PAINTED UNICORN

Painted Unicorn

The process behind creating the world’s only Porsche Carrera GT art car.

Unique as the Carrera GT might be in automotive history, it admittedly wasn’t a car that came in a broad variety of shades. With over half of the production run finished in GT Silver, you’d hate to run the risk of losing yours in a car park. How to make it stand out then? Tanveer puts thousands of miles on his car, he’s owned it for years and for most of that time it remained completely stock. Lately though, inspiration struck to make it a little more personal.

“The Carrera GT represents an era that can never be replicated,” he explains. “A V10, with a sound akin to an F1 car. A manual supercar with minimal nannies that rewards skilled driving but can punish you for going beyond your capabilities. Even in a lineup of other Porsches, it stands alone.”

But sheer performance credentials aside, his example has artistic bona fides that few others can claim. “I saw a 911 Dakar at Monterey Car Week with a design on it that looked like a wrap, but on closer inspection I spotted that it had been hand painted. After a little cyber-sleuthing I figured out it was an art car by Chris Dunlop. Once I saw that I had to reach out to him with my proposal. I asked if he would like to paint the CGT live at the Carlas USA PPF booth at SEMA, and after a long lunch in Costa Mesa he agreed and the rest is history!

We drew partial inspiration from a gentleman I found on social media painting Arabic calligraphy in the shape of horses on the sides of cars. I thought it was so elegant and had a fantastic flow to it. My wife suggested we do a gradient with darker paint at the front and lighter at the back, and Chris did an amazing job from there.

Seeing a Carrera GT in the wild is already like seeing a unicorn, but when people see this one, their first reaction is bewilderment and fascination. Often they think it’s a wrap, but when they notice it’s hand painted there’s a distinct moment you can see their mind get blown, it’s the best!

I think it’s something you have to walk around a few times to see in its entirety. There’s the overall effect when you first see it, but once you get close you can spot a million little decisions that add up to the overall impact.”

Chris Dunlop spent two days with Tanveer’s car to produce the final outcome you see now, all in front of a live audience. Though it’s far from the only Porsche art car, we really can’t think of another one based on a Carrera GT. Perhaps because of their immense collectability, remarkably few of them are even slightly modified. Speaking to Type 7, Chris doesn’t seem especially pressured by that fact, focusing instead on the practical challenges of bringing the project together.

“Personally I love doing artwork live as it adds a bit of energy to everything that you can’t get locked up in a studio. Not to mention the conversations that happen around you are really interesting — people see it happening in real time and ask questions.

“Often they think it’s a wrap, but when they notice it’s hand painted there’s a distinct moment you can see their mind get blown, it’s the best!“

"I think it’s something you have to walk around a few times to see in its entirety. There’s the overall effect when you first see it, but once you get close you can spot a million little decisions that add up to the overall impact.”

I never plan art cars, and I usually say that at the start before agreeing to anything. The idea of having a concrete plan for me actually kills the spontaneity that happens in the moment. I have the same approach to canvas as well — I don’t want to know what the end result will exactly look like.

Early on, Tanveer told me he wanted 2 colours (black and grey in this case). Working over a silver car is also unusual because depending on your lighting, the silver flips from lighter to darker than the greys I was using which means when you walk around the car you can sometimes ‘lose the artwork’ in different situations, which was a bit of a challenge in the moment.

In the end I wouldn’t change a thing about it — I love how it came out in the time frame of the event and the combination of blacks and greys came together better than if it had been planned to a T.”