Earlier this week, we reported that an exclusive collection of wonderful BMW Art Cars will be featured in the new ART DRIVE! exhibit at the London 2012 Festival Saturday, July 21 to Saturday August 4.
Featuring sensational works of art from pop artists including Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, the show is something you wouldn't want to miss. However, what if you're stuck in New York and have no way of getting to London in time?
Enter BMW of Southampton. During a previous test drive, I took the Kia Soul out to Montauk for a day trip to familiarize myself with the car. Passing a glance through the showroom window as a cruised by BMW Southampton, I saw a colorful wedge shape sitting on a pedestal and I pulled over to stop as quickly as I could.
There it was, the Frank Stella BMW M1 Art Car.
To date, there are only 18 BMW Art Cars in existence, 17 of which are BMW owned and remain in the Bavarian automaker's permanent collection. The remaining one is, you guessed it, the Frank Stella M1.
First displayed at the Paris Motor Show of 1978, the BMW M1 spearheaded a new Motorsport division that would later define the pinnacle of BMW performance cars. However, the three additional years of development for the M1 have been tumultuous. Originally, BMW ambitiously launched a project to create a racing car for the FIA Group 4 homologation racing series. At the time, Lamborghini entered into an agreement with BMW to build the vehicle. However, as Lamborghini suffered mounting pressures and faced bankruptcy, BMW had no choice but to end the contract.
Then, by the time the M1 was finally ready, Group 4 homologation regulations were revised to omit prototype sports cars in favor of racing cars based on production vehicles. Because of this, the BMW M1's racing career had ended before it started.
Thankfully, BMW managed to salvage the situation when head of BMW Motorsport Jochen Neerpasch created a one-make Procar BMW M1 Championship specificially for BMW's super car. the Procar series served as a support series for Formula One.
Champion racing driver Peter Gregg was close friends with Frank Stella and together, they created the Frank Stella BMW M1 Procar. Influenced by Stella's "Polar Coordinates" design, Stella intended for the shape of the M1 to continuously change with every turn of the race track, creating a bizarre illusion for the viewers. What's more, the design was based on a series of prints that Stella made to honor his late friend, Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson, who passed away during an incident at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix.
The M1 was previously owned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum before it was purchased by Jonathan Sobel, owner of BMW Southampton, for $800,000.
I hope you enjoyed the select photos of this magnificent one-of-a-kind machine. If you have the chance, visit BMW at Southampton to experience the beautiful Frank Stella M1 Art Car yourself.
Happy hump day, everybody!
