A Bernie Sanders Corvette Z06 Art Project? I Am Confused
Look, this is not us touching on politics. We talk about cars here, but when one gets wrapped up in the other, we take notice. Yeah, that pun was intended.
Popular Corvette Forum member Gene Leeds, son-in-law of mega-wealthy financier and car enthusiast Jim Glickenhaus, decided to make a bold political statement. He wrapped and painted his pristine, $100,000-plus 2015 Corvette Z06 in honor of Bernie Sanders for a Columbia University art project.
Below is an excerpt from him about the project:
I’m a visual art student at Columbia University. I’m looking to get into making art cars for people when I graduate this summer. Personally, I feel there’s much more presence in a car that’s actually painted as opposed to using printed vinyl. I first wrapped the car in Sanders stickers and then painted red, white, blue, and clear 3M vinyl using a printmaking process called silkscreen. Once all that dried I painted clear acrylic over the new paint to protect it from the elements. From there it was all cut and paste.
Why Sanders? Well I enjoy the political theatre every four years surrounding the presidential election, and this year has needless to say been overwhelmingly entertaining and often concerning.
My candidate is Bernie Sanders for all the reasons that have finally become clear to people by now. I wanted to do something extremely American with an American car in an attempt to support the underdog. The response thus far has been 99% positive which is far more than I was expecting. Other than my coming out of a store and seeing that someone spit on it, a lot, people of all ages and backgrounds have asked to take photos of it.
Parents ask if their their kid can sit in it. At least once a day an older woman will come up to me and say “Bernie must win I’ll never vote for Hillary.” I’ve been lucky enough to have driven and ridden in a lot of supercars and hypercars, but I have never experienced the overwhelming attention this thing gets during my 100 mile round trip in and out of the city. Hopefully Bernie will survive tomorrow and the car wont become outdated anytime soon.
When I do eventually peel it, it will still be pristine.
It’s likely Bernie would never drive a supercar, and if he did, he probably wouldn’t break the speed limit. So this is a bit confusing.
Regardless of your political affiliations though, the wrap looks pretty patriotic, and full-on rah-rah all-American. I can only wonder what a Trump-wrapped Z06 would look like. Perhaps a lot of gold with orange trim and some red, white, and blue dropped in?
Chime in with your thoughts on the forum. >>
Images [Gene Leeds, Jalopnik]