Koons first approached BMW about creating an art car in 2003, but the project finally came to fruition earlier this year. Over the last four months Koons has worked closely with the BMW Motorsports squad on the application of the graphics to ensure they didn’t have any negative affect on the car’s aerodynamics.

Several of the 16 previous art cars have also run at Le Mans including the very first one created by Alexander Calder in 1975 and the 1999 V12 LMR painted by Jenny Holzer. This year the #79 art car will be driven by Andy Priaulx (GB), Dirk Müller (DE) and Dirk Werner (DE) while the standard white “Joy”-liveried #78 will be piloted by Jörg Müller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE). Video of the unveiling is after the jump.