As the 24 Hours of Le Mans approaches, race teams rolled out their vehicles for official testing this past weekend. In the LMGTE Am class, Aston Martin Racing took the top spot with its Vantage, but the second-place finisher was stealing some of the Aston’s shine for a different reason. Larbre Competition, which finished 0.052 second behind the top slot, introduced its Chevrolet Corvette C7.R art car, a gl0w-in-the-dark masterpiece that sticks out on the track like an onion ring in an order of fries.
The speedy graffiti was created by street artist Ramzi Adek, a Frenchman known most recently for his renditions of famous cartoons such as Mickey Mouse and The Simpsons. Although Le Mans will be one of the biggest stages for his art, and the colorful Corvette one of his most unusual pieces, Adek is familiar with the automobile as canvas. He’s taken brush to metal on a Mercedes-Benz SLS, a Ferrari, and some Vespas all since the start of the year. But they don’t look like this.
The No. 50 car’s pop-art livery is titled “Human,” a word that is literally striped in huge letters across the hood and nose of the vehicle. As part of an overall superhero theme, it’s joined by a few other words often seen in comics: “BOOM! CRASH! WAM!”
“The main idea of the project was to create a flow of power and strength, which will carry the drivers through the Le Mans week,” Adek said. “I wanted to give the livery an aggressive identity to make an impact and show that Larbre Competition was not coming to La Sarthe to make up the numbers.”
The childish quality, which is multiplied by the DayGlo paint, was seeded in Adek’s love of toy cars as a kid.
“Romain Brandela, who knew about my work through a mutual friend, contracted me to produce a spectacular livery for the Corvette C7.R that he was going to race at the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours,” Adek said. “I liked the idea as it reminded me of images and memories from when I was a kid, when we would go to the toy shop and run to check out the latest toy cars with their incredible designs. With ‘Human,’ I wanted to design a livery that kids and their parents dream of.”
Brandela is one of three drivers who will pilot the Corvette June 17 and 18, along with Fernando Rees and Christian Philippon. Though he won’t actually get behind the wheel, Adek sees himself as the fourth driver on the squad by creating a display he hopes will motivate the others during the race. After all, the Aston is just gray.
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