BMW M Motorsport celebrates 50 years of Art Car heritage with Ken Done tribute at the Bathurst 12 Hour
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Team WRT will return to Mount Panorama this weekend to defend its spectacular 1-2 finish at the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour just as BMW M Motorsport once again brings together world-class endurance racing and one of the most iconic legacies in automotive culture: the BMW Art Car heritage.
Following confirmation of Team WRT’s driver line-up for the 2026 race event, BMW M Motorsport today revealed a striking artistic tribute that celebrates five decades of BMW Art Car history with GT racing. One of the two BMW M4 GT3 EVO race cars fielded by Team WRT will feature a special livery inspired by BMW Art Car #8, created by renowned Australian artist Ken Done.
A Ken Done Art Car design replica livery will be applied to the #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, driven by Jordan Pepper (RSA), Kelvin van der Linde (RSA) and Charles Weerts (BEL) – forming part of the global 50-year anniversary celebrations of the BMW Art Car Collections, one of the most iconic and enduring collaborations between art and motorsport. Since its inception in 1975, BMW Art Cars have been created by some of the world’s most renowned artists, with most of them transforming racing cars into moving works of art.
Commenting on the occasion, Ken Done said: “I’m really looking forward to the weekend race to see the artwork for the BMW Art Car I painted brought to the racetrack. I was inspired by the brilliance and motion of parrots and parrot fish and wanted to give the impression of speed. There’s no more powerful place for that than on a circuit like Mount Panorama. It is wonderful to see colour, energy and performance coming together again through BMW M Motorsport.”
Ken Done’s original BMW Art Car was painted in 1989, with his canvas the very same BMW M3 Group A race car that Australian racing legend Jim Richards drove to title victory in the 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC). It therefore is a particularly fitting source of inspiration for BMW’s return to Mount Panorama with a modern GT3-specification contender.
In another milestone for the BMW M brand, 2026 also marks the 40th anniversary of the BMW M3, which was first launched in 1986. Across six generations, the BMW M3 has established itself as one of the most successful and recognisable high-performance models in automotive history, both on the road and on the racetrack.
The special Art Car tribute will make its competitive debut at the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, an international 12-hour endurance held at the iconic Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, on the weekend of 13–15 February 2026.
By combining the legacy of the BMW Art Car Collection, the anniversary of the BMW M3, and one of the world’s most challenging endurance races, BMW M Motorsport continues to celebrate its unique position at the intersection of art, performance and racing heritage.
