Electric drift car design winner announced

Congratulations are in order for Mexican designer Ivan Vela who has scooped a $5000 prize for his interpretation of Quimera’s All Electric Drift Car (AEDC). Vela was the winner of a competition that invited amateur graphic artists to design new livery for the AEDC, the world’s first professional electric drift car, and he will get the chance to see his vision realised at a future drift event in the States courtesy of Quimera.

See below for the winners, runners up and some of the more avant garde entries…

The Winner – great use of styling on the nose to change the perceived shape of the car

Second place – Greg narrowly missed out with this striking design, the gold wing mirrors are very Audi RS

Third place – bold and bright, it’s not hard to imagine this one tearing round the track

Is that go faster tripe on the roof?

This one is based on Japanese Kabuki theatre makeup

Not really sure what this one’s all about?!

Love the 80s graffiti angry tomato, very drift…

My favourite – the camo/stealth paint and 3D test pattern are both striking, innovative and bold – just like the car

Someone’s been watching Tron Legacy! You certainly wouldn’t lose this in a car park, that’s for sure

Let’s hope that this doesn’t ever happen in real life!

This wins ‘Best Use of Clip Art’, although the reasoning behind the money motif is anyone’s guess

The competition was incredibly popular despite some early hiccups, attracting 93 competitors from 18 countries and over 23,000 indivudual votes. From what I understand this has dwarfed the response to the Dunlop competition to design a Le Mans racer, which may be an indication of the rising popularity of drifting as a sport. Vela’s entry gained the most votes from the panel of 11 judges (of which I was one), narrowly beating Greg Thompson from the US (2nd) and Roman Klimuk from the Ukraine (3rd). I must admit, I was hoping for something a little more colourful and daring to win, like the design of Erik Stensson from Sweden shown below. With the AEDC being such a novel and disruptive car, I thought that the design might reflect this, and although Vela’s design is mean and purposeful it doesn’t somehow capture my imagination.

The quality of the entries was exceptionally high, and it was no mean feat to shortlist the top twenty, let alone pick a winner. One of the more interesting entries came from Kuta Kikuchi from Japan who based his design on the make-up worn by during Japanese Kabuki theatre, reflecting the Japanese origins of drifting and intimating that it should be regarded as an art form. Others opted for a seemingly random look, incorporating elements such as stacks of money, green chain link fencing and what looks like a photo of stomach lining…