birthday. The circuit Zolder, in Belgium, in which several well-known motorsport races take place, have paid tribute to the series, naming the biggest building of the circuit "Michel Vaillant club". Many real cars were adapted from automobile designs from the series. Cars bearing the logo Vaillante ran in Le Mans in 1997 and 2003: A Courage in 1997, while in 2003, Vaillante cars have been designed to be used in the Luc Besson's movie. Some fans have built a real Vaillante Grand Defi, a model which appeared several times in the comics series. The car has participated in real races, under the brand Vaillante. A model was marketed in Belgium, the Honda Civic Vaillante, of which 50 models have been produced. Automobile designer Luc Donckerwolke (current designer of Lamborghini, previously of SEAT) has drawn his inspiration from cars drawn by Jean Graton to design some real car models. He also designed the SEAT Ibiza Vaillante, exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show in 2006. It was also Luc Donckerwolke who transformed a Lola B98/10–Judd into a Vaillante and a Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S into a Leader car in 2003 for the Besson movie. Donckerwolke also collaborated with Studio Graton on the latest titles of the series, drawing some cars featured in the albums. Many commercial products have been derived from the series, among them figurines, collected by automobile fans as well as comics fans. There's also a video game featuring Michel Vaillant which has ranked first in the auto racing video games in Benelux, and has been the top download on commercial websites. In June 2012, Swiss racing driver Alain Menu competed in the World Touring Car Championship Race of Portugal with a Vaillante-themed livery. Menu won the second feature race of the event (round 14) under the name M. Vaillant, even dying his hair and shaving his beard to resemble the look of the character. In 2017 Rebellion Racing entered the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans as "Vaillant Rebellion" using Vaillant colours on cars #13 and #31. Reception The series is very popular among fans of automobiles, because it features real-life cars, including renowned and prestigious models. The series have fans throughout several countries, though it has not translated into other languages except for English, Dutch, German, Danish, Norwegian (with Michel Vaillant renamed Mark Breton in the two latter), Portuguese, Serbian, Croatian, Finnish and