BMW Celebrates Art Car History and 40 Years of M3 at Bathurst 12 Hour

Staff WRT heads again to Mount Panorama this weekend with new enterprise on the agenda: defend the spectacular 1–2 finish it scored at the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour. For the 2026 operating of the race, BMW M Motorsport is pairing that on-track ambition with certainly one of its most recognizable cultural calling playing cards—the BMW Artwork Automotive legacy.

After confirming Staff WRT’s driver line-up for the 2026 occasion, BMW M Motorsport revealed a creative tribute that ties GT racing to 5 a long time of BMW Artwork Automotive historical past. One of many two BMW M4 GT3 EVOs entered by Staff WRT will run a particular livery impressed by BMW Artwork Automotive #8, created by famend Australian artist Ken Performed.

The Ken Performed Artwork Automotive design duplicate can be utilized to the #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, to be pushed by Jordan Pepper (RSA), Kelvin van der Linde (RSA), and Charles Weerts (BEL). The tribute varieties a part of the worldwide 50-year anniversary celebrations of the BMW Art Car Collection, a long-running collaboration that has linked artwork and motorsport since 1975. Over that interval, BMW Artwork Vehicles have been created by a number of the world’s most famed artists, with many turning race automobiles into transferring artworks.

Ken Performed welcomed the return of his Artwork Automotive theme to the circuit forward of the weekend’s race. “I’m actually wanting ahead to the weekend race to see the paintings for the BMW Artwork Automotive I painted delivered to the racetrack,” he stated. Performed defined that he drew inspiration from the brilliance and movement of parrots and parrot fish, aiming to seize an impression of velocity—one thing he believes fits Mount Panorama completely. He added that it’s “fantastic to see colour, vitality and efficiency coming collectively once more by BMW M Motorsport.”

Performed’s authentic BMW Artwork Automotive dates again to 1989, painted on a championship-winning Group A BMW E30 M3. That automotive was the identical BMW M3 Group A racer pushed by Australian motorsport icon Jim Richards to the 1987 Australian Touring Automotive Championship (ATCC) title, making the trendy tribute a becoming nod as BMW returns to Mount Panorama with a present GT3-spec contender.

The timing additionally aligns with one other landmark for the badge: 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the BMW M3, first launched in 1986. Now spanning six generations, the M3 has turn out to be one of the recognizable high-performance nameplates in automotive historical past, with a report that stretches throughout each street and racetrack.

The Artwork Automotive-inspired BMW M4 GT3 EVO livery will make its aggressive debut on the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, the worldwide 12-hour endurance race held at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, on 13–15 February 2026. [Photos: BMW Australia]