The Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) and Richard Mille have taken the wraps off a major transformation: in May, the 24 Hours of Le Mans Museum will become M24 – Museum of Motorsport.

The venue has been completely redesigned as a cultural and emotional experience that tells the story, encapsulates the influence and depicts the future of global motorsport.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem, President of the F&eacute;d&eacute;ration Internationale de l&rsquo;Automobile (FIA), was in attendance as ACO President Pierre Fillon unveiled the project at the R&eacute;tromobile show alongside Richard Mille, ACO Culture &amp; Heritage Director Fabrice Bourrigaud and Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Audevard, the M24 architect.

M24 is a response to two facts: our heritage is absolutely unique, and today&rsquo;s visitors expect something different. They no longer come just to see one car after another. They want to understand and feel what it was like. They want to be part of a story. M24 stands at the crossroads between our heritage and our future.&nbsp;&ndash;Pierre Fillon 
&nbsp;

Designed to deliver an experience

M24 has been in gestation since 2022 when the ACO and Richard Mille formed a dedicated company, MACO, with the remit of taking the museum, built in 1961 and redeveloped 30 years later, into a new era.

The newly extended museum aims to become an international benchmark for automotive heritage, enriched by the unique pedigree of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

M24 is underpinned by the strongly held belief that history can only really be passed on through experience. Its purpose is to move from a display case where cars are merely on show to a story that tells us what they are about &ndash; the people involved, the technological challenges, the moments of grace, and the major historical breakthroughs in sport and society.

Le Mans is not just a race. It&rsquo;s a living legend, a unique tale of human and technological endeavour. M24 will not look on the past with nostalgia but with ambition, stimulating communication between our heritage and our future.&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Richard Mille 
&nbsp;

An outstanding legacy brought to life

M24 will be home to one of the richest collections in world motorsport, including iconic cars, unique prototypes, rare objects and precious archives stretching back over a century. Over 120 vehicles will be exhibited alongside remarkable artefacts such as the suit worn by Ayrton Senna, revealed at today&rsquo;s press conference.&nbsp;

The scenography born from the imagination of Rapha&euml;l Daguet takes visitors on an immersive two-stage tour:

&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; firstly, a space devoted to the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Endurance, the backbone of the story;

&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; and, secondly, a space dedicated to other major disciplines: Formula One, rallying, rally-raids, IndyCar and American culture.

Sounds, pictures, interactive features and human accounts whisk the visitor &ldquo;into the race&rdquo;. Each car is an entry point to a different era and adventure: from the 1924 Le Mans-winning Bentley 3 Litre to the 1965 Ford GT40, from the Matra 670B to contemporary Hypercars, from the Ferrari F2002 driven by Michael Schumacher to the Lancia Stratos, icon of the rally world.

The idea is not to amass cars, but to tell stories. To spotlight outstanding pieces in the same way as we exhibit works of art, to arouse emotion, curiosity and awe.&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Richard Mille

 
Architecture to stir emotion

The work of Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Audevard combines tradition and innovation. The extension design is influenced by the motor car &ndash; aluminium, sleek lines and visitor flows inspired by racing aerodynamics &ndash; with a strong focus on natural light to allow the collections to show their true value.

Adopting a responsible mindset from the drawing board, the designer has incorporated a green roof, optimised rainwater management and sustainable materials into the building.

The project has involved 23 mainly local firms to showcase the skills available in the area and make a direct contribution to the Sarthe economy.

M24 is one of the very real embodiments of our CSR approach. This project harnesses valuable heritage, economic and human elements and is deeply rooted in our territory.&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Pierre Fillon

 
A living, perpetually evolving museum

Dust will have no time to settle!

M24 will regularly welcome new pieces, focusing on loans from manufacturers and international institutions &ndash; such as the 1986 Dakar rally-winning Porsche 959 borrowed from the Porsche Museum &ndash; and will host around two temporary exhibitions per year.

M24 expects to attract initially over 300,000 visitors per year and become one of Europe&rsquo;s leading cultural and tourist attractions.

With its modular facilities, fully equipped rooms and luminous spaces, M24 is also set to become Le Mans&rsquo; primary venue for hosting seminars, conferences, training days and bespoke events at the heart of the legendary circuit.

M24 is a place where these stories will live on. It&rsquo;s where a kid can fall in love with a car and maybe decide one day to be an engineer, designer or racing driver. If anyone comes out with their eyes sparkling a bit brighter than when they went in, then M24 will have served its purpose.&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Richard Mille

With M24, the ACO and its partners are creating something unique &ndash; a museum that harnesses legacy and innovation, heritage and emotion, the past and the future of motorsport.&nbsp;This ambition is already shared by partners committed to the project from day one. Four such partners of M24 were announced at the press conference: Rolex, Goodyear, CA Mobility and Michelin.&nbsp;

Their involvement illustrates the cultural scope of M24 and the project&rsquo;s ability to bring together motorsport&rsquo;s most emblematic sponsors around a common vision: to transmit and disseminate the history of motorsport to inspire present and future generations.

We look forward to welcoming you to this exceptional venue on 28 May.

M24 – Motorsport museum set to open on 28 May 2026

Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye will once again share the wheel of the #83 Ferrari 499P for AF Corse in the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship including the flagship event, the 94th 94 Hours of Le Mans (10-14 June 2026).

AF Corse has announced the racers who will drive the #83 Ferrari 499P at this year&rsquo;s 24 Hours of Le Mans and throughout the 2026 FIA WEC campaign. Unsurprisingly, the Italian hypercar will once again be in the capable hands of Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye. Last season, the trio won the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished as runners-up in the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers&rsquo; Championship.

Kubica and Ye are about to embark on their third consecutive season at the wheel of the #83 Ferrari. Hanson &ndash; the recently appointed Ferrari works driver &ndash; joined them in 2025 after showing his worth in the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963. The British racer also has a Le Mans LMP2 class win with United Autosports to his name.

AF Corse will be keen to defend its 24 Hours of Le Mans crown while the illustrious line-up will endeavour to go one better in the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers&rsquo; Championship. Undoubtedly&nbsp;Kubica, Ye and Hanson are already looking forward to the mighty challenge.

AF Corse stick with Le Mans-winning line-up in #83 Ferrari 499P

Fifty years after the first BMW Art Car, the German marque honoured its legacy at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a living work of art Hypercar. The 2024 BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car decorated by Julie Mehretu fused contemporary painting and endurance racing, transforming the track into an open-air gallery.

With a massive&nbsp;painting transposed onto the&nbsp;Hypercar, close collaboration between artist and engineers, and&nbsp;racing as the final stage of creation, in 2024 the&nbsp;BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car decorated by Julie Mehretu&nbsp;embodied the carmaker&#39;s return to the highest level of endurance racing and carried on&nbsp;the remarkable history of BMW Art Cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

<h2>Born for the Track</h2>

In 2024, BMW celebrated a double anniversary: 50 years since the creation of the first Art Car, and the constructor&#39;s return to the top level of endurance racing via the Hypercar category at the&nbsp;24 Hours of Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance&nbsp;Championship (FIA WEC). To mark the occasion, BMW entrusted the livery of the #20&nbsp;M Hybrid V8 to New York artist&nbsp;Julie Mehretu.&nbsp;Known for her monumental abstract paintings&nbsp;exhibited in major international institutions, Mehretu drew&nbsp;inspiration from her work Everywhen (2021-2023)&nbsp;which was presented in 2024 at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice before joining the MoMA permanent collection in NYC.

Her approach surpasses simple&nbsp;decoration. Julie Mehretu:&nbsp;To me, the car is a living painting. It was created for the circuit rather than the museum. As such, the&nbsp;BMW transformed into a moving canvas, a work of art&nbsp;whose final form could only be achieved after 24 hours of racing

Julie Mehretu imagined the&nbsp;M Hybrid V8 as an extension of her canvas. Mehretu: I saw the&nbsp;BMW M Hybrid V8&nbsp;in front of the finished painting in my studio and thought about what would happen if the car could move through the picture and merge with it. Now the BMW Art Car is another version&nbsp;of my painting and it looks like its grille has inhaled the paint.&nbsp;

The project was born from a close collaboration between the artist&nbsp;and BMW Motorsport designers&nbsp;and engineers. The challenge was&nbsp;to preserve&nbsp;artistic identity while respecting the aerodynamic and technical constraints of a Hypercar competing at the highest level of motorsport.

<h2>Racing Activates the Design</h2>

At the&nbsp;92nd 24 Hours, the #20&nbsp;BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car was shared by&nbsp;Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and&nbsp;Ren&eacute; Rast. The car qualified in P16 in&nbsp;03:26.223 and then navigated impactful setbacks early on.&nbsp;After suffering a punctured tyre in the first hour, the #20&nbsp;managed to claw its way into the top 10 before a violent collision with a&nbsp;stack of tyres at the Motul Chicane.&nbsp;Frijns returned the car to pit lane on three wheels resulting in a 24-minute delay.

After starting from last place in the Hypercar category, the #20 BMW&nbsp;finally returned to the track shortly before the finish&nbsp;after a long pit stop. It passed&nbsp;under the chequered flag&nbsp;having completed 96 laps, unclassified, but nonetheless praised for having seen through a project where the race itself was an crucial&nbsp;part of the endeavor.

The M Hybrid V8 Art Car continued&nbsp;BMW&#39;s&nbsp;unique tradition of melding&nbsp;art and motorsport at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Fifty years after the first Art Car entered the race, Julie Mehretu left her mark on the&nbsp;lineage&nbsp;while simultaneously propelling it into the present.

&nbsp;

To celebrate R&eacute;tromobile&#39;s 50th anniversary and the half-century mark of BMW Art Cars, the&nbsp;2026 show will present a <a href="http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/all-seven-le-mans-bmw-art-cars-on-display-at-retromobile-2026-in-paris-60209">special exhibition in France</a> from 28 January&nbsp;to 1 February. The seven BMW Art Cars seen at Le Mans will be brought together at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, including the #20&nbsp;BMW M Hybrid V8 fielded by&nbsp;BMW M Team WRT in the 2024&nbsp;24 Hours.

BMW Art Cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – M Hybrid V8 by Julie Mehretu: living canvas

In 2010, the BMW Art Car saga renewed the Pop Art theme with the help of Jeff Koons. Thanks to the American artist, the BMW M3 GT2 (entered in the LMGT2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans) displayed its power on the outside in a splash of visual energy. The spectacular work, ideally suited to racing, was an immediate hit with fans.

The BMW M3 GT2 by Jeff Koons entered in the LMGT2 class at the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans was another flamboyant example of Pop Art in the Art Car series. Designed as an expression of speed, power and movement, it turned heads on track before its race was ended prematurely.

<h2>Designed for speed</h2>

No mention of BMW Art Cars could miss a reference to Jeff Koons. One of the most influential artists of his generation, the American was directly inspired by <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/bmw-art-cars-at-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-bmw-320i-turbo-the-pop-art-performer-60214" target="_blank">Roy Lichtenstein</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/bmw-art-cars-at-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-bmw-m1-andy-warhol-absolute-icon-60222" target="_blank">Andy Warhol</a>.His BMW M3 GT2 was the 17th Art Car, and completely in keeping with the spirit of the series. His design expressed a simple, universal message: speed.

With bright colours and vibrant lines with graphic fragments projected from back to front, this livery spelled raw energy. Even at a standstill, the car appeared ready to pounce. &ldquo;These race cars are like life, they are powerful and there is a lot of energy,&rdquo; said Koons. &quot;I want to let my ideas transcend with the car &ndash; it&rsquo;s really to connect with that power.&rdquo;

However, an&nbsp;impression of speed was not enough; the BMW M3 GT2 by Jeff Koons was intended for real pace on track. Koons worked alongside the BMW teams in Munich to ensure that the paintwork would not interfere with the car&rsquo;s aerodynamics and weight. Using 3-D computer-aided design models and digital simulations, he adapted his graphic design to the complex shapes of the bodywork. 
The artist was keen to experience racing speed for real, donning a helmet for tests at Sebring with Rahal Letterman Racing, enjoying laps in a classic BMW M1 as a passenger and driving a road-legal BMW M3. His intention was to get a feel for speed to inspire his design.

Decorating the Art Car was a challenge. Time was short &ndash; there were only two months between the first sketches and the premiere &ndash; so BMW opted for digital printing on car wrapping vinyl, protected by a double clear-coating. Hundreds of dynamic lines were carefully applied to the car and individual spare parts, a pattern of debris was added to the rear sides and two graphic rings on the rear represented supersonic acceleration.

<h2>&ldquo;I would love to give it another chance and have it compete again.&rdquo;</h2>

The BMW M3 GT2 Art Car was unveiled on 1 June 2010 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in front of 300 guests from all over the world. The venue was symbolic, Roy Lichtenstein having presented his Art Car there in 1977.

Entered for the 78th 24 Hours of Le Mans, the BMW M3 GT2 Art Car competed under the BMW Motorsport banner. Driving duties were entrusted to Dirk M&uuml;ller, Dirk Werner and Andy Priaulx. On track, it attracted immediate attention from spectators and journalists. But the race proved cruel and the car was not destined to cross the finish line. However, the #78 BMW M3 GT2 finished sixth, with J&ouml;rg M&uuml;ller, Augusto Farfus and Uwe Alzen at the wheel.

Despite the disappointment, Jeff Koons remembers the human element of the race. &ldquo;This race has been a very invigorating experience. It&rsquo;s amazing to see the commitment of all the people involved. The fans sleep in tents and stay awake for far more than 24 hours to celebrate this event. This has me really going, as I understand that it is something truly special for all the people to be here.&rdquo; 
Talking of the team: &ldquo;Yes, I would have loved to see the team win, but it wasn&rsquo;t to be. I know how committed they are and how much precision and care they put into their work. Of course we would have loved to see the car win. I would love to give it another chance and have it compete again.&rdquo;

To Koons, race cars are metaphors: &quot;These race cars are like gladiators out there. They are performing with full power and full impact.&rdquo;

It may not have run the full course, nevertheless Jeff Koons&rsquo; BMW M3 GT2 remains one of the most emblematic Art Cars ever to have entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Its explosive look and performance-oriented design are the perfect embodiment of the BMW Art Car spirit: to strike up a conversation between contemporary art and endurance racing.

In a tribute to a half-century of fantastic liveries, this year&rsquo;s R&eacute;tromobile show (28 January to 1 February at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles) will be <a href="https://www.retromobile.com/en/news/bmw-art-car-world-tour">showcasing the seven 24 Hours of Le Mans BMW Art Cars</a> including the BMW M3 GT2 by Jeff Koons.

BMW Art Cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – BMW M3 GT2 by Jeff Koons: the colour of speed

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		Photo : Nicolas COUSSEAU - ACO/Nikon
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	The Peugeot Sport driver was all smiles after the qualifying session.

	&quot;I achieved the lap that I imagined in my head and even better. To drive a prototype on this track is just fantastic. I was fortunate to have a clear lap and attack. My &#39;off&#39; yesterday shook me because I took about 8g when I hit the barriers and 5g laterally. My pole is a way of saying thank you to the mechanics who worked through the night to rebuild the car. The front row for Peugeot is important because it is very important&nbsp;for us&nbsp;to win the ILMC. It&#39;s very nice to be in America for the second round of the Cup. &quot;
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	Interview by C&eacute;cile Bonardel

24H LE MANS

Anthony Davidson: on qualifying in pole position.

Related News

M24 – Motorsport museum set to open on 28 May 2026

AF Corse stick with Le Mans-winning line-up in #83 Ferrari 499P

BMW Art Cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – M Hybrid V8 by Julie Mehretu: living canvas

BMW Art Cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – BMW M3 GT2 by Jeff Koons: the colour of speed

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