Art cars are unique vehicles dressed up with special paint jobs or other modifications to help their owners express themselves or otherwise make a bold visual statement. From mild to wild, there are really no limits or rules to what constitutes one of these special machines.To celebrate this genre of motor vehicle, BMW has been commissioning uniquely modified vehicles since 1975, and famous American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol painted one very special racecar back in 1979.To provide the most accurate and up-to-date information possible, this article uses data sourced from various manufacturers and authoritative sources. BMW's Ongoing Art Project Spans 50 Years BMWAccording to BMWArtCarCollection.com, an independent enthusiast website that, as you might imagine, is dedicated to the performance-focused German luxury automaker’s vehicles:The BMW Art Car Project was introduced by the French racecar driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain, who wanted to invite an artist to create a canvas on an automobile. In 1975, Poulain commissioned American artist and friend Alexander Calder to paint the first BMW Art Car...This BMW 3.0 CSL that Poulain later raced at Le Mans that year. In the intervening 50 years, this vehicle manufacturer has commissioned 19 more art cars from a wide range of creators. Art Cars Set Off On A World Tour BMW This gaggle of art cars is on display at the BMW Museum in Munich, Germany, though the vehicles do travel around the world to various exhibitions. In fact, back in March, the company confirmed the 2025 schedule, which appears to be wrapping up late next month after making about 15 stops in places, including: Istanbul, Turkey Taipei, Taiwan Stockholm, Sweden Johannesburg, South Africa Hong Kong Warhol Painted A 1979 BMW M1 Group 4 Race Version BMW Andy Warhol’s contribution to all this is a 1979 BMW M1 in Group 4 racing spec. The famed American artist painted the car himself “with only the aid of his assistant,” BMWArtCarCollection.com reports. Warhol went with bold, bright colors and even used his fingers to obtain the look he desired. He completed his masterpiece in a mere 28 minutes.As pointed out, other artists who contributed to this project painted their visions on scale model cars, and then these designs were applied to the full-size vehicles under their direction. Instead, Warhol did all this work himself, and he was the first to do so.“I tried to portray a sense of speed,” Warhol reportedly said. “When a car is going really fast, all the lines and colors become a blur.” And indeed, the paint scheme he applied to the M1 certainly looks a bit fuzzy, with seemingly random patches of color and ragged borders between the various hues. Race-Proven Performance Meets Artistic Relevance BMW The Warhol-ized BMW M1 featured here is motivated by a twin-cam inline-six with four valves per cylinder and a generous lung capacity of 3.5 liters. That’s enough to generate an estimated 470 horsepower and deliver a top speed of roughly 191 mph (307 km/h), a blistering pace, especially in the 1970s.Putting that under-hood hardware to the test, this famous M1 participated in the 1979 installment of the Le Mans 24-hour race. Piloted by Manfred Winkelhock from West Germany as well as Herve Poulain and Marcel Mignot, both hailing from France, the vehicle finished the grueling competition in sixth place overall, though it earned a second-place finish in its class. Numerous Examples Of Art On Wheels BMW Of course, plenty of other artists have customized special BMWs. The first of this art car series was done by American sculptor Alexander Calder, who modified a BMW 3.0 CLS in 1975. Roy Lichtenstein applied his special touch to a 320 Group 5 car in 1977, Esther Mahlangu painted a BMW 525i in 1991, and Jeff Koons applied his handicraft to an M3 GT2 in 2010, just to name a few.