This car literally looks like it came out of a comic book and BMW wants you to pay four times the cost of the standard model for it
by Isaac Atienza, onAs promised when the facelifted BMW 8 Series and the M8 were revealed earlier this year, the special edition 8 X Jeff Koons has finally been revealed as a BMW Art Car that you could buy. It costs a whopping $350,000, which is more than quadruple of its $85,000 base price.
So, what do you get with a car that’s made to look like it’s straight out of a comic book? Well, the car is actually painted to look as such, as these aren’t made out of vinyl or any other sort of wrap. Jeff Koons personally designed the livery, and it took over 200 hours per vehicle to complete, requiring 11 different paint stages to achieve this effect.
"My edition of the BMW 8 Series is my dream car! It is very special to me and I’ve wanted to create a special edition BMW for a long time," says Jeff Koons. "It is sporty and flashy as well as minimalist and conceptual."
The interior of the 8 X Jeff Koons looks just as comical, and the colors of the leather won’t be found even in BMW Individual’s wide range of interior color choices. The seats are finished in red and blue, as if it was a seat that was designed for Spider-Man, while the doors come in a shade of dark brown and dark blue.
"Never before in the history of our company has a BMW been created with such an extensive design effort as the 8 X Jeff Koons.", says Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. "A 'rolling sculpture' that will not only be displayed as a coveted collector's item in museums but will also be allowed to flourish on the road as a genuine BMW.”
Contributing to the car’s price tag is its rarity. Only 99 will be produced, and only four will be produced each week due to its challenging painting process. Each vehicle will come with a large-format certificate signed by Jeff Koons and Oliver Zipse. The certificate also contains the individual Vehicle Identification Number of the respective vehicle.
The 8 X Jeff Koons is based on the M850i Gran Coupé, which means it is powered by the same 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 as before, producing 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque. An eight-speed automatic and xDrive all-wheel drive (AWD) comes as standard.
This will be the second time that Jeff Koons has collaborated with BMW. The first one was in 2010 when he designed the M3 GT2 Art Car, which eventually competed at Le Mans. Unlike that car, this 8 X Jeff Koons is a car you can own for $350,000, including a $995 destination charge.