Racing at 200 km/h, painted with a water-based coat: Noroo Paint's bold track test

"The color combination is truly beautiful."

The broadcast commentator's admiration came naturally as a yellow-green and fluorescent yellow racing car blazed around the circuit at the 2026 O-NE Super Race Championship Round 5, held Saturday afternoon at Everland Speedway in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The colors were vivid enough to draw the eye instantly, even among the pack of competing cars on the track.

The striking finish was the work of WaterQ, Noroo Paint's water-based automotive refinishing paint. While most racing teams use "wrapping" — applying adhesive film printed with sponsor designs and team liveries — this car was painted directly on the body.

Noroo Paint's decision to coat a racing car was not about aesthetics alone. A racing car endures conditions far harsher than ordinary road use — sustained average speeds of around 200 km/h, peak speeds of 250 km/h, intense vibration, and extreme heat. The company set out to test how well a water-based paint could hold up in that environment. According to Noroo Paint, this marks the first time a domestic paint manufacturer has applied water-based paint to a racing car.

Noroo Paint entered a sponsorship with Elaine Motorsport, a team competing in the Toyota Gazoo Racing 6000 class — the top tier of the Super Race series — and launched the WaterQ Elaine Racing project. Rather than a conventional sports sponsorship, the company applied its WaterQ product directly to the race car, turning the circuit into a test bed for verifying the paint's durability and quality.

"In normal driving, even on a highway, you might briefly exceed 100 km/h, but you're not sustaining that speed continuously," said Lee Chae-gi, head of mobility technology at Noroo Paint. "A racing car averages around 200 km/h and peaks at 250 km/h, which makes it ideal for finding the limits of a coating."

What Noroo Paint watches most closely at the track is how well the paint withstands those extreme conditions. The car faces not only high speed and constant vibration, but also repeated impacts from stones and debris thrown up by cars ahead. If a coating's durability or adhesion falls short, the paint film can chip away at impact points.

"We wanted to show that water-based paint is not inferior to oil-based paint in these performance areas — and in some respects is actually better," Lee said.

Heat is another hurdle. Racing engines run under far more punishing conditions than those in ordinary vehicles. During a verification test Noroo Paint conducted Friday, temperatures near the engine reached a maximum of 270 degrees Celsius. Whether the paint discolors or the film lifts under that heat as it transfers to the body is also part of the evaluation.

For the racing team, the difference between conventional wrapping and actual paint is significant. Teams typically use wrapping to apply sponsor and team designs to a car's exterior, but the film is vulnerable to damage under the repeated high-speed impacts of race conditions.

"After a race, the wrapping film can end up ragged, which affects the overall finish of the car," said Yoo Gyeong-sa, head of Elaine Racing, who has spent more than 20 years in motorsport. "A racing car needs to be light, easy to maintain, and aerodynamically clean — painting it directly helps on all those fronts."

Lee said the project also aims to shift the perception of water-based paint. "Users sometimes hesitate to choose water-based products because of a perception that they are inferior to oil-based paints in workability, productivity, and physical properties — and more expensive," he said. "Our primary goal is to show that water-based paint can deliver intense color and match oil-based paint in durability."

Noroo Paint plans to share the real-world experience and data gathered during the races with customers in the automotive refinishing market. The company measures color values on the body with a colorimeter before and after each race to track any changes, and inspects the entire surface for chipping or damage. Any problems found feed directly into product improvement data, which will form the basis for further performance verification.

Noroo Paint's ambitions extend beyond the circuit. The company also plans to expand into overseas markets. "Noroo Paint holds the No. 1 market share in the domestic water-based paint sector," Lee said. "Internationally, we plan to grow by targeting markets with strict environmental regulations, such as the United States and New Zealand."