Livery of the Day – Blusens Paris Hilton Racing Aprilia

Back in 2011, in the last year of the old 125cc championship, this happened:

Blusens joined forces with Paris Hilton and went racing in the 125s. Who would have thought Paris Hilton would get into the world of Motorsport? They began the season with the experienced Sergio Gadea and new face Maverick Viñales, who would prove to be quite a talent, going on to finish 3rd in his debut season, winning four races along the way. The bike made quite an impact too, with a healthy coating of pink.

It’s still a mainly white and blue livery, which is nice enough, but the addition of pink, rather than a regular red, mixes it up a little and adds an distinctive Paris (cliche) touch to the bike. The design itself is nice. The thick blue sections along the front and side of the bike are bordered by white and pink lines, with similar pink, white and blue stripes on the front of the bike, which flow nicely onto the riders’ leathers.

However, this was the real kicker. The team chose to promote the SuperMartXé, a huge club/party/festival thing in Ibiza and in doing so added a bunch more pink. This took the livery to another level. The design was a lot more unique, with the pink, blue and white lines from the front to the tail more evenly split and making the bike a little brighter. The fuel tank was now pink with white stars in a blue stripe, reminiscent of the Confederate Flag, and even more pink stars on the bottom of the bike. Everything matched very well and the added pink actually improved the design. I actually quite like this livery and I believe it could have looked even better with white wheels.

Paris’ involvement with the team only lasted a year, but left enough of an impact for me to remember the livery out of nowhere earlier today and decide to make a blog post about it. How about that.

Livery of the Day – Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW

The Kiefer Racing bikes ridden by Kent, Vazquez and Ono this year have taken after the naming rights sponsor Leopard Natural Power Drink. It brings with it a colour not often used in Motorsports.

The sky blue, black and white machines bring something unique to the Moto3 grid this season. In a championship where super close racing is commonplace, where 1^st to 15^th can be mere seconds apart at the chequered flag, being able to stand out in the crowd of bikes is important. The Leopard bikes grab your attention, not by choosing an obnoxiously vibrant colour, but by selecting one that is different.

The livery itself is supremely colour coordinated. Apart from Dunlop (which is yellow on all Moto3 bikes), every sponsor is black or white. It makes the livery extremely neat and tidy and allows the livery to flow beautifully.

The livery’s design is rather simple. A tricolour series of stripes running from the front wheel to the exhaust, with the bottom half separated almost equally between sky blue for Leopard, black for Anonimo and white for Came. The rims too are coloured sky blue and add to the overall theme of the livery.

I’m usually very critical of sponsors taking over drivers/riders helmets (such as Red Bull removing all originality from their sponsored driver’s helmets), but I’m being lenient in this situation. Having all three riders in a standardised helmet design is a big no-no, but I’ll let it slide for their first season. It is great for the team and sponsor and I’m slightly ashamed to say that it works really well.

Overall, it’s a lovely livery. Uniform sponsors, great use of colour and a classy design, all tied together by the unique sky blue.