Yahoo Autos BMW's 20th art car is a Le Mans-bound 215-mph painting on wheels
BMW traveled to Paris, France, to unveil its 20th art car since the series began in 1975. The location isn't as random as it might seem: the first art car was the brainchild of a French pilot named Hervé Poulain, and the latest art car will race in France at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
With a handful of exceptions, including Matazo Kayama's 1990 535i (E34), BMW's art cars have been based on race cars. The 20th stays true to tradition: Ethiopian-born American artist Julie Mehretu started the project by using the M Hybrid V8 LMDh car as a blank canvas. The livery draws inspiration from Mehretu's abstract paintings, and it's characterized by dot grids, neon-colored veils, and black markings.
"In the studio, where I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V8, I was just sitting in front of the painting and I thought: 'what would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and becomes affected by it?' The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car. Even the kidneys of the car inhaled the painting," Mehretu explained.
