As many of you know, between 1975 and 1999, BMW commissioned twelve artists to use their cars as canvases for the artists' work. Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein were some of the names among them. I've always been fascinated with those cars, and since I've never seen one for sale, and would never be able to afford one even if I did, I decided to make my own. I met an artist named Tristan Eaton at the NYIAS, where he was painting the roof of a Ford Flex on the show floor. He has designed shoes for Triple 5 Soul, toys and cartoons for Kid Robot, and laptop casings for Dell Computers. He agreed to create a piece that will make my car one of the most unique Mini's on Earth, and to film it for Garage 419. Here is the result. It is 100% original artwork, and it will never be replicated. The whole design is done in black and white reflective vinyl, which has some pretty cool properties at night when it gets lit up by a camera flash or car's headlights.

And if anyone cares, the car's specs and mods:
2006 MCS JCW
18" JCW Wheels
JCW Carbon Wing
Palo Uber Scoop
Piaa Lights
Mini Mania Intake
Mini Mania Long Tube Headers & Race Cats
Farnbacher Loles Custom Software
Alta 15% Pulley
Valentine One / Blinder Laser Jammers
Uniden CB Radio
AI Design Custom Brake Light Cut Out

Special Thanks To:

Tristan Eaton - For his genius
www.thunderblogspot.com

Acid Studios NYC - For their location and helpfulness
www.acidnyc.com

Garage Wall Wraps - For the vinyl
www.garagewallwraps.com

Voila' My Very Own BMW/MINI art car:

Day:

Night:


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Night:


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Night:

 

Beautiful! Any significance in the artwork? Do the 7's mean something?

 

Very cool.

 

corny as it sounds, it's always been my lucky number, and 777 is like the devil's lucky cousin. the pattern used on the hood and roof is a chain created from the logo for my driving club.

 

Looks sick my vinyl brutha.

 

That is some nice art you have there

 

Incredible and awesome !! You don't see too many cars that are hot during the day but even hotter at night.

Very cool !

 

Very cool, but are those wrinkles in the center hood piece?

 

there are two wrinkles on the hood circle, the reflective vinyl is very brittle and is much harder to heat up and stretch than normal automotovie vinyl, consequently that one piece is slightly less than perfect. You can only see it with a flash from that one angle though.

 

Thats really cool. Have you thought about doing the back of the car as well?

 

Very, very nice work....

Donna

 

I thought about it, and then realized that it would be dangerous and irresponsible of me to do that, since the back is the part that gets hit with headlights the most, and the car reflects so bright that it would blind people on the highway. Also, the back of the car is also kind of cluttered with tail lights, license plates, and the like, so we just decided to put the vinyl on the rear window and let the side patterns fade out.

 

That is very cool! Kudos on a very unique look

 

That's really different - neat!

 

thats crazy! I love it! very very cool!

 

Love it!!! Looks uber sharp!

 

Very cool! Great idea!

-Chase

 

It looks like tattoos for the mini. Really a cool idea...how long did it take for the artist to do? can you give a description of the process?

 

For a reference, here are some pics of the original BMW Art Cars.



ANDY WARHOL 1979 BMW M1:




ROY LIECHTENSTEIN 1977 BMW 320i:


FRANK STELLA 1976 BMW 3.0 CSL:


KEN DONE 1987 BMW M3:

 

I can do one better. We videotaped the whole thing for my webcast TV show, Garage 419, and the video will be online tomorrow for all to see. I'll make sure to post it here. It took Tristan and his crew about a week to get the designs right, a full day to cut the vinyl out, and about 12 hours to install on the car. It wasn't nearly as easy as just slapping some stickers on.

 

AWESOME

 

Nice work!!!

 

Wow... hand-work wasn't Warhol's strength was he? That looks like crap. I like yours much better.

 

Very nice work!

If anyone would like to see more of the BMW Art Cars (there are 15 now), here's a link with multiple shots of each car.

 

With all the reflective-ness of the decals, Do you have any need for the head lights and aux lighting?