Drifting is a rapidly growing sport and really is its own form of art where the drivers paint rubber on the road in the most stylistic way possible. Simply, it’s a controlled loss of traction. We’ve been privileged to grow a relationship with Stuart Wilson, who is the owner of Artisan Auto Styling and an avid drifter alike. He specializes in Paint Protection Film installations and has a vision for creative excellence.
The Story
That catalyst introduces the main topic of this blog, and the first STEK drift car. Stuart pilots a highly modified C6 Corvette at Lone Star Drift events throughout Texas and joined us on tour at last year’s FuelFest for more sideways action all across the United States.
Last year Stuart’s C6 received a full body in our DYNOforged-red wine, which turned out beautiful and merited enough attention we weren’t sure how we would make this year’s iteration even better. Our red-wine PPF gives a rich color and totally unique appearance no others were imitating; fellow competitors, spectators, and fans weren’t sure what they were looking at with the convincing forged-carbon pattern.
Drawing aesthetic inspiration from the growing trend of carbon-kevlar body panels on high-end drift cars, Stuart was always drawn to the DYNOforged films. Contact in drifting is all part of the game, which makes carbon kevlar-body panels the perfect tool for the job due to their durability and ability to flex under impact, but this was different.
2024 Livery Debute
Pulling up to the new season, Artisan Auto Styling wanted to update the livery on the trusty Corvette while keeping some of the widely recognized aesthetics. What better way than merging our DYNOforged-red wine with our DYNOforged-metal? The metal forged looks like a high-grade titanium with a sharp silver appearance. The two forged-carbon PPFs perfectly contrasted and were tastefully seamed together across the second two-thirds of the Vette, pulling inspiration from the iconic Advan liveries. The results spoke for themselves.
Our paint protection films provide a paint-like finish and the Forged-carbon series offers an impressively convincing look that folks just haven’t seen before, especially on a full car. With the durability and flexibility of our films, the corvette’s surface was able to withstand the carnage from any loose rocks to the burning rubber flying through the air without damaging his factory finish.
Cleaning up in between events is easier with the hydrophobic top-coat, and any micro scratches from washing and decontaminating the surface can be easily self-healed with heat or hot water, allowing the surface to go back to it’s smooth, slick, and glossy eye-catching appearance.
Into the Action
We spent the weekend with Stuart at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, TX debuting the car with the new livery and you could feel the audience tune in each time they slid onto the track. Our team had a blast chasing the action all weekend and getting to see Stuart pilot the refreshed Corvette at a track like COTA. Experience the eye-catching livery and all the action for yourself in our recap video!
This Corvette was getting down and looked like a world-class machine, shimmering under the sun while reaching angles and proximity in tandems only a handful of the other drives could come close to matching. We may be biased but that big STEK on the door looked dang good too.
Tandems are where two or more cars get into a coordinated slide, door to door. The lead driver sets the line and the chase driver follows, looking to mimic the lead drivers every move. This level of control while drifting takes a lot of practice, commitment, and skill. We were lucky enough to be out there with a good friend of Stuart, Kevin, who owns Rennspec, a multi-faceted automotive service company in the Houston area, who has also chosen the Chevrolet powertrain of the Corvette as his weapon of choice. Stuart and Kevin ran lap after lap on each other’s doors and the crowd loved it.
The Wrap Up
Safe to say we’ll be following along for more action from this STEK Drift Car, we’re excited to also be getting involved with a handful of other drivers in the drift world as well, because purpose-built films deserve purpose-built cars to sport them. Stay tuned!
Want to hear more about Stuart and his journey into the world drifting and how it led him to become a PPF installer, check out our latest episode of the Off the Roll Podcast episode with the man himself!
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