July 17, 2020

Shipley based Smart Repair Systems, SRS Automotive, knows a thing or two about vehicle body enhancement. From the look of an ensemble of race cars it’s recently completed, the team there knows about the art of vehicle graphics design and wrapping too…

‘Showroom Shine’ is a well known expression that’s commonly taken to describe the finish on a car or other vehicle as being the best that it can be. Something that’s in ‘just-left-the-factory’ condition; something polished, pampered and pristine. Sparking and oozing glossy goodness. In the hands of the skilled team at SRS Automotive though, such a finish is seen as little more than a good basis for improvement, something to take further. SRS Automotive thinks in terms way beyond ‘showroom shine.’

Improving on a finish that’s as good as a factory can get it isn’t an easy job and that’s just one among many reasons for leaving it to the experts. It involves a lot of processes, skills and hard to acquire technique. ‘Paint correction’ and the results that it yields are nothing less than astonishing. A great looking gloss suddenly looks deep enough to dive into, minor imperfections are totally absent, the very finish itself is a magnet for the eyes and turns heads.

As services go, what SRS Automotive offers is in demand. Someone striving to improve a vehicle to the extent it’s genuinely better than new is both a potential customer, and someone who has a particular relationship with the car of their dreams and with motors in general. To further the fortunes of its business and get its name in front of a big and passionate audience, SRS Automotive decided to sponsor a car racing team. Motor Racing is like a magnet for the audience that SRS Automotive was seeking.

Academy Motorsport is a name well known in racing circles and it fielded a successful season last year at the wheel of a pair of racing Aston Martins. For the 2020 season, the team is pursuing success in the British GT Championships’ GT4 Category and that means the bellow of a pair of very hot Ford Mustangs will be providing the music that keeps the team competitive in this well attended and very exciting series.

With Academy Motorsport looking for someone to design and apply the graphics for its 2020 cars and SRS looking for a team to associate with, an arrangement was agreed and the SRS team was engaged to provide a racing livery that really gave the already conspicuous Fords even more presence. In addition to its bodywork finishing services, SRS is no stranger to vehicle graphics. It’s Warrington branch attends to the needs of major coach and bus fleets and so the skills needed to give Academy Motorsport what it needed were there for the asking.

The brief arrived looking about as close to a blank canvas as it’s possible to get. SRS Automotive’s Jeremy Robershaw delivered the creative genesis and worked the resulting design through to its practical completion that would require a complex wrap in order to get the design on the cars. The design is stunning and very impactful. It’s centred on a motif that draws its inspiration from Ford’s iconic mustang stallion at full gallop. The horses are arranged in an almost Escheresque layout around the cars’ front quarters with each element being rendered in a different density. The design fades to or from a darker grey dependent upon which of the two cars is observed - each design is a flip of its stablemate.

MetaCast MDC, Metamark’s latest premium cast wrapping film was chosen for the job and was printed on an Epson wide format printer. The MDC being an MD-Class digital film handled the subtle needs of the design brilliantly and the printing is flawless. The printed MDC film was laminated with MetaGuard MGC Gloss Cast Laminate prior to its application on the vehicles. The new MetaCast film features a new and easily repositionable adhesive, MetaGlide to promote easy handling. This together with the film’s remarkable tolerance to extreme elongation made for a remarkable wrap. The skilled hands at SRS Automotive pronounced the new film a winner.

Given SRS Automotive’s ‘beyond showroom shine’ mission the team took its wraps a little further still. To ward off the inevitable battle-rash that race cars pick up, the team trimmed off its wrap work with a little strategically located paint protection film so affording the vehicle underneath even more armour than the wrap provided. The team also decided to give the Metamark gloss laminate a bit of help and gave it, and thus the cars, a full ceramic coating lifting the gloss still further and protecting it against all manner of likely pollutants it might pick up.

Mustangs need a stable and the race team’s entourage need a place to call home and so the team’s travelling workshop and hospitality suite on wheels also got a very dramatic make-over from SRS Automotive. Academy Motorsports very impressive transporter now wears a livery, again designed in house by SRS Automotive, reflecting that of the cars it carries. The galloping stallions work harmoniously with other elements in the layout to deliver stand-out impact and recognition to the team. Once seen on the road, it’s clear that there’s an event on the way.

The SRS team used Metamark MD3A for the transporter graphics. Despite being a different material to that mandated by the more complex wraps, colour matching between all the livery elements is spot on. That’s as much a testament to the skills of the SRS team as it is to Metamark’s products’ technical credentials.

2020 is going to be an exciting year for motorsports and for the Academy Motorsports team. Thanks to some world class design and application works from SRS Automotive, the team goes forth looking like the top rung outfit it is. As for advertising its capabilities to a wider public, SRS couldn’t have chosen a more dramatic or effective medium.