I don't know the Italian word for 'fly' (the insect, not the act of soaring through the air), but the Italian alphabet lacks the letter 'Y', so I doubt the 'Fly Yellow" reference came from Italy. If I had to guess, I would say it is of American origin, and probably refers to the color's unique ability to draw flies (as has been mentioned). The acronym (Ferrari Light Yellow) probably came along afterward after some clever chap devised it.
1977 Ferrari yellow....I'll post back the code, it's noted in the My Garage Section of the Factory site they confirmed it's OEM... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
My Heritage Certificate says my color is Giallo Fly It. (Italvar, the paint company). The car was completed April 23, 1969. It has a fair amount of green in it which the painter says helps to give it the depth. Regards, Jim Walker 365 GT 2+2 #12451
3rd pic would seem to lend some credence to this theory: http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=138365233&postcount=1
So no one heard of the theory of swatting a fly and seeing the fly juice, hence Fly Yellow??? I do recall a big time collector mention that on a TV show.... Seriously!
Lots of nice theories and stories out there, but this is the correct version. Giallo Fly was created by Fiamma Breschi. She says in her auto-biography that "-the Drake had given me a mandate to deal with the materials and interior fabrics and shades of colours", and so she created Giallo Fly. This story is verifed by the fact that Enzo gave her a Japanese copy of 'Mes Joies Terribili' and wrote in it "Il Giallo Fly e arrivato fin qui" - "The Giallo Fly has arrived here". Having met Fiamma and seen this book I can verify that all of this is correct. Giallo Fly made its debut at the 1965 Salon de Paris on a 275GTB. Nathan
Which still doesn't explain why "Fly" unless I'm missing something. As an aside, why a Japanese copy of his book? That seems a bit odd (I am assuming from the Italian name that she isn't Japanese). Jonathan
Bob, lovely photo! It is impressive how lighting changes the same color. I think the GTC looks particularly shapelier in Giallo Fly. Congratulations on a very good choice. I struggled with the decision on the color for my Dino, but the choice was unanimous in my family. No regrets... Regards, Alberto
From professional Ferrari painter Jon Byers who has painted Ferraris that have won consecutive years at Pebble Beach since 1996 in response to my inquiry, says: "PPG paint and the code was DBC-81648 "
Yellow as a paint is very fickle and most of the time is is not a desirable color suitable for a vintage Ferrari. I found that the best match for fly yellow is quite simple, you just use PPG's yellow mixing color straight out of the can. Fly in the Italian language is (Mosca) .
Reviving an old thread because this question was brought up in the Massini/Monterey photos thread, which I would rather not hijack. First, Nathan Beehl's earlier post addressing this issue: Now allow me to clarify: There had been yellow Ferraris before, but in her biography, Fiamma Breschi takes credit for the color Giallo Fly, claiming the color was her suggestion. According to Breschi, Ferrari refused to name the color "Giallo Fiamma" ("Flame Yellow" in Italian), so the name became Giallo Fly instead. Of course, at the same time, Breschi also takes credit for the 275 GTB's long-hooded design (saying she drew a sketch for Enzo, taking her inspiration from Cruella de Vil's car in 101 Dalmations). She goes on to claim that when the 275 GTB had it's debut at the Geneva Salon in Giallo Fly, everyone hated it. But then Ferrari sent another Giallo Fly 275 GTB to the Paris Salon at her suggestion and the rest is history! In reality, the 275 GTB made its debut at the Paris Salon in 1964 (not Geneva) and the car shown, s/n 06449, was Verde Scuro 19394 (a very dark green), not Giallo Fly. There are numerous photos to document this. So maybe she mixed up her auto shows? If so, then to which is she referring? 1964 Geneva: None 1964 Paris: 06449 (dark green) 1964 London: 06521 (red) and 06527 (light blue) 1964 Turin: 06505 (dark red) 1965 Geneva: 06527 (light blue) 1965 Paris: 07887 (red) 1965 London: 08047 (light blue) At one time, there were several sources which identified s/n 06003 (Giallo Fly) as the 1964 Paris Salon car, but photos we have today clearly show it was the dark green 06449. Breschi was likely just embellishing her tale based on information available to her at the time. Regardless, the color first appeared on the 275 GTB and Fiamma Brescia may have inspired it. From the book: Terrible English translation:
First of all thanks very much for your at length explanation, it is above and beyond what I expected. I'm glad you correlated this info with the old thread I found, and not to detract from the hard work you have done on the Monterey thread. Great work by the way. And thanks once again. Sidenote. I mentioned before in the thread of suggestions for fchat, but a thumbs up/down button or even a like would be useful and really help and show appreciation when somebody answers a question, or when others agree with someone's comment.
At Concorso Italiano I was drawn to a Yellow single mirror Testarossa, since I purchased the exact car almost a year ago. While all the nearby cars that were red had NO FLIES on them, this yellow car had at least fifty on it. The owner noted how it attracts flies and he was right. So reading through the first three pages of this post, the one who said it's because it attracts flies, may sound goofy, but this color is a fly magnet! I look forward to getting mine on the road, as the more I see the fly yellow cars, the more I LIKE the color.
Post #42 GTR! (great thread revival) by El Wayne Here's some newer discussion of Giallo: https://www.theoutlierman.com/blogs/blog/from-the-origins-of-ferrari-to-style-details-yellow-is-a-state-of-mind https://magazine.ferrari.com/en/cars/2019/01/22/news/ferrari-yellow-second-brand-colour-52379/