2015 Rally America Champion, David Higgins and co-driver Craig Drew conducted testing ahead of Wales Rally GB earlier this week with their Group N 2015 Subaru WRX STI entered by Subaru Rally Team USA and Vermont SportsCar.
Commissioned by Vermont to design a tribute livery to honor the late Colin McRae and his 1995 WRC Championship Win, the car has quickly become a fan favourite after a successful test and the ‘ceremonial’ start on Thursday night. Continue Reading
Another successful SEMA Show in the books. My tenth visit to the largest automotive aftermarket show in Vegas, SEMA is a trade only show filled with thousands of competition cars and car builds, and this year, an insane 140,000 people.
I have over 90 images of the show on my Instagram feed, which you can view here.
A quick overview of my cars at SEMA 2015….
I will be at the SEMA Show from Tuesday 2nd – Thursday 4th November. If you would like to meet up to discuss any project or collaboration, please do not hesitate to contact me via my contact page or social media.
I have been very fortunate to have turned my hobby into my career. Although not a big ‘design’ project, this is a special one for me. I was commissioned by regular client, Vermont SportsCar, who run the Subaru Rally Team USA program to create a Colin McRae tribute livery to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Colin’s World Rally Championship. David Higgins will pilot his Group N (JRM) Subaru WRX STi with co-driver Craig Drew.
I have tried to keep as close was we can to the original livery, swapping out tyre and fuel sponsors of the day to 2015 partners including coloration where possible. Subaru die-hards will notice we are also using the darker non-metallic blue of the early cars.
It was a very cool project to work on and as a kid from Great Britain who grew up with rallying (my god-father was a co-driver, then later I co-drove in a couple of Single Venue British Championships with my brother-in-law) it was special to be able to pay tribute to Britain’s first WRC Champion.
EDIT: The print is now sold out. Thank you to everyone who purchased the print and rasied over $6000 for the Wilson Children’s Fund
Words: Marshall Pruett, Racer Magazine.
Justin Wilson fans have a new charity print to purchase that will support the wife and children of the late racecar driver. Created by renowned livery designer Andy Blackmore and IndyCar digital artist Ryan Long, the two have come together to create a print depicting each car Wilson drove to victory in a career spanning three decades.
From the Formula Vauxhall Junior car Wilson used to earn his maiden win in 1994 to the Dallara DW12-Honda that took the Briton to Victory Lane for the final time in 2012, 14 cars have been created by Blackmore & Long. And in some cases where images and logos were hard to find, the Wilson family, including Justin’s father Keith, provided invaluable help to accurately recreate the cars.
Altogether, 32 people came together to make the $125 print possible, and of note, Noblesville, Ind.-based Rowland Printing donated the labor and material costs to produce the print. The batch of 50 prints, done at 18″x12″, will be sold on eBay starting at approximately 9 p.m. ET at the following link: http://stores.ebay.com/Celebrity-Charity-Auctions/Justin-Wilson-Memorial. All proceeds will go directly to the Wilson Children’s Fund.
“I had originally met Justin a few times when we were both still in the UK during his time in Formula Vauxhall and always followed his career more closely than others,” Blackmore told RACER. “I wanted to help Justin’s family following his untimely passing and used the helmet graphic from an old Champ Car illustration as the basis of the helmet tribute sticker that helped spread the word, was used as a tribute, and more importantly, raised funds for the Children’s Foundation. Continue Reading
Congratulations to clients, VermontSportsCar, Subaru Rally Team USA and their drivers David Higgins and Craig Drew on an amazing perfect season in Rally America in a brand new car.
I have been working with Vermont for the past couple of years on their liveries in Rally America and Global RallyCross.
Congratulations guys, an amazing achievement
BAD Lambo Racing and Park Place Motorsport recently commissioned me to produce a variation on Jim Norman’s BAD Lambo Racing livery for up and coming racer, Madison Snow.
Sponsored by UIS, the basic design remains but the colors and transition has been modified. Matte Black has made way for a Gloss finish while the oranges and bright reds at the front have been merged to match the sponsor house colors, creating a deep Dark ‘Blood’ Red.
White has been introduced on the side which breaks into Silver and back to the Red to give a unique look which also but retains the basic team identity.
The original BAD Lambo livery remains (shown above).
The new livery will make its debut at the Circuit of The Americas round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Championship North America.
Images: Jamey Price for Lamborghini
As you maybe aware, INDYCAR (US) and Stickers4 are selling Justin Wilson stickers to raise funds for Justin’s family and the ‘Wilson Children’s Fund’.
Shipping cost from the INDYCAR Store is expensive for the sticker and is shipped via UPS (which usually creates import charges). As a Canadian resident and designer of the original decal, I’ve had a number of emails asking where these can be obtained from Canada.
I have arranged a limited supply of these stickers to be printed for Canadian (EDIT: and now the US) and are available for CAN$8.00 + $1.50 ($2.50 for US) to cover postage, Ebay and Paypal fees). The $8.00 will go to the Wilson Children’s Fund. Once these are gone, it is unlikely I can get more produced as I’m funing cost of production. To make things easier for all, I am selling them through Ebay.
You can view the Buy It Now item here
The sticker has been designed and produced with the full support of Stefan Wilson, Justin’s brother.
Image: Peter Leung
Full list of ways you can help the Wilsons is listed here by Marshall Pruett.
Rest in peace #BADASS
The Spotter Guides for the WEC IMSA double header event at Circuit of The Americas in Texas are now available on SpotterGuides.com
The Official IMSA Spotter Guide features all four TUDOR classes as well as the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge. You can download the official guide from the dedicated page.
The NISMO Spotter Guide for the WEC round features all 31 cars with the latest liveries and driver changes. You can download the WEC guide from its dedicated page.
Both guides will be kept up to date during the week with driver and any significant livery changes.
Thank you to Nissan and IMSA. Without their support, there would be no Spotter Guides.
I have been fortunate to work with Vermont SportsCar in recent years on their Rally America and Global RallyCross Championship campaigns on behalf of Subaru Rally Team USA.
The latest livery will make its debut at the Los Angeles Round of the GRC championship and showcases increased involvement from STI.
A livery design feature is now available on-site here.
Recently created this rendering for Turner Motorsports to announce the purchase of two new BMW M6 GT3’s for the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Fun working through all the details of the currently disguised car
The livery is a development of the design I created for the team last year.
Press release follows.
Many years ago I produced a series of Champ Car Illustrations including Justin Wilson’s RuSport Champ Car. I pulled this illustration of Justin’s helmet off the artwork. Its not great detail, but feel free to use the image to show your support for Justin, his family, colleagues and friends in this difficult time. Number of updates below , please read.
Rest in peace, Badass
Early last year, I was commissioned by well-known car enthusiast, Benjamin Sloss to create a unique livery (below) for his Ferrari 458 Challenge Evo using state of the art AERO Paint film using Cobalt Blue AERO Liquid Metal™ on Speed Yellow livery. AERO had suggested me after working on previous designs for CJ Wilson Racing and Tyler McQuarrie Racing.
After running his Ferrari 458 Challenge car over the last year, Sloss and his wife, Christine, decided to purchase another 458 Challenge EVO for her to drive as well. With so much success on the first livery, Mr. and Mrs. Sloss decided to reverse the Cobalt Blue and Speed Yellow livery for their second Challenge car (below).
Warren Scott’s Team BMR have become a force to be reckoned with in recent years in the British Touring Car Championship. In 2015, they are running BTCC champions Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.
Warren reached out to me a couple of weeks ago for a livery to showcase their increased support from RCIB Insurance. With two weeks until the Snetterton round of BTCC and a packed schedule already in place, it was a super quick turn around on this design. A variety of concepts was initially submitted to the team before they selected this flowing design which was developed into the final concept, above.
With the artwork complete, Team BMR’s Vinyl supplied did a great job in wrapping four cars in 4-5 days. The final cars are close to the original concept with just some branding adjustments. The previous design was plain Black with a white rectangle on the bonnet (hood) for RCIB. Continue Reading
I was fortunate to work with Canadian team, Compass360 Racing on their new Audi fleet of racecars. At the end of last year, I designed a new livery for the Audi S3, which blended the traditional Compass360 look, a retro inspired Audi Sport identity with the vibrant and cool paint films of AERO.
The livery design process has now been released in the dedicated Portfolio section.
More recently, Compass360 Racing have been preparing to make their TUDOR debut at Lime Rock Park with a new Audi R8 LMS. I collaborated on the livery with the team owner (and leading Creative Director), Karl Thomson.
After Daytona, the run-up to Le Mans is very busy for me, not that I am complaining. Oh no!
In addition to the NISMO Le Mans Spotter Guide and the livery design for the #21 Nissan GT-R LM NISMO prototype (which also features here in the above graphic), I also assist teams with various graphic assets.
Sticking with Nissan, I supply the NISMO motorsport organisation with various vehicle, and helmet illustrations which their PR guru, Paul Ryan then integrates into inforgraphics, press releases and press packs.
The lead image features Nissan Athlete LM P1 roster, with cars. Great fun drawing these helmets, many from low res or awkward angled images as these Le Mans spec helmets had only been used on test day, or were still being painted
The excellent Goodwood Road and Racing website featured the 1996 Gulf liveried GTC McLaren F1 GTR on their site in the lead up to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. I designed this livery at the end of 1995, a development of another Gulf livery for the team the previous season.
They seem to like it. Read the article here
Imagery by Antony Fraser
The NISMO European Le Mans Series Spottter Guide for the Red Bull Ring and the Official IMSA Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix Spotter Guide for Canadian Tire Motorsport Park are now available to download at their dedicated pages (see links).
In addition, the TUDOR United SportsCar Entry car art will also be used in the official programme at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Thank you to those who downloaded, retweeted, shared or liked the NISMO Le Mans Spotter Guide. We had over 100,000 unique downloads on this site, plus an unknown number via Nissan USA’s press release channels..
Thanks to Nissan NISMO for sponsorship of the ELMS, WEC and Le Mans Spotter Guides and to IMSA for partnering on their official Guides for the TUDOR and CTSC series.
Anyone who uses my Racing Wall Planner (available here) will see this weekend (27-28 June) is one of the busiest of the year. There will be Eighteen of my liveries racing or rallying across North America!
Update: While not competing, there will also be at least one design on show in Europe, Ken Block’s ‘ Hoonicorn’ Mustang RTR which I styled the body. The Ueno Clinic and GTC Gulf McLaren F1 GTR’s may also be driiven up the hill over the weekend!
In addition, my Official IMSA Spotter Guide for Watkins Glen is also available to download at SpotterGuides.com
I’m very thankful to the teams, drivers and sponsors who have allowed me to work on something I love. Now, for a quick vacation!
As birthday boy Paul McCartney once sung, ‘It was 20 years ago today…’ McLaren won Le Mans overall on their debut with a production based car, albeit a very special one
I was very fortunate to have been working at McLaren at the time and through, my employment, previous employer (Grand Prix Design – the design arm of 3001 International) and freelance commissions, I designed the majority of the McLaren F1 GTR liveries.
The easiest and quickest design is arguably one of the most well known….
