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The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road
The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road-May 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:10

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The is back, or rather Art Cars plural, because BMW will finally make its a production model instead of a one-off. Granted, this latest will see a limited run of only 99 vehicles, but that’s still more than in years past. My hope is that someone will scoop one of these up and daily drive it, maybe even refill its blinker fluid regularly. One can dream.

BMW asked American artist Jeff Koons to design its Art Car again, and this is the 20th in the series. BMW calls it the , which is just a caps lock way of saying Koons exercised his proclivities on a . I can’t tell you how happy I am that a sedan is getting the love it deserves, BMW’s naming conventions be damned.

Image for article titled The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road

I’m mostly happy that we’ll no longer have to use to pretend we have an art car, but could own and drive one! A few of us, at least. BMW didn’t announce any pricing, but the first one will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York in April.

I’m not sure I’m in love with the design, but the carmaker some of the ideas that went into Koon’s second Art Car:

The design incorporates elements from Pop Art as well as geometric patterns that blend perfectly with the lines and contours of the BMW 8 Series Gran Coupé. The exploding lines of color at the rear are reminiscent of Koons’ BMW Art Car from 2010. Koons designed the 17th BMW Art Car, the BMW M3 GT2, which competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. According to Koons, the words “POP!” painted on both sides and the swirls of wind symbolize the power and speed of THE 8 X JEFF KOONS.

The blue color scheme is book-ended by yellow front and rear bumpers, and without those I’m not sure the 8 X JEFF KOONS would have a striking design. BMW that Koons wanted a minimalist and conceptual car. Fair enough.

I like it more than the previous (#19) from John Baldessari, a white selfie-wearing 2016 BMW M6 GTLM. Funny enough, I’ll say that my favorite Art Car (#17) is another that traces back to Koons, the . That one ran at Le Mans, and it made even land speeds look like light speed.

Image for article titled The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road

Koon’s latest design leaves me wanting more because elements and a “swirl of wind” from an aero vent isn’t my idea of avant-garde. But I admit the different colored bumpers look awesome. It doesn’t seem like a big ask to start doing accent bumpers. We get two-tone roofs. Why not two-tone bumpers, too?

BMW that its Landshut plant will paint all the plastic outer panels, and that over 100 employees are involved in the painstaking process. The work is so meticulous, BMW claims that only two cars can be painted per week.

Image for article titled The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road

Image for article titled The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road

Image for article titled The Latest BMW Art Car Is Trading The Museum Exhibit For The Open Road

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