Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota Sport has unveiled its spectacular new livery for the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), with an exquisite design reflecting the team’s Chinese heritage and heaped with cultural symbolism.
The striking look for this season’s formidable Oreca 07 – Gibson LMP2 racing car was presented at a press conference in Beijing attended by David Cheng and Ho-Pin Tung. The magnificent and unmistakably-Chinese insignia was created by students of design from the University of Wuhan Institute of Design and Sciences following a campus-wide competition.
In Chinese culture, clouds are often referred to as ‘auspicious clouds’, representing the heavens. They are considered lucky because the Chinese word for ‘cloud’ has a similar pronunciation as ‘luck’ or ‘fortune’. The colour scheme too is full of positive Chinese symbolism, with red bringing good luck, black associated with youth and power, while gold – or yellow – considered the most prestigious colour and representing heroism.
The pair of Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 racing cars, resplendent in their new livery, will break cover at the FIA WEC Prologue in Monza, Italy next month, where drivers David Cheng, Ho-Pin Tung, Tristan Gommendy, Oliver Jarvis, Alex Brundle and Thomas Laurent, together with new partners Jota Sport, will begin their quest for the 2017 FIA WEC LMP2 title.
With an enviable driver line-up, experienced and professional team, and a unique Chinese-inspired new livery, the only clouds on the horizon for Jackie Chan DC Racing are thoroughly auspicious ones.
DRIVER QUOTES
#37
David Cheng
“I’m very happy to reveal our full livery and race suit design for the year. The details of which we worked very hard on with the help of the teachers and students at the Wuhan Institute of Design and Sciences. It will be cool to carry a very unique and traditionally Chinese look into the world championship and give it some oriental flair. Also this livery will have a little surprise waiting for everyone when it gets to run at night.
“This year is also the 45th anniversary of China-UK Relations, which is coincidentally in line with our partnership with Jota Sport. We wanted to have a design that complements this East-meets-West relationship, and I believe it’s best reflected on our car.”
#38
Ho-Pin Tung
“After 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours, David [Cheng] and Jackie Chan together founded Sparkle Roll Jackie Chan DC Racing. For our first year in the Asian Le Mans Series, the main colours were red, gold, black and white, obviously in good Chinese tradition as every colour has a certain meaning. They proved to be good colours for us as we immediately won the championship! So for this year’s WEC, we definitely wanted to use the same colours as our base but to add some unique Chinese character to it. Therefore, we decided to use Chinese clouds in a modern way, for an innovative sport, in a design co-operation with the Wuhan Institute of Design and Sciences. I think the result is stunning and am proudly presenting it here in Beijing today with David.”