Flying Lizard No. 80 2007 Porsche "Art Car" Restored with Original Troy-Lee Designed Livery

April 10, 2009 -- Flying Lizard Motorsports revealed today that the team's No. 80 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR "art car", which raced at the 2007 24 Heures du Mans, has been restored in its original custom livery, designed by Troy Lee. The newly-restored No. 80 Porsche was on display this week at the New York International Auto Show at the unveiling of the new 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 and at a private Porsche-sponsored Gala Preview reception and dinner. The Porsche will be available for sale at auction in August, 2009 in conjunction with the Monterey Historic weekend of events in Monterey, California.

"When we learned that Porsche would be the featured marque at this year's Monterey Historic weekend, we wanted to bring our own contribution to the event by restoring the No. 80 art car to its original Le Mans livery," said Seth Neiman, Flying Lizard team principal and driver of the team's No. 44 Porsche in the American Le Mans Series. "We're delighted to have the Lizard back in place showing his vivid chameleon-like colors." Jerry Woods Enterprises, in Campbell, California did the restoration with the assistance of Troy Lee, who added the final artistic touches to match the original livery. Click here for details on the auction.

History of the Flying Lizard 2007 No. 80 Porsche Art Car
In 2007, to honor the great tradition of the 24 Heures du Mans and in appreciation of the art cars of the past, Flying Lizard set out to create a special livery for the No. 80 Porsche. The team selected Troy Lee, a well-known California-based motorsport artist, to create a custom "art car" design for the famous 24-hour race

On site in Le Mans for the event, Troy Lee added custom details to the design using chrome and color to add dimension to the Lizard as it wrapped over the car front to back. "I started by thinking about the Lizard's character and looked to the color and texture of real lizards for inspiration. I think a racecar should be colorful and interesting and look like it's travelling 200 mph even while it is standing still. The Porsche is a pretty aggressive car with a high and wide profile; it was a perfect surface on which to bring the Lizard to life," commented Lee. He added, "I wanted the art car to have a 3-D look by using chrome to give it some depth so the car looks different from all sides. Designing the car was one thing, but seeing the car realized in full scale there on track at Le Mans was incredible, it was a dream accomplishment as an artist."

Flying Lizard kept the art car a secret until it was unveiled to the thousands of enthusiastic sports car fanatics at Scrutineering in the historic town of Le Mans. Following the tradition of prior art cars, this livery ran only at the 24 Heures of Le Mans. In addition to the 24 Heures du Mans, the car was campaigned by Flying Lizard as the No. 45 Porsche for the entire 2007 American Le Mans Series season in its familiar red and silver livery and also made a guest appearance in 2008 at Laguna Seca as the No. 46 Porsche.

Car Highlights

• VIN: WPOZZZ99Z7S799913

• 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR racecar

• No. 80 custom livery designed by: Troy Lee, Troy Lee Designs, Corona, California

• Campaigned by: Flying Lizard Motorsports, Sonoma, California

• Driven at 2007 24 Heures du Mans by: Joerg Bergmeister, Johannes van Overbeek, Seth Neiman. Clocked the fastest GT2 race lap.

• Campaigned as the No. 45 in red and silver Flying Lizard livery for the 2007 ALMS season, piloted by Joerg Bergmeister and Johannes van Overbeek, and joined by Marc Lieb for Sebring and Petit Le Mans. In the No. 45, Bergmeister and van Overbeek finished second in the 2007 ALMS drivers' championships and won three ALMS races in 2007: New England Grand Prix at Lime Rock; Sports Car Challenge of Mid Ohio; and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta (with Lieb).

• Fought to the finish with the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari at the 2007 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring: the famous last lap battle resulted in the closest finish in the history of the race. This battle has come to be a fan favorite with over 100,000 views on YouTube.

• Made a guest appearance as the No. 46 Flying Lizard Porsche at the 2008 ALMS season-finale at Laguna Seca.

Car and Auction Details
The Flying Lizard 2007 No. 80 Porsche designed by Troy Lee is available for purchase. It will be sold by RM Auctions to the highest bidder at the "Sports and Classics of Monterey Auction", August 13-15 at the Portola Plaza Hotel, Monterey, California. Click here for details.

No. 80 art car memorabilia, including a 1/43 model by Spark, is available at the online store at www.lizardms.com/store.

About Flying Lizard Motorsports
2009 is the sixth consecutive ALMS season for the Sonoma, California-based GT2 team. Since its first year of competition in 2004, the team has finished every year in the top three in the ALMS GT2 team and drivers' championships. Notably, in 2008, the team won both the ALMS GT2 drivers' (No. 45 Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler) and team championships. In 2007, Flying Lizard was second in the ALMS GT2 team championship and No. 45 drivers Johannes van Overbeek and Joerg Bergmeister finished second in the ALMS GT2 drivers' championship.

Flying Lizard has also competed in the 24 Heures du Mans from 2005 through 2008, finishing third in 2005, fourth in 2006, and sixth in 2008.

Flying Lizard is sponsored by ShoreTel, a leading provider of enterprise IP telephony solutions and eSilicon, a semiconductor company, both based in Sunnyvale, California; and RedlineCoffee.com, a coffee club dedicated to motorsport enthusiasts, based in Boulder, Colorado. Team partners include Porsche and Michelin.

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