Autosport Awards 2008

I recently attended the 2008 Autosport awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London. It was a great night and a good opportunity to meet up with a lot of the drivers that we had painted for over the last few years.

Ready painted helmets for sale

We have three pre-painted Arai helmets for sale. They have been used for display purposes and are brand new and the latest Snell specification. Please see the shop page on our website for more details.

New Product - anodised Arai screw sets

We are now stocking anodised screw kits for Arai helmets. They are available in four colours (red, blue, gold, black) with other colours available soon, and cost £23.50 per set. Please call or email to order.

World Speed Record helmets

We recently painted two helmets for an all-British attempt at the land-speed record for a wind-assisted vehicle. The vehicle itself is an amazing piece of engineering and you can find out more at http://www.greenbird.co.uk/.

A film crew from BHP came to the workshop to record some of the painting process involved and the footage will be used in a documentary which is being made of the record attempt. You can view the BHP video at:

http://blog.greenbird.co.uk/2008/08/30/unveiling-the-fab-new-helmets-%e2%80%93-video/

Hockenheim Grand Prix

I recently took some time out from work to visit the Hockenheim Grand Prix. It was a great weekend finished off with a dominant win from Lewis, that took him to the top of the drivers championship.

Saturday night at the Mercedes Benz grandstand was the venue for the Mercedes 'Night of The Stars' party. A 'Cirque Du Soleil' style show was followed by the music till the early hours and was definitely a night to remember.

Nuts TV

We recently had a film crew in from Nuts TV to record a feature about painting a helmet. The footage is going to be used in a new series called 'Speed Hurts' which follows the fortunes of a driver in the Seat Cupra Cup. Due to the filming requirements we had to turn the helmet around in just over a day which was a bit hectic, especially as the design was changed just before paintwork started. The series is due to be aired in September so watch for it in the TV listings!

Indy 500 Helmet

Here are some pictures of Dan Wheldons' helmet for the 2008 Indy 500. The design features the race logo, "pagoda" race control building, the finishing line bricks, and a splash of the bottle of milk given to each race winner.
Dan was running strongly at the front early in the race, but handling problems dropped him to 12th at the end.

Monaco helmet

Here are some pictures of Lewis's helmet for the Monaco Grand Prix showing it before and after Steinmetz applied their logo and Lewis's signature in Diamonds.
Monaco was a great race for Lewis as he got his world title hopes back on track with a convincing win.
A very small number of replicas of this helmet may be made available for sale. Details will be on the McLaren site soon.

Update

A lot has been happening here over the last few months (hence the lack of blog entries...!). As well as being busier than ever with the paintwork, we have become the UK distributor for Cara Coat visors (see details on the Shop page). These are the original coated visors, and the choice of top drivers.
We should hopefully have some news soon on the availability of genuine signed Lewis Hamilton helmet replicas. There have been a lot of fake replicas for sale on places such as Ebay so this will give collectors the chance to buy the real thing. Lewis has not signed any helmets so please don't be fooled by sellers offering helmets with signatures or "certificates of authenticity".

Paintwork to Lola bodywork

Classic Lola racer David Edwards has had several helmets painted with a US/chequer flag design, and recently asked us to replicate the flag onto his car.



The car was painted in a deep pearl blue, and then I spent several evenings at Scott Racings' workshop laying out and painting the flags. Our work schedule was full with helmet work, so it meant burning the midnight oil for a few nights to fit this project in!
The flags took quite a while to complete as we rarely paint anything this big, but they fitted well onto the huge front bodywork and will be sure to grab the attention when the car is used in a parade for Lola's birthday celebrations, before the car takes to the track once more later this year.

Dan Wheldon Miami Helmet

Work in Progress!

Here's a sneak preview of Dan Wheldons' helmet for the first 2008 IRL round. As it's at Miami, the usual horse has been ditched in favour of a cool custom car, and the background has been done in bright sunset colours and palm trees!
The cartoon is almost finished and now we're moving onto the colours and logos. Once we've got some photos of the finished helmet we'll post them here.

Lews Hamilton print

Nearly all the parcels delivered to the workshop are helmet-sized boxes, so when a large, flat one was delivered we were curious to see what it was. Inside was this signed print & letter from Lewis thanking us for the paintwork we had done on his helmets throughout his first season in F1. The demand on Lewis's time these days is intense, so it was a great gesture from him to take the time to arrange this gift.

The painting was done by Andrew Kitson and shows Lewis scoring his first F1 win. We're sure there will be more wins in 2008!

Dopes on the slopes!

After the hectic Christmas period we all went to the Snow Dome at Milton Keynes to blow off some steam and have some fun. None of us are experts as you can see in this video when Jason and Del decided to have a race! Everyone was nursing some bruises at work on Monday...

Christmas 07 (late!)

The run-up to Christmas was one of the most hectic we've ever experienced. A lot of late nights, early starts and working weekends saw all the Christmas orders out on time, while helmets were still coming in fast, ready for painting in the New Year. That's why this Christmas posting is a bit late...!

Everyone here at JLF Designs would like to wish all past and future customers best wishes for Christmas and the New Year, and good luck and health in 2008.

Jason, Shirley, Darren & Del.