Wednesday, 29 Jan 2014 12:04 GMT

When wrapping a car is a week’s work

If you doubted the country was moving up the gears into rapid economic growth then you may be surprised to hear the UK car industry could be the third largest in Europe in three year’s time, after Germany and Spain.

The car trade body The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) predicts the current buoy-ancy in the nation’s vehicle industry following a review of output last year. Up in the north east of England a particularly productive manufacturer is Nissan, who saw half a million cars roll off the production line in 2012.

One of Nissan’s best sellers is the Leaf, which has just clocked up 100,000 vehicle sales. To celebrate, Edenbridge-based vehicle branding outfit Raccoon were asked to festoon wrap the 100,000th Leaf sold to the public with 100,000 coins diplomatically split between two pence coins and two Euro cent pieces, a reminder perhaps that 80 percent of UK car sales are exported with many going to Europe.

The coins were stuck to the car by hand using high bond glue dots with the Leaf motif blended into the design giving a new spin on the phrase “coining it””

The Kent firm wrapped the red electric car in a gold base wrap to protect the paintwork from the coins. Once the base wrap was applied, Raccoon’s wrapping team spent a week on the vehicle to ensure a per-fect finish.

The coins were stuck to the car by hand using high bond glue dots with the Leaf motif blended into the design giving a new spin on the phrase “coining it”.

Raccoon’s Richard Clark says: “This was a project we were excited about since it was agreed and seeing the idea come to life is fantastic. The team worked extremely hard to produce the truly one of a kind wrap that celebrates the landmark sale and we are very proud of the results. We do however doubt that the wrap will be offered to customers as an optional extra due to 504kg being added to the weight of the car.”