When it came time to begin designing the livery for the Road Scholars Cayman GT4, we once again enlisted the creative services of Wade Devers, whose work you may be familiar with from the Ingram Collection 935 that Jeff Zwart piloted to the summit of Pikes Peak last year.
After a month or two of exchanging ideas, we finally combined two of the livery candidates- one that accentuated the thick and thin lines of the GT4 to convey a sense of speed, and a second that added the arrows on the hood and stripe around the headlights to add a modern interpretation to both the Targa Florio winning 908/3 and 917 Salzburg liveries.
When our restoration manager Danny Omasta saw the livery- he instantly suggested painting on the livery as race teams of the past would do instead of applying a vinyl wrap. We wavered on whether it was actually a feasible project to undertake, seeing as both the restoration and service shop were already facing intense workloads with multiple projects already underway and the 2021 Concours season rapidly approaching.
We began with a color palette intended to pay homage to some of our past restoration projects- specifically Azure Blue from the 1955 356 Continental and Fish Silver Grey Metallic from the 1951 Split Window, and a gold color to reference the script from the Continental badge. That idea evolved into three different Porsche colors, but Danny strongly suggested expanding our horizons. Once a range of spray out cards were brought out into the sunlight, the winning combination was clear: BMW’s San Marino Blue, Audi’s Nardo Grey, and the Golden Yellow Metallic from the Turbo S Exclusive Series.
It was a group effort to get the GT4 stripped down after its last track day and prepared for paintwork in less than a week. As soon as the car was unloaded from the trailer, the rubber and bugs from the track were cleaned from the paintwork and components. The moment the car was cleaned and dry, Bryan Gremchuk and Brandon Shaheen began disassembling the car. On Friday evening, Danny and Justin began measuring and masking the graphics and laying down each coat of Glasurit paint from BASF By Sunday afternoon, the GT4 was ready for clear coat- 5 coats in total.
On Monday morning, the arduous task of wet sanding and buffing the paint to a glassy finish began- and it required all hands on deck in the restoration department. Danny, Justin, Claudio, and Michael each took a section of the car and worked their way through multiple stages of sandpaper before polishing. By Tuesday morning- the car was fully wet sanded, buffed, assembled, and scheduled for a full clear vinyl wrap install to protect the guys’ hard work.
This car represents all of us here at Road Scholars, and showcases our talented and diverse team. Everyone in our small company has contributed in one way or another to make competing at Pikes Peak a reality. Whether it be the mechanical team putting in the extra hours to maintain and inspect the car before and after track days, the Resto team for making the livery truly special by disassembling and painting the car in just four days without sacrificing quality, or our management team handling logistics, we are all working together toward one common vision.
