Real Estate

A Bernie Sanders supporter turned his Corvette into the ultimate piece of political art

Aaron Brown

2016-05-27T19:08:17Z

Someone figured out the best way to declare support for their favorite presidential candidate.

Gene Leeds, a 34-year-old Columbia University student, covered his brand-new, very loud, 200-plus MPH Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with stickers and paint in support of Bernie Sanders. All with just a little help from his college professor and from the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign.

And it even still looks good.

Check it out.

Leeds became inspired to deck the Z06 out after seeing BMW's Art Cars at the 2015 Concorso d’Eleganza.

After taking a Silkscreening class at Columbia University, Leeds decided to use what he learned to decorate the Z06.

unnamed — Leeds [center] with the rest of his Silkscreening class. Gene Leeds

Leeds' support was locked on Sanders because he feels that Sanders is the only presidential candidate talking seriously about the vast percentage of children that are born into poverty. Being a father, this issue strikes very close to home for Leeds.

Leed said that shortly after reaching out to the Sanders' campaign and notifying it of his plans, he received 300 Sanders bumpers stickers.

"The initial process of covering the car in stickers took about 10 hours broken up over two days."

"Doing all the silkscreen paintings took a total of about 20 hours and applying the final images took another 10," Leeds told Tech Insider.

"The colors pop far more with real paint and you can see the brush strokes of the acrylic," Leeds said. "The car pops like nothing I’ve seen before."

Leeds wants to keep the car wrapped until November 8th, the day of the US National Election.

Leeds hopes that "Bernie can beat the extremely long odds and pull though." But if that doesn't work, he has a backup plan.

"Yes if I can’t vote for Bernie I’ll happily vote for Hillary in November."

"The reaction to the car has been incredible. There’s so much enthusiasm out there. Several times a day people ask to take photos of the car, with the car, give me friendly waves and honks on the road," he said.

"I’ve been lucky enough to drive many different supercars, but I’ve never been in a car that gets this kind of attention," he said.

Though Leeds' Z06 is a 650 horsepower rear-wheel-drive supercar, he said he "vows" his next will not be a gasoline-only powered machine.

Not exactly the greenest car on the road. Gene Leeds

"Since my wife and I got the Z06, I’ve taken a number of physics classes and after everything I've learned, I have vowed to never purchase another new car which runs solely on fossil fuels. Lucky for us car fans the electrics are catching up," Leeds said.

If you've been dying to get your car wrapped to show off your political affiliations, Leeds can help. Contact him through his website here.

"I have already had someone ask me if I could make them a Trump mobile," he said. "Frankly, I’d make anything but a Ted Cruz mobile."

H/T Jon Harper/JBH Photo and Jalopnik.

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