This Week on Trading Paints: January 2, 2026

Welcome to This Week on Trading Paints, the pulse on what’s happening in the Trading Paints world while you’re ringing in the new year.

🗳️ The 2025 Paint of the Year is crowned

The community has spoken! Pierre S.’s Ford Mustang GT3 - FREEDOM was voted Paint of the Year after six rounds of head-to-head voting among Trading Paints members throughout December.

🧑‍🎨 Davin Cornelius in the Spotlight

In our first Artist Spotlight of 2026, popular sim painter Davin Cornelius (a.k.a. DriveThrough Design) shared his journey from Need for Speed Carbon on PS2 to NASCAR Racing 2003 Season to iRacing to even creating on-track designs.

🏎️ Staff Picks

Here’s a fresh batch of paints that Team Trading Paints is enjoying heading into the new year.

Menards Paul Menard 2003 Modified by Justin Rector - Trading Paints

The classic Menards blue with Dayglo stripes is an all-timer in my book, so I decided to adapt it to a touring modified. Based on Paul Menard’s #33 car from 2003.

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Kodak Images 992.2 by Alex Schmurtz - Trading Paints

Inspired by the Kodak livery that the IMSA Performance team ran in 2016 in the GT3 Blancpain series.

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Sim Wrap Market Cadillac GTP by Matt Tomelleri - Trading Paints

Made using: https://www.simwrapmarket.com/c/collection-178

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1987 #14 A.J. Foyt Copenhagen Oldsmobile - Early Season With Numbers by Ryan Daley - Trading Paints

Here is the car A.J. Foyt ran at Atlanta in early 1987 before altering his scheme a bit for the rest of the year! Thanks to Bryan Hallman for reference photo help! With Numbers. Most logos and contingencies created by hand in Illustrator. No AI generated art used. @ryandaleydesigns

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Helmet Grinch by Don Craig - Trading Paints

The Grinch inspired livery

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Robby Gordon 1999 by Will Roberts - Trading Paints

1999

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🔢 From the Number Showroom

We’re really enjoying what you’ve been sharing in the new Number Showroom, part of the new Number Builder update. Here are a few recent numbers that caught our eye.

TheGoldStig 7 by Rex J. | Number Builder

Create and share your own stylized car number graphics from your web browser with Number Builder by Trading Paints.

Number Builder

88 lue by Cory Price | Number Builder

Create and share your own stylized car number graphics from your web browser with Number Builder by Trading Paints.

Number Builder

Speedy Speedy Number by Mason E Rosser | Number Builder

Create and share your own stylized car number graphics from your web browser with Number Builder by Trading Paints.

Number Builder

Nickelodeon number by Matthew Rash | Number Builder

Create and share your own stylized car number graphics from your web browser with Number Builder by Trading Paints.

Number Builder

green by James Wayman | Number Builder

Create and share your own stylized car number graphics from your web browser with Number Builder by Trading Paints.

Number Builder

Keep posting your numbers to the Number Showroom, and we’ll continue to share what we like!

🏆 Paint of the Week

For the first Paint of the Week in 2026, Community Manager Patrick selected this star-spangled Porsche from Paul R Chaloner.

📌 A note on AI-generated images in the Showroom

We’ve noticed a recent uptick of Showroom listings using AI-generated scenes of custom paints instead of screenshots from iRacing. These image outputs from generative AI tools tend to distort or take unrealistic liberties with how cars appear.

This week, we updated our Community Guidelines Handbook with a clarifying note that AI-generated images should not be used for the first picture on a Showroom paint (i.e., the image displayed on the Trending page and in search results). It is best practice to use screenshots from iRacing, either on-track in the sim or through the 3D viewer in the iRacing UI — not AI-generated imagery, real-world photos, or renderings from other games.

We’ll continue to review and revise the community handbook over time to support our mission: to unleash the creativity and personality of sim racers everywhere.

What did you think of This Week on Trading Paints? Let us know on Instagram and Bluesky — and don’t forget to tag us when you share your paints! 🏁