BMW M3 GT2 (E92)

Information

First raced in BMW's corporate colours at the 2010 Spa 1000 km, this M3 GT2 achieved world fame when it appeared at Le Mans a month later in a Jeff Koons-designed livery. Unfortunately, the striking BMW's charge at Le Mans was very short-lived as it retired with mechanical issues after just five hours. Because of its special livery, chassis 1002 was not raced again but has since been regularly shown and demonstrated at events all over the world. It now forms part of BMW's rich art-car history.

To Jeff Koons 'These race cars are like life, they are powerful and there is a lot of energy' and he most surely wanted to capture that sort of energy on the commision he recieved from BMW to work on the 17th Art Car for the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans. The canvas chosen was a BMW M3 GT2, chassis 1002, that would be driven by Andy Priaulx, Dirk Werver and Dirk Müller.

In order to get a better sense of the speed and the emotions the driver goes through when driving a GT race car, he drove an M1 race car and an M3 Coupé and CAD helped him assess his work before applying to the soon-to-be art car.

Koons' style for the job was that of multi-colored light beams all across the car's body. These were first printed onto a foil that would be applied to the black M3 GT2 and sealed with clear lacquer.