24h Le Mans
In 1977, the BMW Art Car series turned to Pop Art with a comic-inspired design by Roy Lichtenstein for the new BMW 320i Turbo. The car covered in the artist’s famous Ben-Day dots crossed the 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans finish line.
In 1977, a major figure of Pop Art took on the challenge of turning a race car into a work of art. Roy Lichtenstein was the third artist, and the third American after Alexander Calder and Frank Stella to illustrate a BMW fielded at Le Mans. The BMW 320i Turbo combined striking artwork with excellent results, claiming ninth place overall and a class win.
Lichtenstein turned to his emblematic Ben-Day dot pattern to decorate the BMW 320i Turbo, adding a reference to the car’s racing environment on the sides. The design is reminiscent of the comic strip inspiration favoured by Lichtenstein since the sixties, and also portrays the surroundings through which the car is driven.
That year the initiator of the Art Car project Hervé Poulain shared the wheel with Marcel Mignot. The #50 started the race with the firm intention of finishing. “Roy Lichtenstein used the sun rays and dots that are part of all his work, because they both were the right match for the 24 Hours of Le Mans,” explained Poulain. “The dots gave the car a feline look.”
The 1977 Art Car was a different model to the previous ones. The 320i Turbo was part of the 3 Series introduced in 1975 to replace the celebrated BMW 2002 and BMW elected to field the new car opposite the Porsche 935 in the new Group 5 classification. Its first Le Mans appearance was in 1977.
Marcel Mignot remembers being on tenterhooks throughout the race. “Around 8 pm, I noticed the oil pressure was at zero. I went in and they sent me back out. The pressure went up from time to time, then back down again later on. I decided to ease off to protect the engine.” Both drivers skilfully make up for the default and despite temperamental weather ranked sixth by daybreak.
The BMW 320i Turbo gradually lost power as the hours ticked by, yet soldiered on.“By the end of the race, the car was more and more difficult to handle due to the lack of power, but we finished ninth all the same,” says Marcel Mignot. A remarkable result overall, and a class win. “The sun on the car’s side probably acted as a good-luck charm” jokes the driver.
The BMW 320i Turbo by Lichtenstein marked an important stage in the Art Car saga: for the first time, the car didn’t just attract attention in the early hours of the race as a work of art, it finished the race. In a fusion of Pop Art, endurance and mechanical engineering, the BMW Art Car went from cultural exhibit to real race car, earning a place in the history books.
In a tribute to a half-century of fantastic liveries, this year’s Rétromobile show (28 January to 1 February at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles) will be showcasing the seven 24 Hours of Le Mans BMW Art Cars including the BMW 320i Turbo by Roy Lichtenstein.
