Clevedon, UK – With the motto ‘Race, Retrain, Recover’, Mission Motorsport has been transforming the lives of injured military personnel since its inception in March 2012. The organisation provides respite, rehabilitation, vocational support and training to those affected by military operations within the framework of motorsport.

The organisation is run by veterans, serving officers and motorsport professionals and has been appointed as the Combined Services’ official providers of adaptive motorsport, seeking wherever possible to merge the activities of the disabled and those in need with able bodied servicemen and women.  

Mission Motorsport’s livery department supports the charity by wrapping and maintaining the appearance of all fleet vehicles and race cars, thereby providing training and job opportunities to wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women. It also undertakes commercial wrapping and livery projects to employ staff in-house.  

The charity has a strong relationship with Jaguar Land Rover and was recently given the opportunity to design and wrap two Jaguar F-Types to help raise the profile of this year’s Poppy Appeal: one to tour the UK en route to Mission Motorsport’s Race of Remembrance, and one which was affixed 50ft in the air to the outer wall of the Jaguar Castle Bromwich site – renowned for its use during WWII to build Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers in support of the war effort.  

Designed, printed and installed by Mission Motorsport’s livery team, the stunning wrap design featured large red poppies on a grey background and contained the words of John McCrae’s ‘In Flanders Fields’ poem. Both car wraps were printed by Roland DG TrueVIS SG-540 printer / cutters on 3M 780Mc polar reflective vinyl wrap material at the organisation’s purpose-built facility in Wantage, Oxfordshire. 

The first Poppy Car functioned as the safety car and became the centrepiece of the 2017 Race of Remembrance. Commemorating the sacrifices made by service personnel and their families, the twelve-hour endurance race was held on the weekend of 11^th November at the Anglesey circuit and featured a heroes’ dinner, night racing, and a trackside service of remembrance.  

The installation of the second Poppy Car wrap was a more complex process as the Jaguar was mounted 50ft in the air and had to be wrapped in situ. Chris Read, Livery Manager for Mission Motorsport explains: “We were required to work at height in a double-storey scaffold behind a screen, yet still exposed to the elements!”

On the final result, James Cameron, CEO of Mission Motorsport, states: “The F-Type mounted on the wall of the Castle Bromwich plant was 50 feet up and visible from the M6 and heralded the work of the plant which was built to make Spitfires in World War II. Our Livery team did an amazing job with this commission. They have all been profoundly affected by their military service and that depth of feeling is echoed in their work.

“They led on every aspect of the project, from concept to delivery. The stunning Poppy design changes in the light, thanks to the pioneering use of polar reflective material printed on the Roland DG printer. It is a world class piece of livery design, but it is not just an exercise in press relations; Race of Remembrance has currency, it brings the words of the poem up to date -  celebrating the 26 wounded, injured and sick who have entered second careers with Jaguar Land Rover through Mission Motorsport’s placement scheme.”

The unveiling of the mounted Poppy car brought Jaguar Land Rover’s Castle Bromwich plant to a standstill. You can see a time-lapse video – with a voiceover by James Cameron, CEO of Mission Motorsport – at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1VlvJRbN34