5 August 2019

When the great icon of Pop Art Andy Warhol designed “his” BMW M1 for the BMW Art Car Collection 40 years ago, the photographers invited to capture the event didn’t have an easy time – the master had already finished his work before most of them had even set up their cameras. “I wanted to show speed as a visual image,” commented the artist. By contrast, Munich automobile photographer Stephan Bauer had all the time in the world to showcase the fast-paced artwork. He was the winner of the Social Media Contest “Shootout 2018” on Instagram, organised by BMW Group Classic, and was given the opportunity to take shots of the BMW M1 styled by Warhol in an exclusive session. He made good use of his time. The rainbow colours make the Art Car an impressive subject against the backdrop of an old factory building in Cologne.

These days will witness classic Minis literally from all over the world converging on Bristol. Thursday 8 August 2019 heralds the opening there of the International MINI Meeting (IMM). This meet to celebrate the 60th birthday will be even bigger and more diverse than is the case with the ordinary annual get-togethers. The event organisers are promising a festival atmosphere in the style of the 1980s, including music stages and other show acts. Sunday will be the climax of the event and day guests will be welcome.

It was the second film in the “Pink Panther” series, although actually it was only “A shot in the dark” that really got the fast-moving comedy duo of Blake Edwards (director) and Peter Sellers (Inspector Clouseau) on a roll. Clouseau’s classic Mini played a significant role in this success, as seen on the Instagram channel of the Official Mini Classic in a wonderful photo series. The side panels are styled as a hand-crafted weave to beautifully reflect the charm of the film: stylish, clever and utterly idiosyncratic.

We freely admit that a door seal is not exactly a detail classic fans find particularly fascinating. However, anybody who owns a perfectly preserved classic car that is marred only by brittle or damaged rubber seals will quickly discover a keen interest in their importance. And since it is in effect unavoidable that door seals dating from the 1970s will be far from perfect, whatever their quality was like originally and however well they have been looked after, BMW Group Classic keeps seals from the first-generation BMW 5 Series in stock. Apparently dull, but actually vital.