Story and History

1975 BMW Art Car - 3.3Li LHD Manual by Dexter Brown

Probably the most unusual car to come to us

We like these saloons and previously owned a 3.0Si

We've had this for a couple of years now and have thoroughly enjoyed our time together

Like the previous collector owner (owned since arrival in the UK in 1996) we have had Munich Legends carry out all of the maintenance for us (there is a very nice history file with invoices and MoT's since arrival here, together with the original BMW instruction manual)

We have also detailed the engine bay and found the very difficult and expensive 16" Alpina alloy wheels, which we feel finish off her appearance perfectly

The 3.3 Li had an extended wheelbase (4" - hence the L) giving a tad more rear leg room for those wishing to be Chauffeur driven and with a specification including electric windows, sunroof & drivers door mirror, headrests to both front & rear seats, air conditioning, alloy wheels and tinted glass it is clear that BMW were aiming at the 450SEL 6.3 and XJ12L market

The 3.3 litre fuel injected engine and manual gears made this an exceptionally fast intercontinental business express (the 3.0Si did 134Mph & 0 - 60 in 7.6 seconds - these were faster still)

This example was originally supplied in Italy and had only 1 owner until arrival here in the UK

The original owner was also responsible for the 1993 Autostory Motoring Art Salon in Genoa, Italy and it was here that Dexter Brown was commissioned by him to paint this car as part of the exhibition over the duration of the Salon

Completed in abstract �Speed� style by Dexter, each panel including the roof bearing the artist�s trademark style in predominantly red, black and blue. As already mentioned the car was decorated as part of a live exhibition over several days at Auto Story Genoa in 1993, using a sound and relatively low-mileage BMW 3.3 Li with manual gears, itself a rare car. During the course of the show, Dexter flatted the original Polaris silver coachwork down in order to provide a key, and then over several days applied numerous treatments of acrylic paint and sealer to gain the desired effect. The creation of this unique work of art attracted a huge amount of attention, and it was sold shortly after the show to a collector in the UK. Having largely disappeared from view, we had the opportunity to acquire the BMW in 2009 direct from this last collector owner

A very rare car (only 5 on the DVLA data base) top of the range in it's day with up to date specification, even for cars today and wearing a valuable piece of Dexter Brown Art Work - for less than a piece of Dexter's work on a canvass of the equivalent size

Dexter Brown is widely regarded as the leading automobile artist working today. His first exhibition took place in London as long ago as 1963, and he has exhibited all over the world in the intervening half-century

His last exhibition, Superfast was a huge success with all paintings selling during the exhibition and was held at the famous Pullman Gallery, St James's, London SW who have represented him for many years