Carrera Cup GB Photographer Dan Bathie reveals his unique path into Livery Designs
As Porsche fans, we all see the wonderful and creative livery designs on Porsche race cars whether that be in the Le Mans 24 Hours, ELMS, 24H series, Mobil 1 Supercup or via eSports racing series. These designs all have a talented livery designer behind them, none more so talented than Dan Bathie, who has combined his love for photography with his passion for livery designs.
Growing up as a child, liveries were always something Dan always head an interest in. As a young motorsport fan, Dan revealed that he always used to draw cars and be interested in the different liveries on cars and especially Art cars, which have become a fans favourite over the past few years.
Back in 2015 Bathie was involved in design work for Triple Eight racing in GT and BTCC and had the unique opportunity to design their British GT BMW Z4 GT3 and also their Blancpain Endurance Series car. As many fan can imagine, having your design feature on a race car during the Spa 24H is an amazing achievement and the Porsche Photographer was delighted.
In 2020 with a lot of photography on hold because of the pandemic, Dan tried to utilise his skills the best way he could; This started with sim racing on the iRacing platform and having discovered you could create your own liveries, Dan contacted long time Porsche sponsor, Sacred Coffee and both came up with a design which was then run in the PCGB Sim Racing Championship.
Given Dan already had a working relationship with Porsche Carrera Cup GB driver Ryan Ratcliffe, the opportunity arose once again to create a livery that would feature in the real world for the 2021 season. Having agreed to create Ryan’s design and having received a great brief alongside some design consulting with Jake Yorath, Ryan’s 2021 livery took shape. Dan uniquely used the iRacing platform to modify and sample the designs in 3D. As we see real world racing and simulation racing generate more and more similarities, this is another positive outcome where the virtual has benefited real world racing.
Looking back on how Ryan’s 2021 livery design turned out, Dan is really happy and believes that the design is truly unique to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB grid. The immediate effect of Dan designing has also given the pro photographer the fantastic opportunity to design Kurt Leimer and Charlie March’s Porsche Sprint Challenge cars this year. Again, being given free rein with very open briefs that give a lot of scope to play with designs and ideas.
You can look out for Dan Bathie’s stunning livery designs during the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and also during the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB throughout the 2021 season.
