To celebrate the entry of its first-ever two-car lineup into the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Flying Lizard went to helmet-painting titan Troy Lee to design a livery. The livery was subsequently applied to the #80 911 GT3 RSR, to be driven in the GTE Pro class by Jörg “Bergspyder” Bergmeister, Patrick Long, and Lucas Luhr; and the #81 GTE Am entry piloted by Darren Law, Seth Neiman, and Spencer “The Vegan” Pumpelly. The #80 car is blue with orange accents. The #81 car is the inverse of that.
The blue-and-orange livery offers a subtle nod to the 1970 J.W. Automotive Gulf 917 Kurzhecks made famous by Steve McQueen’s Le Mans, while the scheme incorporates the names and national flags of all the drivers who have secured overall victories at Le Mans behind the wheel of a Porsche. The list includes the 1970 Porsche KG Salzburg team of Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood—who nabbed the first overall triumph for Porsche in a 917K—plus racing gods like Jacky Ickx, Henri Pescarolo, Hurley Haywood, and Allan McNish.
The scheme flows into a streaky design that recalls Jeff Koons’s BMW M3 GT2 art car from last year’s race. Porsche says they’re honored. The Lizards claim they’re pleased as punch. We, however, are miffed that they failed to pay tribute to the greatest Porsche ever to turn a wheel in anger at Le Mans—the Sonauto 914-6 GT. The mighty mid-engined machine punched above its weight in 1970, winning the GTS class and placing ahead of 911s, Ferrari 512Ss, and even the vaunted 917 to take sixth overall. Next year, no doubt?
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