Porsche 917 was inspired by butterflies. This artwork tells the tale

German luxury high-performance car marquee Porsche is known for its legacy of racing cars. The Volkswagen group owned car brand has built several iconic and stunning cars that set records on racetracks.

The Porsche 917 is considered to be one of the most iconic racing cars ever made by the automaker. The 917 helped Porsche to win its first 24 Hours of Le Mans title.

The Porsche 917's design was inspired by butterflies. Automotive artist Heidi Mraz has created an artwork on the Porsche 917, which tells the unique tale.

Building the Porsche 917 was quite a challenge for the engineers involved with the project. To make the Porsche 917 aerodynamically efficient, they took inspiration from butterflies development and flying pattern. This is what Mraz calls aerodynamics by entomology.

To describe the story, the automotive artist has created the artwork of the Porsche 917 with approximately 1000 paper butterflies. The artwork comprises a 4x6 ft canvas and a multi-layer creation. The artwork portrays Porsche 917K, with chassis number 917-022. The paper elements have been hand-cut, placed and pinned to give the shape of the iconic car.

This was the Porsche 917 that starred in the 1971 film ‘Le Mans’ starring Steve McQueen. The car had Gulf colour theme, which remained synonymous with the German car brand during that period. The Porsche 917 artwork too wears the same colour theme, of course, made with the paper insects. It matches the Gulf car's blue and orange racing livery.

As Mraz says, the parallel correlation between metamorphosis involved in the development of butterflies and 917's beginnings. She describes the development of the Porsche 917 as the evolvement of an immortal race car from an unstable monster.