Does the primer color make a difference

cascius said

I'm not a paint guy, but doesn't a true Candy paint require some sort of base color first to give it the total effect?

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true 'candy apple red' is a base color coat followed by what can best be described as clear coat that is colored red. Very hard to get perfect (I've seen many jobs that you'd notice banding in the candy if you looked close). And the base could be silver, gold, whatever, and that vastly changes the finished look.
However, for many years people have called other colors 'candy apple red' (like what Rob mentioned) while they're not actually done the same way.

btw, I've known painters in the past who would use a contrasting primer so they could tell when the paint was the 'correct' color- i.e. they would never use red primer, only grey, if they were painting a car red (I'm talking about when those were the only choices lol).