattro Pro) remains available from Alludo, either as a stand-alone spreadsheet or bundled with the WordPerfect Office suite.  Quattro is an improbable survivor from the era in the late 1980s when the standard horizontal-market products on PCs in commercial use were WordPerfect 5.1 (word-processor), Lotus 1-2-3 2.x or 3.x (spreadsheet) and dBASE III Plus 1.1.

Six generations of the Maserati Quattroporte

First generation, Series 1, 1963-1966. 

Although it later gained the reputation, the early Maserati Quattroporte may not have been the world’s fastest four-door sedan but the 210 km/h (130 mph) of which it was capable was a match for the rare Lagonda Rapide and it could outrun the fastest of the Jaguar saloons.  Styled by Pietro Frua (1913-1983) who aimed to make a four-door version of the very expensive 5000GT which had been produced in a run of thirty-two bespoke creations after the interest generated by the original made for the Shah of Iran, the coachwork was actually built by Carrozzeria Vignale with a modern sheet metal structure atop box-section rails instead of Maserati’s traditional tubular frame.  Maserati were at the time in the throes of their final fling in Formula One and weren't out to create a Rolls-Royce.  The 4.2 litre (252 cubic inch) V8 engine, although derived from the unit used in the 5000GT, was detuned in the quest for a more refined experience although purposefully, its origins on the race track were never entirely disguised.

First generation, Series 2, 1966-1969.  

Although visually little changed on the outside, the second series cars underwent significant change.  The four round headlamps, previously reserved only for the US market in deference to their protectionist regulations, were now fitted as standard across the range and the interior was transformed into something more luxurious, a fully integrated climate control system included as standard equipment.  That attracted much favorable comment but one downgrade was the replacement of the very capable de Dion rear axle with a more agricultural rigid layout with semi-elliptic springs, a system Maserati used on other models.  Still the downgrade probably pleased most customers, the leaf-sprung rear much quieter that the chattering de Dion, the advantages of which few drivers of a car like the Quattroporte were likely to explore and it suited Maserati too, lowering the cost of production.  Most of the series 2 Quattroportes were fitted with the 4.2 litre (258 cubic inch) V8 but seven received the 4.7 (288) and two, supplied to special order, were fitted with the 4.9 (301) and it's likely either of the bigger units would have delivered a top speed which probably did set the mark as the fastest four-door of the decade in the field of genuine "production cars".

A four door Maserati coach-built in 1971 by Carrozzeria Frua on commission from the Prince Karim al-Husseini (1936–2025; Aga Khan IV, 49^th imam of Nizari Isma'ilism 1957-2025).

There was a coda to the first generation.  In 1971, on commission from the Aga Khan, Carrozzeria Frua had built a four-door sedan based on a Maserati’ Indy (a 2+2 coupé (1969-1975)).  Elegant and in the vein of the contemporary Iso Fidia, Maserati had Fura construct a production-ready prototype for what was intended to be the Quattroporte II but Citroën, after assuming ownership of Maserati, instead insisted the new car be based on their top-of-the-range SM which was a misunderstanding of the Quattroporte's target market but would to Citroën's accountants & MBAs have seemed a logical way to reduce development costs and amortize the costs of an existing investment.  That didn’t end well but, given the events which were to unfold in the 1970s, there’s no guarantee that had the prototype reached production it would have long been successful, such indulgences rapidly rendered unfashionable by the first oil shock (1973).  However, built on the solid, if unadventurous, platform of the Indy, even had it been a commercial failure, it would have been a less costly one than the SM-based debacle proved.

Second generation, 1974-1978.

Beset by political, industrial and economic turmoil, the second generation aptly reflects the state of Italy (and at least parts of the Italian state) by the mid-1970s.  Styled by Carrozzeria Bertone's Marcello Gandini (1938-2024), the Quattroporte II was developed while Maserati was owned by Citroën and was technically almost identical to the French machine which meant it was a 3.0 litre (181 cubic inch) 90° V6 with front wheel drive and hydro-pneumatic suspension.  It's not entirely accurate to think of it as a four-door SM (eight of which were actually built by coachbuilder Henri Chapron including two which served for a time in the mews of the Élysée Palace as the presidential limousine) but the Italian variation certainly encapsulated all the virtues and vices of the original.  The appointments were opulent and the hydro-pneumatic suspension guaranteed a superb ride but it was slower than its illustrious V8 predecessors, the added weight and some sacrifice in aerodynamic efficiency meaning performance was blunted compared even to the SM.  There had been plans to use a V8 but the old Maserati engine, its roots in 1950 sports car racing, was both too big to fit and in its last days, the modifications required to conform with upcoming legislation prohibitively difficult and expensive.

A recreation of 1974 Citroën SM V8 prototype.

Accordingly, a V8 was developed from the Maserati V6 fitted to the SM and, being (unusually) in a 90^o configuration, the six was a good basis for an eight and the prototype built and tested in an SM proved satisfactory but such were the corporate uncertainties the project was cancelled.  On paper though, the V6 Quattroporte II survived the corporate re-structure, largely because so much of the tooling required for production had been built but, such was the financial chaos in the era, funds were never allocated for the certification programmes required for it to be sold in major markets like the US, the UK and Europe so it languished until 1976 when it was made available, on special order, for markets where regulations were scant and, if affecting the rich, rarely enforced.  In the three years it was sold between 1976-1978, it attracted a dozen buyers, mostly in the Middle-East although two reputedly were shipped to Spain which, post-Franco but pre-EU, also had few (selectively imposed) regulations.  Tellingly, most models from Ferrari or Maserati with a run of only twelve are rare, collectable and expensive but the Quattroporte II is mostly unremembered, unlamented and, when offered for sale, sometimes unsold.

Third generation, 1979-1990.

Alejandro De Tomaso (1928-2003) who purchased Maserati from Citroën was an Argentine-born former race-car driver of Italian descent who had married well, enabling him to commence production of a number of flawed but compellingly attractive cars which combined performance with a low TCO (total cost of ownership) made possible by dipping into the mainstream parts bin.  He disapproved of FWD (front wheel drive), regarded hydraulic suspension as a good idea for a truck or bus and thought no good had ever come from the French being involved in the design of Italian cars.  The Quattroporte III was therefore based on De Tomaso’s 2+2 coupé, the Longchamp (1972-1989) which would also begat the Maserati Kyalami (1976-1983), all three cars on a platform which began life as the De Tomaso Deauville (1971-1985), something of an Italian take on the original Jaguar XJ6 (1968) though rendered with lines which anticipated Pininfarina's work on the roofline of the Series 3 XJ (1979-1992).

1982 Maserati Quattroporte.

The important point was the Quattroporte was again configured with a V8 engine and RWD (rear wheel drive), both then threshold points for the target market.  The body, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro (b 1938), hasn’t aged as well as the early Quattroportes but that’s something which can be said of much which emerged from the 1970s and in the context of the time, it was an expression of current thinking and the marked responded, the car successful immediately from its debut in 1979.  In production until 1990, it was little changed over its run, although the "Royale" version, with some minor restyling, upgraded interior appointments and a slight increase in the power from the 4.9 litre V8, was offered as a limited-edition variation to celebrate the marque’s sixtieth anniversary.

Fourth generation, 1994-2001.

Presented at the Turin Motor Show in April 1994, the Quattroporte IV was the first Maserati released since Fiat assumed ownership.  The new car was smaller than either its predecessors or successors and reflected Fiat’s interest in the lucrative premium end of the compact-executive market now defined by the BMW 3-series but in which neither the Fiat nor the corporate companion Lancia brand-name was likely to attract buyers.  Gandini’s design, recalling aspects of his earlier, spectacular, Maserati Shamal (1990-1996) was much admired and the lavish interiors, all wood and leather though in an Italian rather than an English manner, seduced many.  Offered variously with V6 and V8 engines between 2.0 (122 cubic inch) and 3.2 litres (196 cubic inch), performance was class-leading, 270 km/h (168 mph) the top speed of the most powerful.  It was certainly a different sort of sedan than was offered by Mercedes-Benz, a six-speed manual gearbox always standard equipment although in most markets, the optional automatic attracted most buyers.  The Quattroporte IV is notable too as the car which best reflects the improvements rendered when Fiat in 1997 passed control to Ferrari, the objective being to raise build quality and enhance reliability, then the greatest impediment to greater success.  The Quattroporte IV had from the start been praised for its dynamic qualities but the patchy reputation gained early hadn’t improved and it was this Ferrari sought to address and, there being little wrong with the basic design, focused on the production process and the quality control imposed on component supply.  The result was the much-improved Evoluzione model presented in 1998.

Fifth generation, 2003-2012.

Bigger than its predecessor, the Quattroporte V focused less on outright performance and returned Maserati to the upper premium segment, very much in the spirit of the first generation cars of 1963.  The Pininfarina-designed body (which recalled the French Monica 560 (1972-1974) was perhaps the most accomplished four-door sedan since the Jaguar XJ6 in 1968 and, now underpinned by Ferrari’s engineering including 4.2 and 4.7 litre V8s and a robotized transaxle to optimize weight distribution, the dynamic qualities attracted praise, awards and commercial success soon following.  The popularity proved enduring, the fifth generation cars the biggest selling Quattroporte yet but feedback confirmed the only thing restricting appeal was the lack of a fully automatic gearbox, the Duoselect an ideal companion in a sports sedan but there were many who adored the slinky style but wanted something more effortless.  Accordingly, the automatic version was displayed at the 2007 Detroit Motor Show, the US clearly expected to be the biggest market which it proved to be.  More than 15,000 had been produced by 2008 when a re-styled version was released including variations on the Quattroporte S and Quattroporte Sport GT S although, in a sign of the times, the restyled models were available only with an automatic six-speed transmission only, the Duoselect option discontinued.

Before, during & after.  A 2009 (fifth generation) Quattroporte leased by Lindsay Lohan's father was damaged in minor traffic accident while her assistant was at the wheel, Los Angeles, March 2009.

Sixth generation, 2013-.

In another sign of the time, the sixth generation Quattroporte was actually offered with a diesel engine, albeit one which could still allow the car to reach 250 km/h (155 mph) but for those who remembered the way things used to be done, the most powerful of the traditional petrol-powered models, the Quattroporte Trofeo, now with a twin-turbocharged 3.8 litre (232 cubic inch) V8 rated at 572 horsepower, could attain 326 km/h (203 mph), faster than any Maserati Grand Prix car had ever travelled.  The new body-shape was obviously an evolution of the fifth generation and was well-executed but, lacking the languid look and the originality of the earlier car, it attracted less comment and was thought essentially derivative.  Another innovation was the all-wheel-drive (AWD) system offered on some of the V6s but the most profitable was said to be the Zegna Limited Edition, one-hundred of which were made in 2015.  Based on the GTS, it was mechanically unchanged but, trimmed in collaboration with Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna in a manner which might be expressed as “the acceptable face of bling”, the exterior details including a platinum-metallic silk paint scheme with aluminum pigments, the twenty-inch wheels color-coordinated.  Inside, the seats, panels, roof lining and sun visors were covered variously in silk, leather in a shade exclusive to the model or a woolen herringbone.

Hofit Golan (b 1985, left) and Lindsay Lohan (b 1986, right) attending  Summer Tour Maserati in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, July 2016.  The Quattroporte is a 1964 Series I.

The fastest four-door sedan of the 1960s

1958 Chrysler New Yorker four-door hardtop with 392 Hemi.

Often supercharged, the straight-eight Dusenbergs and Mercedes-Benz 770s had in the 1930s set the standard but by the late 1950s, powerful engines in four-door sedans had again become a thing.  In 1958, Chrysler’s 392 cubic inch (6.4 litre) Hemi V8 (used in the two-door 300s), could be fitted to the four-door New Yorker and was standard on the Imperial line.  Rated at 345 horsepower (chronic unreliability meant the fuel-injected "Electrojector" option which promised 390 hp proved abortive) and contemporary reports suggest over 130 mph was possible.  The Hemi was discontinued after 1958, its 413 cubic inch (6.8 litre) wedge-headed successor proving displacement was a cheaper path to power and the top speed was similar.  However, seeking success on the track, Chrysler resumed production of a hemi-headed V8 in 1964.  Now 426 cubic inches (7.0 litres), it was intended only for the track and not the general public, an attitude which displeased the sanctioning body for the competition in which it was used; deciding to ban the thing, NASCAR claimed the use of a custom race engine in what was called a “stock car” series was hardly in the spirit of the rules.  Actually, the cars hadn’t for many years been close to “stock” but NASCAR ignored that argument and banned the Hemi.

1966 Dodge Coronet Sedan with 426 Street Hemi.  Dodge’s butterfly-shaped tail-lamps are also a footnote in legal history, being a matter of dispute in the legal proceedings pursuant to the infamous 1966 triple-murder in which the defendants were the boxers Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (1937–2014) & John Artis (1946-2021).

Chrysler’s reaction was to detune the Hemi (a little), quieten it (a lot) and, as the “426 Street Hemi”, offer it in 1966 as an option in the road cars.  That way, provided enough were sold, it would become a “stock” engine and eligible for competition and to ensure enough were sold, the Street Hemi was made available in a wide range of vehicles; between 1966-1971, Chrysler didn’t sell as many (of what was a very expensive option) as expected but moved more than enough to satisfy the rules.  In 1966, most went into big two-door coupes (and a few convertibles) but five buyers ordered them in four-door sedans and these, Chrysler duly built, two reputedly special orders for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) although some doubt has been cast on that.  All were fitted with the robust 727 Torqueflite automatic transmissions, a final-drive ratio of 3.23 and a front anti-roll bar, the build otherwise distinguished mostly by heavy-duty components, many from the station-wagon which was rated for towing heavy loads.

Powerful in the spirit of the Maserati Quattroporte but with few concessions to luxury, like all the Street Hemi-powered cars there was no air-conditioning but the five 1966 sedans were more basic still, lacking power-steering, power brakes or power windows and Chrysler also sold Hemi-powered cars to the public with four-wheel drum brakes which, given the weight of the things and the performance on tap, was about as bad an idea as it sounds.  Chrysler never published any performance claims for the Hemi-powered sedans but automobile-catalog.com’s ProfessCars™ estimation of the top speed of a two door with a manual transmission was 147 mph (236 km/h), impressive in 1966 especially given that on the same gearing the ET for the standing ¼ mile was 13.5 seconds which does demonstrate the advantages of using a genuine racing engine as the base.  Contemporary reports confirm the efficient TorqueFlite barely affected things, the two and four door Coronets were of similar weight, the frontal area the same and although experience suggests the upright rear window of the sedan may have induced more performance-sapping drag than the flatter line on the coupe, it seems likely the 1966 Hemi sedans were capable of more than 140 mph (225 km/h) and may have matched the 4.7 litre Quattroportes sold that year.  With only five of the former and seven of the latter being produced, they can barely be considered production cars but technically, both qualify.  Interestingly, Chrysler that year did offer a 2.73 final drive ratio which, if fitted, would have pushed the (theoretical) top speed towards 160 mph (257 km/h), a velocity which might have required enough concentration from the driver to divert thought from those drum brakes.

1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 (SWB).

Mercedes-Benz had high hopes for the 600 (W100) Grosser (1963-1981), introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963.  The true successor to the 770K Grosser (W07: 1930-1938 & W150: 1939-1943), the projections were at least a thousand would find buyers annually but by 1966, it seemed clear this was too optimistic, the 345 sold in 1965 apparently the high water mark rather than the encouraging start hoped.  It was clear the trend was downward and worse, an unexpected on-rush of legislation would soon banish the 600 from sale in the United States, always by far the biggest potential market.  That rarity in automotive production, the almost all-new vehicle (only the automatic transmission and a few suspension components were modifications of earlier designs), the 600’s development programme had been long and expensive and all indications were the W100 ledger would continue to be written in red ink.  What was needed was a way to amortize the investment and the most obvious way (increasing sales of the 600) was clearly improbable.

Thus the 300 SEL 6.3.  The legend has always been that famous engineer Erich Waxenberger (1931-2017), requisitioned one of the 6.3 litre V8s (M100) developed for and then exclusive to the 600 and fitted it to a 300 SE (W112) coupé which, having failed quality control checks, was scheduled for destruction.  According to Herr Waxenberger, he dreamed up the combination because he was annoyed by the press suggesting the model range had become staid after the retirement of the 300 SL (W198) roadster.  Doubling the size of the engine in a 300 SE certainly made for something more exciting and the board, apparently impressed, authorized production on the proviso the long-wheelbase four-door 300 SEL (W109) be used instead of the lovely coupé or cabriolet, a 6.3 litre sedan thought to have the greater sales appeal.  So it proved, 6523 6.3s being sold between 1968-1972 and all at a very high price, a lucrative operation which, when combined with the 7380 M100 powered (W116) 450 SEL 6.9s shifted between 1975-1981, may well have covered any losses sustained in the 18-odd years (1963-1981) it took to sell 2677 600s (all reputedly at a loss).

1971 Mercedes-Benz 300 SEL 6.3.

The tale of a nostalgic engineer secretly building a hotrod which the board liked so much they went on to build thousands is a good one but what Herr Waxenberger never mentioned were any prior discussions within the corporation about the disappointing sales of the 600 and the desirably of finding some way to amortize the cost of the programme.  The obvious solution was to find a way profitability to share some of the unique components used on the 600 with other, better selling vehicles and obviously, the 600’s V8 was a major component so putting it in a car which would, at a high price, sell in much greater numbers was obviously a good idea.  The factory has a bit of previous in myth-making, for years circulating the story of how mechanics were in 1934 forced to work overnight scraping the traditional white paint from the W25 Grand Prix car because scrutineers had found it a solitary kilogram over the newly introduced 750 KG limit.  It wasn’t until decades later that researchers checked the rules for that race (the 1934 Eifelrennen) and discovered the 750 KG formula didn’t that day apply to the “unlimited” class in which the W25 had been entered.  Their appetite whetted, digging deeper they found photographs of the cars arriving at the circuit in the bare aluminum skins in which they raced and of the many photographs of the event which survive, never does a W25 appear in anything but bare metal.  Still, it’s a good story and the factory’s website now tacitly acknowledges the dubious relationship with the truth by referring to it as a “legend”.  That seems a reasonable view and it is such a good story it deserves to endure.  The story of the birth of 6.3 may too be a little murky.  Everything Herr Waxenberger said was true and things surely happened just as he recounted but the truth was perhaps incomplete, his motives perhaps a little more pragmatic than the lust to build a gentleman’s hot rod.

It was though certainly was a hotrod for gentlemen (ladies not then considered), an air-suspended, 6.3 litre howler from a time when BMWs were not yet three litres, Jaguar’s XJ12 was half a decade away and it was for years an autobahn favorite which, rated by the factory at 220 km/h (137 mph, a figure confirmed by contemporary tests) could outrun the 4.2 litre Quattroportes but couldn’t quite match the 4.7 litre cars.   Aerodynamics rather than available power seemed to be the issue, the later, heavier (and actually slightly less powerful) 450SEL 6.9, achieving 240 km/h (149 mph) when tested by those with enough road to let it wind out, an impressive lift over the 225 km/h (140 mph) claimed by the factory.

1963 Lagonda Rapide.

It’s thus a contested space but, all things considered, the 4.7 Quattroportes probably do deserve to be thought the fastest four door sedans of the 1960s, even if they never managed some of the extraordinary speeds claimed in some corners of the internet.  The other contenders from the era either couldn’t touch 225 km/h (140 mph) or came too late.  The Lagonda Rapide (1961-1964) and Iso Fidia (1967-1975) both could exceed 210 km/h (130 mph) but not by much and the Jaguar Mark X & 420G (1961-1970) not even that, the earlier 3.8 Mark II (1959-1968) managing 202 km/h (126 mph).  The Australian Ford Falcon GTHO (1969-1972) did top 225 km/h (140 mph) but not until 1971, the 1969 editions about 10 mph (16 km/h) slower.  The De Tomaso Deauville (1971-1985) and Monteverdi’s High Speed 375/4 (1971-1976) came later, the early versions Swiss 375/4 (with the most powerful (and toxic) of the 440 cubic inch (7.2 litre) Chrysler V8s it would use) truly impressive and able to touch 232 km/h (144 mph), attentive drivers  reputedly able at that velocity to be amused by the discernible leftward movement of the fuel gauge.

Teal

Teal (pronounced teel)

(1) Any of several species of small dabbling, short-necked freshwater ducks (such as the Eurasian Anas crecca (common teal)), of worldwide distribution and related to the mallard, travelling usually in tight flocks and frequenting ponds, lakes and marshes.

(2) A color, a medium to dark greenish blue, often mixed with traces of azure, beryl, cerulean, cobalt, indigo, navy, royal, sapphire, turquoise & ultramarine, also called teal blue and (rarely) tealturquoise, peacockblue or blueteal.

(3) As TEAl, the abbreviation of triethylaluminium (in organic chemistry, a volatile organometallic compound (Al₂(C₂H₅)₆ or Al₂Et₆) used in various chemical processes and as an ignitor in rockets and jet engines.)

(4) As TEAL, the (historical) initialism of Tasman Empire Airways Limited, the forerunner to Air New Zealand.

(5) A collective descriptor informally adopted to refer to certain nominally independent candidates contesting certain electorates in the 2022 Australian general election.

1275-1375: From Middle English tele (small freshwater duck), probably from the (unrecorded) Old English tǣle and cognate with the Middle Low German tēlink, from the from West Germanic taili, from the West Frisian tjilling (teal) and the Middle Dutch tēling (teal (source of the Modern Dutch taling)).  The Middle Low German tēlink, was from the Proto-Germanic tailijaz, of unknown ultimate origin, with no cognates outside of Germanic.  As the name of a shade of dark greenish-blue resembling the color patterns on the fowl's head and wings, it is attested from 1923 in clothing advertisements, thereby joining the long list of variations of descriptions of the variations in the shades of blue including: blue; Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric-blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue & zaffre.  Teal is a noun & adjective and tealish is an adjective; the noun plural is teal or (especially collectively), teals.  The spelling teale is obsolete.

Teal sample by Canva.

Teal’s hexadecimal code is #008080 with RGB values of R: 0, G: 50.2, B: 50.2 and CMYK values of C: 1, M: 0, Y: 0, K:0.5, a hue angle of 180^o, a saturation of 100% and a lightness of 25.1%.  According to the authoritative Canva, for Tibetan monks it was symbolic of the infinity of the sea and sky and for Egyptians, the color of truth and faith.  Discussing the color, Adobe’s editors were almost lyrical, suggesting readers “picture the warm ocean waves in Baja California, made of that color that isn’t quite blue and isn’t quite green.  The water brings in the cool side of summer.”  That’s evocative but the website goes on to note before it was a color it was the name of a bird, “teal” adopted for the blueish-green (or greenish-blue) only in 1917, the reference being to the area around the eye of the Eurasian teal duck.

Carmignano Visitation (circa 1529), oil on panel by Pontormo (Jacopo Carucci; 1494–1557), propositura dei Santi Michele e Francesco, Carmignano, Italy.

The artist’s use of a startling tealish blue for the robe is thought a deliberate choice to emphasize Mary's exalted place in Christian theology.  In Christianity, the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (clipped usually in general use to “the Visitation”), refers to the visit of Mary, the pregnant with Jesus, to Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptist, the story told in the Gospel of Luke (1:39–56).  Traditionally, the Christian feast day commemorating this visit appeared in ecclesiastical calendars on 2 July (Western) or 30 March (orthodox) but in some churches in the West it’s now celebrated on 31 May.

1996 Lancia Y LX-in Grigio Steel over teal Alcantara.

Historically, blue pigment was both expensive and rare; while in the natural environment sources of green were, it was difficult for chemists to create dyes and pigments in blue which did not rapidly (and often inconsistently) fade.  In commerce, because both blue and green pigment were needed to make teal, the blend came to be considered a color of elevated status (and thus price).  The special place of blue (in its time Prussian blue was revolutionary) was reprised in the electronic age when the blue LED (light emitting diode) proved an elusive target.  Although a blue LED had been created as early as 1972 (US Patent US3819974 A granted in 1974), the glow was faint because the materials used in the 1960s & 1970s for red & green LEDs (gallium arsenide (GaAs) or gallium phosphide (GaP) lacked the necessary width in bandgap (in physics the energy difference between two allowed ranges of electron energy in a solid).  Not until the early 1990s did researchers find the method of growing high-quality Gallium Nitride (GaN) at scale on sapphire substrates did the blue LED become technically and commercially viable and with it came the white LED (made possible by combining blue light with yellow phosphor).  That gained the researchers the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics and the white LED has revolutionized illumination (for birth screens and lighting) and achieved massive energy savings worldwide.

TEAL Lockheed L-188 Electra ZK-TEB 1963 (left) & 1965 (right).  The TEAL livery was retained when the corporate name was changed in 1965, the aircraft not immediately re-painted, “Air New Zealand” replacing “TEAL JET PROP” on the fuselage as required by the rules of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (1944).

The airline TEAL (Tasman Empire Airways Limited) emerged from the Tasman Sea Agreement, an intergovernmental treaty between the Australia, New Zealand and the UK, concluded in London early in 1940.  The purpose of the operation was to provide for the trans-Tasman traffic of passengers, cargo and mail, something which had been disrupted by the outbreak of hostilities in 1939.  In the manner of a number of wartime agreements, the treaty contained a sunset clause which stipulated a termination within three months of the end of the war with Germany but such was the state of post-war civil aviation that arrangements were carried over and pre-war practices did not return to the trans-Tasman route until 1954.  As part of that re-organization, the shareholdings, which previously had been spread between the New Zealand Government (20%), Union Airways (19%), BOAC (38%) and Qantas (23%), were dissolved and the two governments assumed co-ownership until 1961 when both decided to maintain separate national carriers, TEAL and Qantas, the relationship having been strained since the Australians had insisted TEAL order the turboprop Lockheed Electra to maintain fleet standardization with Qantas while the New Zealanders wanted to upgrade to jets.  In 1965, TEAL was re-named Air New Zealand.

Lindsay Lohan in teal, Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (2004, left), publicity shot in Greece (2019, centre) & premiere of Mean Girls (2004).

Trooping the color: The teal mafia out campaigning in the Wentworth electorate, Australian general election 2022.

The so-called “teal independents” are a number of nominally independent candidates contesting certain electorates in the 2022 Australian general election.  The teal candidates on which there has been much focus are almost all professional women drawn from outside professional politics, contesting nominally “safe” Liberal Party seats in which there’s a higher than average interest in progressive issues, especially climate change.  The use of the color teal is thought an allusion to the mixing of blue and green, blue a reference either to the “blue-blood” demographic profile of the electorates or it being the traditional color associated with conservative politics and green the environmental consciousness which the teals are making a focus of their campaigns.  Former Liberal Party prime-minister John Howard (b 1939; prime-minister 1996-2007) was not impressed by the practice of styling the teals as “independents”, claiming it was misleading given the source of some of their funding and logistical support from entities which would in the US be understood as PACs (political action committees), entities which combined lobbying with activism on specific issues.  Mr Howard suggested the teals were merely “…posing as independents” and were really “…anti-Liberal groupies”, their aim being “…to hurt the Liberal party, not to represent the middle ground of their electorates” adding “They don’t represent disgruntled Liberals.  They represent a group in the community that wants to destroy the Liberal government. It’s as simple as that.”

Flags of the Liberal Party of Australian and Australian Labor Party (ALP).

Mr Howard was right in that the consequences really are simple as that: if a sufficient number of teals are successful, they will hurt the Liberal party and destroy the Liberal-National coalition government but where the teals would differ from the former prime-minister is in not conflating cause with effect.  The teal candidates have well expressed (if not especially detailed) policy objectives and are seeking to destroy the government because they wish to see alternative policies pursued and about that, voters will agree, disagree or remain indifferent.  What attracted most attention however was Mr Howard’s choice of the word “groupies” to refer to the (mostly female) teals, one critic noting an analysis of the composition of the four ministries he formed while prime-minister did suggest he was inclined to appoint women to the “touchy-feely” portfolios dealing with people while the men got the meatier appointments.

On the books of the central Arizona town of Sedona is an ordinance banning brightly colored signs or buildings, an admirable law intended to limit the jarring intrusions of commerce on the visual environment.  In Sedona, the "golden arches" of McDonalds are teal-blue.

That aside, he does have a point about the word “independent” being misleading.  Historically, in Australia, it’s been understood as meaning a candidate for or member of a parliament who is not a member of a political party (within the legally-defined meaning).  That the teals are not but, though not a conventional party, the teal thing is clearly a concept, a movement or something else beyond a mere state of mind and parts of it are a framework providing the candidates with financial and administrative assistance in a more structured way that that of local volunteers.  The teals (not all of whom use the color in their advertising, one in particular running a “pink” campaign) have also been the victims of some ambush marketing, complaining that others were now muddying the waters by sending out teal-colored flyers.  They might have some difficulty in enforcing an exclusivity of right on a color, about the only restriction enforced is on purple which can’t be used in circumstances where it might be confused with something from the Australian Electoral commission which most jealously guards its purple.  Nor is some fluidity of meaning unknown in Australian politics.  During the 1970s and 1980s, in the Victorian Labor Party, although an apparent contradiction in terms, a faction was formed called the “Independents”, a faction self-described by its members as being a faction for those “who disliked factional politics”.  It was novel then and unthinkable now but happened at a time when the Left had been neutralized by federal intervention and the Right was still obsessed with the DLP (the Democratic Labor Party, the even more right-wing Roman-Catholic breakaway which was until the emergence of One Nation the worst form of political excrement to enjoy significant electoral success) and the Cold War.  There was a gap in the market.

Flags of the Australian National Party & the Australian Greens.

Teal as blend of blue and green imparting political meaning works in Australia because the use of the colors red (of the left), blue (of the right) & green (of the greenies) is well understood.  Even the historic association of the National Party with green doesn’t cause confusion.  The National Party (originally the Country Party and briefly in some places the National-Country Party), had always used green to reflect their agrarian origins but adapted well in the 1980s to the emergence of formalized Green parties (which of course chose green for semiotic purposes).  Pragmatists, the Nationals, operating as usual like horse-traders, settled on a slightly darker shade with gold lettering, the traditional Australian sporting livery.  Briefly, the Nationals had flirted with shades of brown, the idea being to convey “the people of the soil” but the idea was quickly abandoned, not because brown was so associated with the Nazis (the Braunes Haus (Brown House)) was their early Munich headquarters and the Surmabteilung (the SA and literally "Storm Detachment" but usually called storm-troopers) were street thugs known as the “brownshirts” because of their uniform) but because brown is such an unappealing colour and difficult for graphic artists to handle.         

Crooked Hillary Clinton (b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) liked teal pantsuits and retained a fondness for the shade, even as the cut of her clothes became more accommodating.

The origin of red being associated with the politics of radicalism and revolution is generally assumed to date from the use in the French revolution where the idea was to represent the blood spilled in the overthrow of the ancien régime although the shade used should perhaps have been darkened a little in the years that followed as the revolution began “to consume its children”.  Around the planet, colors are widely used as political identifiers and, with different traditions of use and history of origin, there’s a wide divergence of meaning; what a color in one country conveys can mean the opposite in another.  There’s also the point that at one, important level, a color is just a color and the choice, even for political purposes, may be purely on aesthetic grounds:  Hitler made no secret that he choose red, white and black as for the early depictions of the swastika and other Nazi imagery because his ideological opponents, the communists, had used it with such success.  Among the best known color adoptions are orange and green in Ireland, yellow and red in Thailand and black by the so-called Islamic State (داعش, Dāʿish) and a number of Islamist and Islamic fundamentalist movements (as a symbol of jihad), saffron in India because of the traditional association with Hinduism and the Hindu nationalist movement.  The association of certain blue & red with political parties or ideologies is fairly consistent in the English-speaking world except for the curious pattern of use in the United States.

Flags of the US Republican Party (Elephants) & US Democrat Party (Donkeys).

In the US, although the idea of blue states (Democrats) and red states (Republicans) is now entrenched as part of the political lexicon, it's been that way only for two decades odd.  Red and blue had long been used to illustrate the US electoral map but there was never any consistency in how they were allotted to the parties and in some elections, different television networks might use them differently or even use different colors entirely, one of the considerations being what worked best on the then novel medium of color television.  The other influence was possibly political culture, there being in the US little tradition of a mainstream, radical party of the left so the red-blue contrast as it was understood elsewhere in the English-speaking world didn't register in the same way.  It was in the 2000 presidential election that the television networks agreed to standardize the red and blue designations for Republicans and Democrats, the incentive simply one of convenience in the reporting of the drawn-out Electoral College numbers that year.  As the red and blue imagery flowed across screens for weeks before the numbers were settled, the color associations became set in stone.

Shades of purple, the US 2004 presidential election: outcomes from Electoral College represented by state (left) and county (right). 

The idea of the US as a divided society of red states (emblematically the fly-overs) and blue states (with populations on the corrupting coastlines) is graphically illustrated when the states are colored according to the winner-takes-all system electoral college system but if the red-blue map is instead constructed county by county, a more nuanced spectrum emerges as one that is in shades of purple (purple a mix of red & blue as teal is of green & blue).  The US is a country of divisions and many of the cleavages are cross-cutting but the state by state maps do exaggerate the extent of the political polarization.

2021 McLaren GT Coupé in teal (Serpentine in the McLaren color chart).