Lightning’s paint schemes are things of glory, and it’s really interesting to see how the way they’re put together has developed over time. They’re one of the ways you can chart the passage of time from Cars 1 to Cars 3, and the way the Cars movies register changes within the racing industry in our world as well.
The way cars acquire their colors boils down to two basic processes: Painting or wrapping. This applies to civilian cars as well–they’ll come with factory paint, but some people will wrap their own cars (even if they’re not doing crazy designs, but simply want their car to be a different color). Wrapping, as you might imagine, is a newer technology; and it’s quicker and cheaper in terms of labor than painting.
In Cars 1 we get to see Ramone put his paint to Lightning to create his retro evening look:
In 2006, when Cars 1 came out/during Lightning’s rookie season, most cars in NASCAR were painted (with some notable exceptions–in the late 90s Darrell Waltrip had a chrome scheme that was wrapped, and it was very fashion-forward). But by 2007, wrapping was becoming more commonplace, and by 2010 it had become fairly standard. This means that in between Cars 1 and Cars 2 there was likely a corresponding major shift in the Piston Cup livery industry.
Wraps are basically gigantic vinyl stickers that are then molded to the shape of the car by painstakingly cutting and heating and pressing. In the interest of speed and aerodynamics, no piece of vinyl overlaps–it’s several giant vinyl pieces that create one single layer.
A precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics?
Wait, speed and aerodynamics, seriously? Yeah! Paint is heavier than a wrap! Some estimates have it at a difference of almost nine pounds. For a street car this is nominal, but for a racecar, everything is everything. It sounds ridiculous, but you never know where you might be able to find that critical thousandth of a second you need to win.
Some teams have used matte paint because if you don’t need a gloss coat, that’s less paint weight. But other times they’ll opt for the gloss coat, because at the molecular level a glossy surface is more aerodynamic than a matte one.
That’s the level of infinitesimal change these cars are operating with.
At restrictor plate tracks/superspeedways, where aerodynamics are king (and more important than a little weight), many teams will paint their cars rather than wrap them in search of that aerodynamic edge.
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