Aston Martin, what are you doing?

Many of you out there may associate Aston Martin more with tradition than innovation, or of having a slight whiff of old fart around them. But here to prove otherwise is the newly unveiled Aston Martin Gulf 97 Vantage GTE, which is due to make its debut this weekend at the Le Mans 24 Hours Endurance Race, covered in artwork courtesy of German abstract artist, Tobias Rehberger.  

Rehberger is the latest of avant-garde artists to express themselves, and in doing so joins an expressionist roster of artists who have used endurance race cars to act as their muses. Perhaps the most famous of these were the BMW series of art cars that began in the 1970’s after US artist Alexander Calder painted an E9 and of course Andy Warhol also got into the act by famously painting an M1.  

The E9 livery by Calder.

A piece of Warhol's art, the M1.

Rehberger spoke about his concept and inspiration for the livery: “The design is based on a geometric optical effect pattern. Comparable to a fast object, a steady fixation on a point of the pattern is impossible.” Indeed, if the car prompts feelings of “distorted perception” and “visual confusion”, imagine hunting a line to overtake it at 250km/h. At night!

images: topspeed.com, bmwdrives.com