What do nature's beasts have to do with endurance racing? Perhaps a common goal to move while preserving their environment ?

The story begins in 1938 with the official HRG team with a funny name: the White Rabbit Team. Silenced during the war, the team chased after an eighth place finish at Le Mans in 1949.  After this subtle clash between the automobile and animal worlds, subsequent encounters would prove more brutal. A more recent story to date, is Olivier Panis' run in with a cat on the Mulsanne Straight during the night practice session of the 2008 edition. Luckily, this type of accident is extremely rare and, more often than not, violence is not needed to have an animal drawn upon a race car's bodywork…

Probably the best example is the winning Audi R8 that raced the Race of the Milleniums, held on Dec. 31, 2000 in Adelaide. For the land of kangaroos and koalas, designer Frank Lamberty chose theme evoking the appetite of a crocodile moving across the waters in its natural environment. Although Australian racer Brad Jones's name can be seen on the side of the car, this was only in case Allan McNish was unavailable to race. In the end the Scottish driver did race, after almost missing the race in a violent crash during warmup. Healed in time, the predator was clear make history, much like its other driver, "Crocodile Dindo" Capello!

Other animal-inspired liveries have race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, such as 1999 with the Japanese team Autoexe's Riley & Scott depicting a savannah landscape with zebras, elephants and giraffes. More recently, in 2011, the Flying Lizard Porsche traded their traditional lizard for a more frightful looking snake. Heures du Mans, comme en 1999 avec la Riley & Scott des japonais d’Autoexe évoquant une savane mêlant zèbres, éléphants et autres girafes. In any case, these examples are appreciated by model collectors, and their detailed approach to decals and liveries.

Julien HERGAULT / ACO - Translated by Rainier Ehrhardt / ACO