Now that I had some time to do a better render, I want to show it to you – although there is not so much new content in it.
I tried adding some material to the racer that looks a bit science-fiction-like, comb-like, but people don’t seem to like it – so I’ll probably change it again.
On blendpolis, yakonusuke told me to give this hull more detail, to split it up somehow to show what material it is made of and to make it look nicer. I think I’ll split up the hull in the areas where there are the black stripes (actually, that was the primal purpose of these stripes) and give it some other, small features.

For more action in the final image, I also plan to make some rival struggle behind this boat, doing a looping or something like that, maybe crashing against one of the columns (if this is not pulling away too much attention from the racer itself).
Looking good. I like the whole idea
You should also post this on blenderartists.org. You will get some good feedback
Thanks. I’ll post it on BAF, good hint.