History: BMW ///M logo colors explained

Since we just posted some bits from BMW’s history, we decided to stay on the topic and talk about the ///M logo, the three stripes that make M branded cars even more recognizable. So, let’s see what we can learn about the “M” today.

The first Red stripe represented Texaco, the famous American oil retail brand, who had partnered with BMW during the early days of M racing. Blue represented BMW and Bavarian region. The purple was used to represent the partnership and to allow for a nice transition between the two colors, blending as some may call it.

Once the BMW/Texaco partnership ended, BMW had to buyout Texaco for the rights to the red.

For those of you that are in the imaging or graphics field, here is something that I dug out, the color names and codes used in the ///M stripes:

Pantone:
Blue — Pantone Process Blue
Purple — Pantone 268
Red — Pantone Warm Red

Paint:
blue violett GLASURIT-BMW 4000
light blue GLASURIT-BMW 5002
red GLASURIT-BMW 353

RGB:
Blue — 0 138 201 (Hex: 008AC9)
Purple — 43 17 90 (Hex: 2B115A)
Red — 241 26 34 (Hex: F11A22)

Pantone = color process (order) used by printing shops to define colors.

Paint = in this case it is refering to a GLASURIT paint code. Or a specific mix of auto paints.

RGB = Red, Green, Blue. The same process your computer monitor or TV uses to make colors.

Stay tuned for our next BMW history lesson!

Thanks to Automarket for the inspiration!

12 Responses to “History: BMW ///M logo colors explained”

jkp says:

April 13, 2009 at 7:32 am

I remember hearing someone say that the red was for Castrol. Thx for the clarification!

Frederico Silva says:

April 13, 2009 at 9:09 am

This is better than my history class -.-, cause we learn something, and heven better, we learn about our favorite auto brand, awesome, Thanks Horatiu

bunker says:

April 13, 2009 at 9:25 am

Always wondered about this. Many thanks, Horatiu!

Malcolm says:

April 13, 2009 at 9:47 am

That is pretty awesome! I never knew this about the colors. All this time I have owned an M3 and never really gave it much thought. Great post Horatiu!!

Joe says:

April 13, 2009 at 10:41 am

Thanks chief. I love this blog.

Sean says:

April 13, 2009 at 10:59 am

The color red represents BMW’s racing heritage, not sure about Texaco.

Alan says:

April 13, 2009 at 11:05 am

post sources where you got this information. i’ve never seen texaco listed as the source for red except for speculation on the web. there is plenty of substantiated opinion that it is for castrol, which has extensive history with BM, and was repeated by Roundel recently. Look at the front of the “flying” Hans Stuck CSL.

jon H says:

April 13, 2009 at 11:34 am

very interesting horatiu

TK says:

April 13, 2009 at 4:45 pm

cool

Jp Albano says:

April 13, 2009 at 5:19 pm

I am pretty sure its Castrol and NOT Texaco.

Damien says:

April 16, 2009 at 1:55 pm

Have to toss my hat in the ring and state I also was told it was Castrol. Castrol and BMW have a long standing “partnership”?

links for 2009-11-13 at So It’s Come To This: says:

November 14, 2009 at 5:08 am

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