If you were at the Bathurst 12 Hour on the weekend, or managed to catch any of it on pay TV or the free to air news, you might have noticed that one of the two BMW M4 GT3 EVO offerings from Team WRT looked a little familiar.
That’s because its paint scheme was a replica of the art car painted by iconic Aussie artist, Ken Done, which first found its way onto a Group A BMW E30 M3 way back in 1989. The striking tribute celebrates five decades of BMW Art Car history with GT racing.
“I was inspired by the brilliance and motion of parrots and parrot fish and wanted to give the impression of speed,” Done said of his original design.
“There’s no more powerful place for that than on a circuit like Mount Panorama. It is wonderful to see colour, energy and performance coming together again through BMW M Motorsport.”
The car Done painted was the very same BMW M3 Group A race car that Australian racing legend Jim Richards drove to title victory in the 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC). That makes it a particularly fitting source of inspiration for the 12 Hour.
In another milestone for the BMW M brand, 2026 also marks the 40th anniversary of the M3, which was first launched in 1986. Across six generations, it has established itself as one of the most recognisable high-performance models in automotive history.
The special Art Car tribute made its competitive debut at the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour on Sunday, 15 February, where the #32, driven by Jordan Pepper (RSA), Kelvin van der Linde (RSA) and Charles Weerts (BEL), finished 12th.
