INTERVIEW: BMW M CEO talks Futura 2000 BMW M2 Competition

Last week, I had the unique opportunity to attend the unveiling of the BMW M2 by Futura 2000. It’s an M2 Competition that’s been hand painted by the famous New York-based artist and it’s quite stunning in person. While BMW has had artists paint its cars before, the Futura-painted M2 is significantly different than the rest of BMW’s “Art Cars”.

One of the main factors differentiating Futura’s car with the rest of the Art Cars is the fact that it’s been commissioned by BMW M specifically. Since this was a BMW M project, and not an overall BMW Group, BMW M CEO Markus Flasch was on had to introduce the car, along with Futura 2000. After the unveiling, Markus was kind enough to give me a quick interview about the car. Read the interview below if you’d like or just watch the video posted at the bottom.

BMWBLOG: Hi Markus, Congratulations on the car, it looks great. So BMW has a long history of Art Cars and painting cars in general, so what was your inspiration to do it again and why Futura 2000?

Markus Flasch: Well first of all, there is a large history of BMW Art Cars, not just art cars but other cooperations between artists, like Karl Lagerfeld for instance, and we’ve done one-offs and show cars in the past. But we’ve never brought anything to the street and we figured we needed to do something with a street car and an artist that suits our image and what we stand for. We were also developing this idea about actually bringing an edition, a couple of hundred cars to the street.

BB: So this isn’t an official Art Car, like the BMW M1 by Andy Warhol, so tell me a little bit about the differences between those cars and this.

MF: Well the official Art Cars are curated by a committee, who make decisions about which artists and which cars and so on, and it’s a bit complicated. This is something we did just out of BMW M and BMW Individual and we found the right guy with Futura. This is a more casual approach, I’d say. Art Cars have never made it to the street, we’ve never sold an Art Car, they’re usually based on race cars. This car is based on a street car and there will be an edition [of it for sale].

BB: So why the BMW M2 Competition and what was the decision behind that?

MF: Actually Futura picked the M2 Competition, we left it open to him and he’s kind of a rebel artist and the M2 is, within our product range, the rebel and the craziest M, therefore it’s a perfect match.

BB: From a product standpoint, this also shows of BMW’s extensive Individual Program, so can you tell me a bit more about that and how far car customers customize their cars?

MF: There are no limits, other than homologation, so anything that can be registered with a license plate is feasible. But we very often find it difficult to coach our customers on what to pick and which color and interior, so we’re trying to do more and more cooperations with artists, in order to create lighthouses for [customers] to look at and then develop their ideas for Individual cars.

BB: Do you have any plans for future cars like this, any more collaborations with artists?

MF: The next coop is already on its way and yes, we will continue this.

BB: Any updates on the BMW M3/M4, anything about technology weight, anything you can tell me?

MF: [Laughs and nods his head no] It drives fantastic, I’ve driven the car and we’ve already shown it to some of our dealers and investors and everybody who’s seen it is fascinated and thrilled, the car is gonna be gorgeous.

BB: Any word on upcoming potential one-offs, the rumored X8M or something like that?

MF: Nothing I can disclose to you [laughs].

The article INTERVIEW: BMW M CEO talks Futura 2000 BMW M2 Competition appeared first on BMW BLOG