Attached below is an image of a writing sample with Montblanc British Racing Green, and below that, the review proper. Regarding the image, "lorem ipsum" is a nonsense language used by printers to showcase a font/color (ie: it takes focus away from content and puts it on aesthetics). The water test was performed by submerging and agitating a sample swatch of the given ink in reverse osmosis water for thirty seconds, then letting it drip dry.

A key has been added, written on Clairefontaine paper, with a number of different inks for reference.

Standard Disclaimer: Image provided only to give a general sense of the color. The vibrance and nuance are typically lost when an ink is digitized.



Review

When I write a review, I first focus on color, and award an ink 0 to 100 based upon that alone, separate from other considerations. I then deduct points from the color score for defects (ie: lack of flow, creep, etc), to arrive at an overall score.

Color

Montblanc British Racing Green is an appealing shade of dark green, with perhaps a hint of tan. It is what I hoped Noodler's Zhivago would be. Shading is present, but not pronounced.

Ultimately, it's a bit drab.

Color Score = 80

Deductions

MB Racing Green is one of the more well-behaved inks I've used, and as such, deductions aren't applicable.

Bonus Points

MB Racing Green is a fast drier.
+5

In general, it is a very well behaved ink, cleans up easily, etc.
+2

Overall Score = 87 out of 100

Yep that's what I would give it! I burned through one bottle of the stuff and am on my second, I do hope they don't discontinue it.



love a nice dark green ink ( try the Stipula Moss green for a postive comparison in the same area of the spectrum)


Kurt

I am on my second bottle as well since I began using the stuff last summer. This is probably the best behaved ink I have. Aside from the colour (I love, and now have a nice collection of, "ugly greens"), one great thing about MB Racing Green is that it can appear very different in different pens, which kind of makes it seem like you have several "ugly green" inks in one. It is also the best combination I have of an ink that is both "weird" and conservative. I can use it for work on official documents, and no one will raise an eyebrow. But is sure is unusual. My only complaint about this ink, is that the colour is not saturated enough for my taste and shades too much. I pefer flat, saturated colour in my inks. If I could have a Noodler's El Lawrence that behaves as well as the MB Racing Green, I would be ecstatic.

QM2

Nice work, thanks. I like the color.

Your review convinces me to try Racing Green. I'd thought about it before, but now...


goes off to order a bottle... hooray!

I love this ink...from its color (which I find distinguished and subtle) to its behavior (absolutely faultless). It's the default ink in my fiancee's Densho; we try others, and always come back to this one.

Cheers,

Jon

Thanks for doing these tests very interesting from my persective with the Reform Pen

I wonder whether you dipped the nib or was the pen filled for each test?

I think you are right about the loss of colour nuance .. on my monitor the above sample looks more grey black than green

It would be interesting to see the results with Waterman inks ~ I find Parker & Waterman are the most commonly available in the UK almost everything else has to be mail order.

The pen was fully filled for each review, and had been written with for a few pages before beginning the sample. In terms of the Montblanc BRG, it looks much nicer out of a Pelikan M. In the F reform, it comes off as a kind of flat, dark green. But in the M Pelikan the tannish nuances are much more pronounced. Really like night and day, and goes to show you that inks can look completely different from different pens and different nibs. I will most likely be picking up a full bottle of this to have on hand, if anything just for the good behavior.

EDIT: FYI, out of the Reform, the MB BRG does indeed have a flat, greyish-green look about it.

Streuth that effort was above & beyond the call of duty & yes inks look better from my lamy & Pelikan pens as these seem to write wetter & you can see the colour variation

I'll try to return the favour with the inks I have to hand using the Reform Fine 1745 though not sure about wetness testing

Thanks again much appreciated

I find MB Racing Green to be almost indistinguishable from Noodler's Sequoia. The MB seems to become a tiny bit greener with time, but I can detect virtually no difference.

Neil

This is going to sound weird but recently I filled an M200 with MB racing green (whose color I like a great deal) and when I wiped the nib off all the gold plarting came off too. I've never seen an ink do this before.

Got the ink and like it. I agree with JJ's comments and review (very nice work, btw). I'll be filling a green M1000 with it, but first I've got to use up a load from a sample vial of Kelly Green. The wet, semi-flex fine nib should show off the MB BRG nicely. Thanks again for the excellent review and the good follow-up comments (from all of you).

How does the color of MBBRG compare to El Lawrence? I use El Lawrence in a Lamy Studio with broad nib with excellent results: only the slightest of skipping on the first stroke if I leave the pen uncapped even for a very short period of time (20 secs) This would be pretty bad for most inks but, from what I have read about El Lawrence, I'm pretty pleased and I really like the color.

Just tried it out in a new Reform and what a very nice combination. Not so outlandish, that I can't use it daily and rich enough to enjoy.

Currently my favourite ink - and has been for several months......

On my monitor (quite good one!), it just looks black, to me...except in the Water Test

Your review made me purchase one bottle of it...lucky I found it near home and at quite a reasonable price for spanish standards..This is exactly the kind of green I was thinking of to use it at work, I have waterman green but it is..well, too green for serious writing.

Tried to punch up the image; closer to what you saw on the page perhaps?

Click to view attachment

Certainly much closer, but not quite there.

In the time that has elapsed since I originally wrote this review, MB BRG has become my daily ink. It behaves better than any ink I've tried to date (and I've tried a lot). The color is perfectly acceptable for business/government use, yet it has that undertone of green that makes it interesting. To echo my earlier comment, BRG is what I was looking for when I bought Zhivago: a really dark green that's definitely not black, yet is not so loud as to raise eyebrows or otherwise attract attention.

Sounds interesting. Can't wait to get me some.




.................Stani

Yesterday, I stuffed this ink into my green Pelikan M400 attached to my favorite nib, a Binder gold-plated steel OB cursive italic nib. It'll be a sad day if this particular nib suffers from mibgis.*

But I like the color, even though I agree it is a bit drab.

Fred


*Montblanc green ink syndrome, or MBGIS.

I've used this in Reform 1745s quite a bit, which are plated steel nibs. No MBGIS. Frankly, the plating wiping off sounds like A.) an attempt at humor, or B.) the end result of a de-plating process that was occurring over a long period, and happened to reach its climax when the MB ink was added. There is no ink out there, even the worst of the iron galls, that will straight up de-plate a nib upon first contact.

I'm one of those who got a bottle after reading this review. I really like the colour and how it behaves so well!

I wanted this colour after reading this review. Bought it and tested it. Very nice ink!