The Forces' Motorsport Charity uses the power of motorsport to help with the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick soldiers. With the 2017 Poppy Appeal, their values came together with impressive and poignant results.
"The guys have done amazing work with this commission – they have all been profoundly affected by their military service and that depth of feeling is echoed in their work, a very personal statement of remembrance."
- James Cameron, CEO Mission Motorsport
In collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover and The Royal British Legion, a team of former military personnel got to work on an exciting project – wrapping two Jaguar F-Types.
F-Type #1
The first wrap was completed inside the Mission Motorsport workshop in Wantage, Oxfordshire.
After making a grand tour of all the UK Jaguar Land Rover sites, this F-Type acted as the official safety car for the 2017 Race of Remembrance - a 12-hour endurance race held at Anglesey which commemorates the sacrifices made by service personnel and their families.
F-Type #2
Wrapping the second F-Type was a more ambitious feat. The car itself was mounted, 50ft from the ground, on the outer wall of the Jaguar Castle Bromwich Plant.
The team from Mission Motorsport had to wrap the car in-situ – a tricky operation which they pulled off flawlessly. The plant has its own military legacy, being the factory that famously built Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers in WW2.
The Wrap
The wrap itself contains the words from John McCrae’s Poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ (written in May 1915) and the design features large red poppies set over a grey background.
Both cars have been wrapped with 3M™ Scotchlite™ 780mC Print Wrap Film, a polar reflective vinyl wrap material which features a gloss over-laminate. This unique design allows the words of the poem to catch the light and ripple across the surface of both cars.
To make the most of the material and get the fine detail they needed, they printed all the vinyl wraps on the Roland DG’s wide format printer, the TrueVIS SG-540.
The Team
“For those who have laboured and pushed themselves to the limit, it has resonance, depth… meaning.”
- James Cameron, CEO Mission Motorsport
The cars have been wrapped by ex-servicemen Lance Corporal Chris Read, Guardsman Chris Walker, Private Dan Elliot and Lance Corporal Francis Stokes. Each member of the wrap team is a beneficiary of The Forces' Motorsport Charity, and they were all medically discharged from service.
The core team of Read, Walker and Elliott have prototyped, designed and agonised over every detail, but we think you’ll agree that they have created something with real meaning.
“The project team, made up of colleagues from Jaguar Land Rover, Mission Motorsport and the Royal British Legion, have worked tremendously hard to create a statement of commitment in remembering the fallen and to have that tribute created and brought to life by ex-servicemen who have had first-hand experience of sacrifice is hugely symbolic.”
- Gregg Niblett, Manufacturing Manager at Jaguar Land Rover
To find out more about Mission Motorsport, visit http://missionmotorsport.org
If you want to see the stunning print quality of the TrueVIS SG series for yourself, click here to request a sample.