It's a Wrap... Creating the Livery

Creating the custom livery was a group effort which spanned five months.

We started early this year, working with Troy Lee and his team to create the design. Once we had some design ideas, we were able to make the call if we should use vinyl or paint, or a combination. Because of the complexity of the design, we decided on vinyl, and hired Showtrax International to help us. We wanted to keep the car a secret, so we decided to prepare the car under cover of our Le Mans garage after the June test in time to unveil it at Scrutineering in Le Mans.

The vinyl was prepared in ShowTrax's UK studio by Lins, who created 4 complete sets of the car images on large sheets of vinyl.

Meanwhile, back at Le Mans, the crew began to dismantle the No. 80 Porsche, which had run in its 2007 ALMS livery at the June 3 Le Mans test day. They removed all of the existing vinyl, and sanded out bodywork to minimize chips and damage, which would show through the new vinyl.

The crew worked all week following the test to prepare the car for race week, then turned it over to Alistair Frary, Rob and Nick of ShowTrax.

The Showtrax crew focused for for 4 days to create the car and all of the requite spares - through the weekend to prepare the car for its unveiling at Scrutineering on Monday. We made it with 5 minutes to spare!

Below are Rob and Rick - well into the project. Each sheet of vinyl was cut into individual segments corresponding to each bodywork component - from the front hood to the rear decklid.

They then applied the final details - chrome detailing across the Lizard's body and face.

The car was then loaded on a flatbed truck and transported to downtown Le Mans for scrutineering. We kept it covered until Bruno Vandestick, the emcee of Scutineering, helped us unveil the car.

Monday and Tuesday to complete all of the spares. The final step was to apply the chrome details, then cover the key bodywork pieces with clear vinyl to protect it.

Troy Lee, who was hanging out with us for the week, put some finishing details on the car - working some chrome details, custom mirrors, and other details.

Creating the car was definitely a unique experience - a lot of work, but when we saw the reaction of the crowd at Scrutineering it was clear that it was worth it.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible - the Troy Lee Design crew, Showtrax, Steve Pattee, Bruce and Tamra at Crendo,

and of course all of the Lizards.

Several months of design work and planning