Like the delicate pedals of the rose, I give to you the red cars of St. Valentine's Day

Can you smell it? The distinct aroma of love, lingering in the Valentine's Day air. Of course, readers of this blog know that aroma hints of burning rubber and gasoline.
 
Today, we're going to take a look at red cars. What other color has been more of a staple in the show car world than that of Marilyn Monroe's lipstick? "Arrest-me red." "Resale red." They can come up with as many new-fangled custom colors, metallics, and fades as they want to, but none of them have the lasting impact of good, old fashioned bright red.

These days, you see far less bright red than you used to. Fact is, when I was searching for pictures for this story, I only found three red cars from this year's North American International Auto Show.

And yet, as I went through album after album, no other color stood out from the crowd as much as red. It was actually pretty easy to find pictures for this, because when you're paying attention, red just hits you upside the head.

I do like it. Nothing is any more rewarding to wax. People won't say mean things about it on older cars. It's just perfect.

Of course, it seems like there are more old red cars now than there were when they were new. People tend to buy conservative, yet red cars make up a high percentage of what you see at the car shows. You have to believe that many of these red cars were green and gold and washed-out blue.

That's a huge slideshow down there, folks. Nearly 350 photos. And I could have easily doubled that number if I kept searching. I have seen a lot of red cars in my camera lens over the years, and they almost always look great in the pictures. Take a look at the slideshow and see for yourself. Heck, you may see your red car, or that of someone you love. And that's what Valentine's Day is all about.  Click this link for a nicer version of the slideshow.