Alexander Calder used only primary colours to paint the car, which he distributed in large areas and with curved lines. The changing colour scheme of the individual elements and shapes gives the impression that the car is moving.

Frank Stella designed a black and white square grid for the chassis, which resembles oversized graph paper.

Roy Lichtenstein's famous comic strip style was reflected on the car. "With the painted lines, I wanted to represent the road that shows the car where to go. The design also shows the landscape that the car has driven through," said Lichtenstein.

"I attempted to represent speed visually," said Andy Warhol describing the bright and colourful Art Car. "When a car is driving really fast, all of the lines and colours become blurred." And the 470 hp racing car with a six-cylinder engine was definitely fast.

The BMW M3 is a Papunya art masterpiece, an ancient Aboriginal Australian painting technique, which Michael Jagamara Nelson was taught by his grandfather. The tessellated paintings that appear to be abstract represent landscapes and animals. It took him seven days to paint the car with thousands of small dots.

"I have painted parrots and parrotfish. They are both beautiful and move at fantastic speed," said Ken Done. "I wanted my BMW Art Car to convey this." The vibrant colours and the strong brush strokes embody modern Australia. 

Jenny Holzer brought the art of words to a BMW Art Car. She used reflective chrome lettering and phosphorescent colours to ensure that the characteristic BMW colours remained visible at all times during the 24-hour race: During the day, the letters of the slogans such as "PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT" reflected the sky, while at night the foil released the stored daylight as the colour blue.

The 17th BMW Art Car uses bright colours to convey the impression of power, movement and exuberant energy. The design of the car was enthusiastically acclaimed by BMW fans and art critics. Jeff Koons assigned the Art Car number 79 – in homage to the car designed by Andy Warhol in 1979.

John Baldessari remained true to his style when designing the 19th BMW Art Car. He used only the colours red, yellow, blue and green, with monochrome dots leaving his familiar colourful marks on the car. The image of the car on the side of the BMW Art Car is an ironic play on the multi-dimensionality of the race car as an art object. With “FAST” as a central typographical element, the artist boldly transports the power of the BMW Art Car to its outside.