Stunning re-creations of Porsche’s former 24 Hour of Le Mans winners painted by Aquarelief. With coffee.
[Not a valid template]You may remember our piece a few weeks ago on Adrian Mitu – aka Aquarelief – a former architect who in his spare time paints some of the automotive world’s most desirable and sort out classic machines using, get this, a cup of coffee. Ask the man himself how this all came about and he’ll explain that it was down to enthusiasm, dedication and – as it turns out – laziness.
Clearly Porsche was similarly impressed with Adrian’s work. So much so that for its return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year (16 years after its last official top class entry with the GT1-98), Porsche invited the Romanian artist to paint the team’s brand new 919 Hybrid in all its caffeinated glory at La Sarthe. Stands to reason: coffee at an endurance race is nothing new, after all.
The new 919 though was not the exclusive focus of Adrian during the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. Using coffee as most artists use watercolours, the Romanian also re-created some of Porsche’s legendary former winners at Le Sarthe, including the 936 (winner in 1982 with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell), the 917 (1970 with Richard Attwood and Hans Hermann) and the 935 (1979 with Bill and Don Whittington, and Klaus Ludwig), as well as the 356 SL from 1951 (which hit trouble and finished 20th overall with Auguste Veuillet and Edmond Mouche).
Aquarelief wasn’t the only one to receive an invite from Porsche for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans though. Watch this space to find out how crankandpiston enjoyed this historic event with the 16-time event winners…
– Shots courtesy of Aquarelief
