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| Ventura Blue Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 is a tribute to Paul Ventura. |
The name of the lovely color is in fact a tribute to Paul Ventura, a member of the Royal Enfield team that bought the 650 twins into being. Paul died at 42 years old while motorcycling June 20, 2018. There was a collision with a car near his home in the UK.
He was a product strategy manager for Royal Enfield at its UK Technical Center. But, as an avid motorcyclist, he certainly knew the California coastline.
A dual U.S.-European Union citizen, Paul was educated at the University of Southern California. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a combat engineer.
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| Designers posted names for colors on a bulletin board. Ventura Blue was originally to have been Sea Nymph. |
"I plan and develop motorcycles from conception to completion for Royal Enfield, the world's oldest continuously operating motorcycle manufacturer," he wrote on Linked In. "I'm proud to play a key role in helping achieve current sales of over 500,000 units annually, which are well on track to a million!"
In response to his death Royal Enfield staff raised money for a trust fund for his two children.
One anonymous donor wrote: "Couldn't have worked with a nicer chap, always able to bring people together with any background, make them feel included and make them laugh."
The Just Giving page was illustrated with a photo of Paul smiling while having his face licked by a cow.
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| Paul Ventura discusses the Royal Enfield 650 twins in video. |
He appears in the Royal Enfield video "The Royal Enfield 650 Twins — Engineering Fun."
"So these are Royal Enfield's first twin-cylinder motorcycles in a very long time," he says in the video.
"The GT 650 twin and the Interceptor 650 twin, that have true highway capability, exciting handling... They're powerful, they handle, they perform beautifully, but they're also very accessible, very easy."
And very handsome, in Ventura Blue.
UPDATE: In a 2019 comment on this blog item, Mark Wells of Royal Enfield provided more information about this tribute to his colleague, Paul Ventura:
"I am Mark Wells, Head of Product Strategy and Industrial Design at Royal Enfield. I was Paul's boss, he was my dear friend. I miss him every single day. I found this post and these comments looking to try and find pictures of him I don't already have.
"All of Interceptor and GT names have an esoteric back story. Baker Express is named after one of the engineers, Ravishing Red after a lad called Ravi on my team, MarkIII after me. This was Paul's idea. At first it wasn't meant for production, they were just internal names for the colors, but it stuck. Paul never named a color for himself; that is why we did it. Nothing will ever bring him back but maybe his boys will see the name in a bike magazine and know that people who loved Paul did it as their way of honoring his memory."
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| Ventura Blue may be my favorite color for the new Continental GT 650. |
What a very fitting way to remember someone, especially as he worked on producing these bikes.
ReplyDeletePaul is gone, killed on a non-RE, but he survives in a press release as a pitchman for bikes we can't buy yet. Will RE send Paul's kids to college? Does just anything qualify as fodder for the internet? The guy is dead, Royal Enfield. Let him rest.
ReplyDeleteThe blog post I wrote is my own work. It was not based on a press release. I did ask Royal Enfield for a statement I could include, but there was no reply. The photos of the Ventura helmet were indeed in the press kit but the kit contained no caption explaining what they signified. So I wrote the blog item to try to fill in the blanks (I have no connection to Royal Enfield, I am just a fan). As I mentioned, Royal Enfield staff did contribute to a fund for the education of Paul's children. All in all, I think Royal Enfield's intention in renaming the blue color was to honor the man and his contributions, even if only staff members understood it fully. As I wrote, I suspect most people, most U.S. residents at least, will likely associate the Ventura name with the County in California.
DeleteThanks, David. I'm relieved to hear it. Do you think they leaked it only to you...or in a dozen languages? Pardon my cynicism, I'm a fan too. I'm a David Blasco fan, I feel sure, more than I'm a Royal Enfield fan.
ReplyDeleteI only wish Royal Enfield would leak information to me! Thank you for your support. I hope someone is listening.
DeleteI am Mark Wells Head of Product Strategy and Industrial Design at Royal Enfield. I was Paul's boss, he was my dear friend. I miss him every single day. I found this post and these comments looking to try and find pictures of him I don't already have.
DeleteAll of Interceptor and GT names have an esoteric back story. Baker Express is named after one of the engineers, Ravishing Red after a lad called Ravi on my team MarkIII after me. This was Paul's idea. At first it wasn't meant for production they were just internal names for the colours but it stuck. Paul never named a colour for himself that is why we did it. Nothing will ever bring him back but maybe his boys will see the name in a bike magazine and know that people who loved Paul did it as their way of honouring his memory.
I'd love to know who the "Ice Queen" color of the new 650 GTs is named after. In my mind's eye I have some unaproachably lovely blonde gal in the Accounts Receivable Office that everyone just stares at longingly from the water cooler, but I'm worried it'll just be some dude named Bruce in assless chaps over in Shipping.
ReplyDelete