[woodcote]

         

Racer Sideways SW72 BMW 320 GR.5 No.50 Le Mans 1977 - Roy Lichtenstein Art Car. RRP £74.94. Available now

The BMW Art Car Project was an incredible mix of brutish saloon cars and high culture. Begun by auctioneer and gentleman driver Hervé Poulain, the first two cars were 3.0 CSLs - decorated by American artists Alexander Calder (1975) and Frank Stella (1976). The third Art Car is this one - a Group 5 BMW 320 - designed by Pop Art legend Roy Lichtenstein, presented at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and then driven by Poulain and Marcel Mignot to ninth place (second in the IMSA class) at the 1977 Le Mans 24 hours...

       

"I pondered on it for a long time and put as much into it as I possibly could" said Lichtenstein of his Art Car design. "I wanted the lines I painted to be a depiction the road showing the car where to go. The design also shows the countryside through which the car has travelled. One could call it an enumeration of everything a car experiences – only that this car reflects all of these things before actually having been on a road."

       

Looking at the design, it's easy to see the lines of the passing landscape and the sun rising or setting. The Ben-Day dots are a hallmark of Lichtenstein's Pop Art creations of the 1960s, where he exaggerates the artwork of comic strips - derived from the traditional twentieth century technique of  printing drawings and photographs in newspapers. Here's Lichtenstein's car up close in a German documentary...



The Sideways model is a faithful reproduction of the Art Car and is a ready-to-race performance slot car...

       


Ready for Classic Group 5 competition, the BMW is fitted with quality Slot.it racing parts - including aluminium rear wheels, adjustable front axle ride height and a five point motor mount.

The Racer Sideways BMW 320 Roy Lichtenstein Art Car is available now. Thanks to Racer Slot Cars for the photographs.

   

[tifosi100]

I wish that I had known this was coming before I created my own from a Revell BMW