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The livery the Art Cars of Panis Racing and PR1 / Mathiasen Motorsports unveiled
Reportagem: Panis Racing
Two original Art Cars for an exceptional event : Panis Racing and PR1 / Mathiasen Motorsports "full frame" at the 24 hours of Le Mans!

The #65 Panis Racing Oreca-Gibson and the #24 PR1 / Mathiasen Motorsports sister car will be on the grid of the legendary Le Mans race dressed in beautiful liveries designed by artist Laurent Minguet. Those will be variations of the two paintings launched on site.

The project

The two Art Cars will be "exposed" like artwork and highlighted in a garnished common pit box renamed "Racing Art Gallery". The artist Laurent Minguet will be there before the 24 hours of Le Mans test day and will finish the painting process on the bodywork of the cars, highlighting his work and the link between with the racing prototypes. A real artistic approach and a true commitment to this project. "My target was to show direct coherence with my work. The hyper-realistic subject here is the ORECA car." Panis Racing #65 and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsport #24 prototypes have been created by playing with its main artistic codes. Raw wood or marble background provides the first originality. Then, colored drips applied to the entire bodywork will accentuate the effect of cars' speed. As a logical conclusion, Laurent Minguet will propose a specific scenography of the pits and the reception area.

Art for solidarity : The 2 x 24 fine art reproductions of Laurent Minguet's 0.6x0.9m paintings will be sold online on the official 24 hours of Le Mans shop, and the profits will go directly to Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque in order to save a child.

The original 1x1.5m paintings of the Panis Racing & PR1/MathiasenMotorsports cars will be displayed in the ACO Club Members' Chapel for the duration of the event.

Muriel Belgy - Panis Racing & Tech1 Racing Communication Director : "This artistic and solidary project has been initiated by Olivier Panis, Sarah and Simon Abadie, who have developed a strong relationship with the artist Laurent Minguet. His talent and his passion for motorsport have been well-known for years. The 24 hours of Le Mans are a special event for a team, and for our sixth start here in La Sarthe, we wanted to do something special by adding some dream to the purely sporting side, with beautiful colors and materials to brighten up this so gloomy period. Just like a painter, the Art Car #65 and #24 in the hands of our drivers will draw their lines on the Le Mans track.

After our podium finish last year in LMP2 and our win with W.Stevens / J.Allen / J.Canal three weeks ago in ELMS at Monza, the whole team is determined to shine in Le Mans with its two magnificent Oreca cars.

We would like to thank Laurent Minguet who is donating his work to Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, an association we fully support since the creation of the team. The "Heart's Team", as we are often called, continues to help, season after season, Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque by sharing strong emotions with the children, alongside Professor Francine Leca, Orso Chétochine and all the members devoted to their cause.

A big thank you also to Pierre Fillon and his ACO team who immediately supported us and put everything in place to promote our action.

Art cars history

In the 1970s, auctioneer Hervé Poulain, passionate about contemporary art and motorsport, asked artists to decorate race cars for the 24 hours of Le Mans. In 1975, the American painter and sculptor Alexander Calder created the first Art Car based on a BMW. Followed then by creations by Franck Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and more recently Arman, César and Georges Wolinski. Other projects were created after the Poulain era, notably by Jeff Koons, Fernando Costa, Ramzi Adek and Richard Phillips. Rare are the artists who had the opportunity to work on race cars. Laurent Minguet, a hyper-realist painter and designer from Toulouse with a growing reputation, did it brilliantly.

Laurent Minguet's work

Laurent Minguet began painting on canvas in the 1980s, guided by car outlines. Playing on the shapes and reflections of car bodies, he developed his hyper-realist technique which he would later apply to urban scenes. From New York to Sydney, he travelled through megacities seeking places he would draw and paint back in his studio.

"My painting is very precise. My hyper-realistic style gives the illusion of a photo, but when people realize that everything is painted with a brush, they are bluffed. It means magic happens."

From 2014 onwards, alongside his total painting mastery, Laurent Minguet let nature bring its touch by using raw wood and marble supports. Dialogue between our time and the history of art, the marble refers to antiques, where the wood is a glance at the painters of the pre-Renaissance period who painted on panels before the canvas became popular. Their veining, combined with the monochrome acrylic that he pours over the painted subjects, sublimates the overall composition of his paintings.

The artist & motorsport

Laurent Minguet was immersed in the world of cars from an early age thanks to his father who was a sports car dealer. He took him to many racetracks, where Laurent attended the 24 hours of Le Mans for the first time in 1982 at the age of 12. In the early 90s, he even took part in some Renault Cup and Formula Ford races, notably on the Le Mans circuit. Close friend of Simon & Sarah Abadie (Tech1 Racing - who technically manages the Panis Racing car and the PR1 / Mathiasen Motorsports car) for years and then of Olivier Panis, Laurent has made his project real. No doubt it will be fully appreciated by both 24 hours of Le Mans and art lovers.

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