Colour me a Prisoner KAR

September 19, 2026

TL;DR: 3 cars, 3 colours

You all know what KAR I'm talking about. Do you remember what colour it was ?

Green with a yellow nose cone would be the most common answer.

That's also what I thought before watching the series two years ago. The doubt struck me only seconds into the opening sequence.

The Lotus Super Seven 1500 Cosworth used as the first KAR120C was black. In any lighting, any angle, by itself or compared to other black cars, it appears to be black. It sports the famous yellow nose cone, headlight grilles, and license plate letters applied directly to the radiator grille. Its steering wheel is the standard wooden 14" Springall.

A second iteration, shown in episode 13, is a dark shade of green similar to the British Racing Green livery of Jaguar race cars of the era. That one sports a red steering wheel and lacks the headlight grilles. The front license plate is a regular one with a solid black background.

Finally, the third car in the finale, the one brought by Caterham's own Graham Nearn in a cameo. That one is an obvious lighter shade of green. It has a wooden steering wheel and got the grilles back on the headlights. The story says that it was prepared overnight for the production.

Additional information provided on a modelling forum thread from 2013 :

Apparently Graham Nearn (he supplied the car(s) has been quoted as saying many times in the past, that the car was black.
It still doesn't explain the green one in the last picture.....

ANOTHER add-on......
I just had a long conversation with Caterham cars themselves.
They have been asked this question countless times and say that they have no definitive records of any of the cars used.
However, they know at least three different cars were used and 'in all probability' could have been different colours.
They have gone with dark green for the limited edition cars as it seems to be the most popular choice in respect of The Prisoner.
Not much further forward although I'm now erring on the side of black or VERY dark green, as in the 'credits' car.

Those quotes are not backed by indisputable sources but they sure match my own observations.

In any case, the green to black ratio is at least 2:1; and the Caterham "Prisoner Edition" from 1990 doesn't leave any doubt about its green-ness.

And now, imagine that I own a 1500 Cosworth with a lot of black on it, two years after already settling on that answer before even having a dog in the fight.

EDIT : I just found David Stimpson's blog, in which the kar is described as being originally black.
You just cannot beat someone that wrote 10 880 posts about The Prisoner.

Exhibit 1: KAR #1