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  1. Dunlop seeks race car designers for Le Mans

    Dunlop seeks race car designers for Le Mans

    Fourth Dunlop Art Car competition calls for entries from design students and car and racing fans to give its Ferrari F458 Italia a unique look.

    Dunlop, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high and ultra high performance tyres, is calling for competition entries motorsport enthusiasts and design students to create the look of the Dunlop sponsored Ferrari at the Le Mans 24 Hours this year. This is the fourth year that a Dunlop car’s design has been created by competition winners – but this year there is a big difference – all entrants will have a much freer canvas for designing the Ferrari F458 Italia entered by JMW Motorsport.

    This year’s competition will seek to expand the initiative into the artistic domain. The call for entries in 2012 is directed at car and racing fans as well as design students across all disciplines – from art to industrial, and fashion to architectural, each will have the chance to use the Ferrari’s livery as a canvas.

    “This year we are taking the competition to a new level and bringing together the designs from thousands of racing enthusiasts, with those of design students,” says James Bailey, Director, European Motorsport Marketing and Communications. “We are confident that the mix will deliver a new level of racing car design that will deliver an impressive selection of race car design finalists.”

    Art cars are not new to the iconic Le Mans race. The first to grace the French track was American artist Alexander Calder in 1975, and since then several artists’ works have flashed down the Mulsanne straight, including those of David Hockney and Andy Warhol.

    This year’s competition is open to more people than ever before. The minimum entry age has been reduced to 16 yrs* and entrants are now invited from 12 countries across Europe. A dedicated website http://artcar.dunlop.eu/en has easy instructions for submitting designs – entrants simply apply their creation to a branded car template. Judges will be looking for imaginative and creative use of the automotive canvas that will be seen by over 200,000 spectators and millions of TV viewers worldwide.

    Dunlop also needs budding art critics to judge the competition by visiting the http://artcar.dunlop.eu/en website, with no need to register and using Facebook ‘likes’ for their favourite design. The top two ‘liked’ entries along with two designs selected by a jury for each country all win prizes and go through to the European final; the most popular entry overall receives an automatic place in the final four.

    The 48 finalists are then reduced to four international winners, three being selected by the EU jury, which includes the 2011 winner Mik Whiting who designed the ‘Feel The Road’ design that adorned the car last year (see image). The final place will be given to the most popular design. First prize includes seeing the art car unveiled at the pre-race test at Le Mans on June 2nd/3rd. The winner will also attend an awards dinner, see behind the scenes at the Le Mans test event, receive a pair of tickets to the Le Mans race itself and €1000. The three runners-up will each receive a canvas print of their design signed by the JMW race drivers.

    Entries can be submitted from now until the closing date for entries on 10th May. The four winners from each country will be announced on 14th May with the winner and runners-up being notified on 17th May. The winning design will be seen for the first time on June 2nd when it emerges from the pit-garage at Le Mans.

    “We have had a great response to the last three competitions and the brief we set, but we decided that we would like to give more freedom for the design this year. By expanding our reach towards design and art academies we hope to attract even more interest around Europe. We’re looking forward to some really creative entries – there are no constraints”, said Bailey.

    For more information on the contest go to http://artcar.dunlop.eu/en

    dunlop - car template

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