1979 BMW M1
- Colour
- Pearl white base with darker grey airbrushed accents on bonnet, engine cover, and roof; all-white wheels with black details
Chassis 4301135 is a 1979 BMW M1 distinguished as the only known road car to receive a custom livery by Walter Maurer, the artist closely associated with BMW's Art Car programme. Finished at the factory in white over a black interior and completed by Baur in November 1979, the car was given its 'Exclusiv' pearl-white and airbrushed grey paint scheme by Maurer very shortly after production, reportedly when it had covered only around 200 kilometres. It passed from its first owner, Curt Soldan of the Nuremberg confectionery family, through a sequence of British and German custodians before entering The Munich Masterpieces Collection in 2009. The matching-numbers engine is confirmed by factory records, and the odometer showed just 33,862 kilometres at cataloguing.
Ownership
- —Auction saleSold €477,500 (≈ $525K)
- 1979 →Factory deliveryCurt Soldanpartial documentation
Member of the Soldan confectionery family based in Nuremberg; collaborated with Maurer on the custom paint scheme while the car had covered only around 200 km. Believed to have retained the car for roughly a decade.
- 1989-07-01 →First UK ownerpartial documentation
One of three owners who held the car during a roughly 20-year period of UK registration.
- → 2009Third UK ownernone documentation
Final UK custodian before the car was repatriated to Germany in 2009.
- 2009 →Private saleMunich Masterpieces Collectionpartial documentation
Car has been driven very sparingly since joining this German collection, accumulating just 33,862 km total at time of cataloguing.
- Date unknownSecond UK ownernone documentation
Part of the group of three owners during the car's two-decade stay in the United Kingdom.
Competition
- 19751975 Le Mans 24 HoursDriver: Hervé Poulain
Poulain drove the Alexander Calder and Walter Maurer-decorated BMW 3.0 CSL; this is context for the Art Car programme, not the car being catalogued.
- 19791979 Le Mans 24 HoursDriver: Hervé Poulain6th overall
The Warhol-painted M1 Art Car was co-driven by Marcel Mignot and Manfred Winkelhock alongside Poulain; this is background context and not the car being offered.
Maintenance & restoration
- 1979Bodywork
Custom 'Exclusiv' livery applied by Walter Maurer shortly after the car left production, comprising a pearl-white base on the lower body panels and an airbrushed darker grey on the bonnet, engine cover, and roof, with all-white wheels and black body details. Maurer's signature was applied beneath the right rear light cluster.
Work carried out when the car had covered roughly 200 kilometres. Accompanied by a copy of a letter from Maurer describing the design process.
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