North American Premiere of the 2026 BMW M2 CS at Legends of the Autobahn®.
World Premiere of a special edition 8 Series model.
BMW Art Cars from Andy Warhol and Julie Mehretu on the show field at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® celebrating 50 years of BMW Art Cars.
Historic BMW race cars on display and on the track at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in celebration of 50 years of the BMW 3 Series.
At Monterey Car Week 2025, BMW will showcase its enduring commitment to high performance – a key hallmark of its storied heritage and a driving force behind its innovative future. The highly anticipated 2026 BMW M2 CS will make its North American Premiere at Legends of the Autobahn®, followed by the World Premiere of an exclusive limited edition 8 Series. Art buffs and motorsport fans alike will be treated to a rare display of BMW Art Cars by renowned artists Andy Warhol and Julie Mehretu at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®. And the roar of historic BMW race cars will echo around WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion where BMW will celebrate 50 years of the iconic BMW 3 Series and its legacy of excellence in competition.
North American Premiere of the BMW M2 CS at Legends of the Autobahn®.
Legends of the Autobahn® returns to Pacific Grove Golf Links on Thursday, August 14th. There, fresh from its record-setting lap of the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife, the 2026 BMW M2 CS will make its North American debut.
The 2026 M2 CS follows the proven formula of previous BMW CS models: more power, less weight, and sharpened handling. The 3.0-liter M TwinPower Turbo inline-6 in the M2 CS is rated at 523 horsepower—50 more than the standard M2—while intelligent use of lightweight materials like carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) reduces weight by nearly 100 lbs.
The extraordinary power is sent exclusively to the rear wheels via an 8-speed M Steptronic transmission with Drivelogic. The result is 0-60 mph in just 3.7 seconds, on to a top speed of 188 mph with the standard M Driver’s Package.
The chassis technology and braking system in the BMW M2 CS have been precisely calibrated to the performance characteristics of the engine and the specific weight balance of the M2 CS. The standard Adaptive M Suspension also has been given a revised, model-specific setup, as have the M Servotronic steering, M Sport differential, and the integrated braking system.
Like all BMW M cars, the effectiveness of the powertrain and chassis refinements was put to the test at Germany’s formidable Nürburgring, specifically the 12.9-mile Nordschleife, or “north loop”, with its 70-plus corners and challenging elevation changes. It was here that the 2026 M2 CS set a new lap record for compact cars. BMW development engineer Jörg Weidinger completed the circuit in 7 minutes 25.5 seconds, beating the previous best time for compact cars by a full eight seconds.
Legends of the Autobahn® is an all-German marque Concours d’Elegance hosted by the BMW Car Club of America, the Mercedes-Benz Club of America, and the Audi Club of North America. The annual concours events offer both corral and judged areas, awards for all three featured marques, and an open class for all other German-made cars.
Legends of the Autobahn® runs from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM and admission is free.
World Premiere of an Exclusive Limited-Edition BMW 8 Series.
Thursday evening at a private location, invited media will get their very first glimpse of a special, limited-edition BMW 8 Series.
Since its introduction in the summer of 2018, the second-generation BMW 8 Series has been lauded for its outstanding performance, beautiful design, and ultramodern technology. Initially available as the V8-powered M850i coupe, the line soon expanded to include a convertible and a 4-door Gran Coupe. Six-cylinder 840i models were introduced for model year 2020, as were the thundering M8 and M8 Competition.
The 8 Series also served as the basis for the M8 GTE race car, which competed in the GTLM class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 seasons. Campaigned by BMW M Team RLL, the M8 GTE earned two poles and five victories, including winning its class at both the 2019 and the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The details of this special edition BMW 8 Series will be announced to the public on Thursday, August 14, at 10:15 PM Eastern Time, 7:15 PM Pacific Time.
Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Starting Wednesday, August 13, and continuing through Saturday, August 16, BMW will be on the track at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca celebrating 50 years of the BMW 3 Series and its significant history in motorsport. BMW Classic will field two racing M3s in the Scott Pruett Legends of Endurance Cup Race on Friday and the Mini Enduro on Saturday.
2004 BMW Team PTG M3 GTR (E46) The final race of the 2006 season marked the end of BMW of North America’s most successful run in its 30-year history. Between 1995 and 2006, the BMW Team PTG M3s scored 53 wins in 118 races, including class wins in both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1997 and 1998, collecting 14 sports car championship trophies.
The M3 racing at Laguna Seca this year is one of the Team PTG M3s that swept the Manufacturer, Driver, and Team GT class championships in the 2004 Rolex Sports Car Series. Winning 10 of 12 races, including six 1-2 finishes, 2004 was the most dominant North American racing season for the BMW M3, apart from 2001 when the P60 V8-powered M3 GTRs swept all GT titles in the American Le Mans Series.
The current livery and specifications of the car relate to its 2006 IMSA Grand Am Series campaign.
2011 BMW M3 GT ALMS (E92) Based on the fourth-generation street BMW M3 (E92), the 2011-2012 M3 GT race car was developed by BMW Motorsport for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) / Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) rules and was campaigned as a partnership between BMW of North America, LLC, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Although the 2011 M3 GT looks much like the 2009-2010 M3 GT2 that won the ALMS Team and Manufacturer Championships in 2010, the new car is a substantial development step forward to keep up with the very competitive GT field.
In developing the BMW M3 GT, engineers produced a car that could continue to win against pure sports cars in ultra-competitive GT racing. Results soon spoke for themselves both in ALMS and in the ILMC series in Europe (with almost identical sister cars running under the same race numbers). At the end of the 2011 season, the BMW M3 GT had completely swept the ALMS championships: Driver (Müller/Hand), Team, Manufacturer, and the Michelin GreenX efficiency challenge.
This car, Chassis #1108 raced as the No. 55 driven by Bill Auberlen and Jörg Müller, has several podiums to its credit in 2011 and 2012 including a dramatic win at the 2012 Road America round when the sister car was involved in a late-race crash. Chassis #1108 finished the 2012 season with a third-place finish in the Petit Le Mans (PLM) at Road Atlanta. The 2012 season marked the end of the BMW M3 GT program and #1108 was then cleaned and maintained in its 2012 Petit Le Mans configuration – complete with night-lighting package. It still includes the PLM tech sticker and track map on the inside of the door.
1977 BMW 320i Turbo IMSA Group 5 (static display) In 1977, the BMW 320i became BMW’s weapon of choice after the retirement of the highly successful 3.0 CSL. Both non-turbo and turbocharged versions of the Formula 2 M12 engine powered these race cars. The BMW Junior Team, including then up-and-coming drivers Eddie Cheever, Marc Surer, and Manfred Winkelhock, drove to eight victories and made the non-turbo versions famous in the 1977 Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM).
The naturally aspirated M12 was no match for the competitors BMW would face in the open displacement class of IMSA Group 5. However, BMW NA’s race team, McLaren Engineering quickly determined that the base M12 was suitably strong enough to handle the stresses of turbocharging. The turbo version of 320i produced upwards of 650 hp at 9,000 rpm. The US version 320i Turbo on display in the paddock at Laguna Seca was campaigned by Team McLaren and driven by David Hobbs to seven wins in the IMSA Camel GT series in 1977 and 1978. In total, 5 320i Turbos were produced for the IMSA series.
Significantly, the 320i Turbo engine project served as an engineering test bed for the engine in the BMW/Brabham BT52 F1 car that took Nelson Piquet and BMW Power to the 1983 World Championship.
BMW Art Cars Past and Present on the Show Field at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®.
In 1975, French race car driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain, with the cooperation of BMW Motorsports chief Jochen Neerpasch, commissioned the first BMW Art Car by asking American artist Alexander Calder to create a design for the BMW 3.0 CSL race car he would drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Since then, 19 more renowned artists have used BMW’s iconic models as their canvas, and the Art Cars have become emblematic of BMW’s commitment to cultural engagement. This year at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, the flagship event of Pebble Beach Automotive Week, BMW commemorates 50 years of the Art Car project with a display of two Art Cars on the show field on Sunday.
Art Car #4 – BMW M1 Group 4 by Andy Warhol (1979) When Hervé Poulain received American pop artist Andy Warhol’s proposal for a racing 320i that BMW Motorsport was to enter in the 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans, he saw a problem. The jet-black paint and flowery mauve overlay Warhol had created covered the entire vehicle including the windows and headlights, making driving impossible. So, Poulain suggested to Warhol that he try something else, this time on a new prototype BMW Motorsport had developed to go head-to-head against Porsche in Group 4 racing: the M1.
Warhol arrived at BMW Art Car painter Walter Mauer’s studio north of Munich in May 1979. Previously, painting a BMW Art Car had involved the painstaking transfer of the final design from a small-scale model (a “maquette”) to the actual car by a team of painters under the supervision of Mauer and the artist. However, in the case of the M1, Warhol applied 13 pounds of Sikkens polymer-based paint directly to the car himself, assisted only by his printer, Rupert Jasen Smith. The brushstrokes, drips, fingerprints, and scratches make the work a uniquely personal expression of the artist. According to Mauer, the entire process took just 28 minutes.
Warhol said of his work, “I have tried to give a vivid depiction of speed. If a car is traveling really fast, all the contours and colors will become blurred.”
Once painting was deemed complete, Mauer applied a clear sealant. The finished piece was put on display in BMW’s Munich headquarters for a time before being shipped off to Le Mans to compete in the 24-hour race. Driven by Poulain, Manfred Winkelhock, and Marcel Mignot, the Warhol M1 finished sixth overall and second in its class.
Art Car #20 – BMW M Hybrid V8 by Julie Mehretu (2024) For the design of the 20th BMW Art Car, Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu drew inspiration from the color and form vocabulary of her monumental painting “Everywhen” (2021-2023). The abstract visual form of this design emerges from digitally altered photographs layered with dot grids, vibrant neon veils, and the distinctive black markings that characterize Mehretu’s work.
“In the studio where I had the model of the BMW M Hybrid V8, I was just sitting in front of the painting and I thought: What would happen if this car seemed to go through that painting and becomes affected by it,” Julie Mehretu says. “The idea was to make a remix, a mash-up of the painting. I kept seeing that painting kind of dripping into the car. Even the kidneys of the car inhaled the painting.”
The fusion of art and machine was realized with the help of 3D mapping, with which the motif was transferred to the complex contours of the M Hybrid V8. The elaborate foiling allowed the completed Art Car to race at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Mehretu’s creation made its World Premiere at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on May 21, 2024, and was then presented by the artist at the Concorso d’Elegance Villa d’Este on the shores of Lake Como amongst six other BMW Art Cars that had raced at Le Mans. The car’s appearance on the show field at Pebble Beach will be the first time it will have been shown in North America.
The 74th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance will take place at The Lodge at Pebble Beach Sunday, August 17th, from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
