McIntosh on Eight Retro-Inspired BMW Liveries for WEC Season

Photo: Charly López/DPPI

Anthony McIntosh said the idea of having a different BMW throwback livery on his Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO for each FIA World Endurance Championship round this year came due to the vast number of iconic designs that have been on BMW race cars through the decades.

The FIA Bronze-rated driver, in his first full season WEC campaign, alongside Parker Thompson and BMW factory driver Dan Harper, will sport a unique design on their LMGT3 entry, inspired from the German manufacturer’s past, for each of the eight WEC rounds this year.

It will mark the first time in series history that a team will utilize a different livery on the same entry for each race.

“For us, we were searching for a livery even before the beginning of the year,” McIntosh told Sportscar365. “We were going through and we wanted to do something that was a throwback for BMW.

“We were looking through all the different liveries and we picked out eight or nine. Then we were like, ‘Ah, how are we going to pare this down because they all look really good.’

“The it was just a natural progression to, ‘Well if we can’t make a decision, let’s just change it every race.’

“Everyone was like, ‘You can’t change it every race!’ I’m like, ‘Ask the FIA and ACO!'”

After gaining approval from the governing bodies, McIntosh said they began finalizing which designs they would use.

He said the list ran as large as 15 different liveries, which has since been reduced, with “most” of them already decided for the season, including the one for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The design for this weekend’s season-opening 6 Hours of Imola pays tribute to Allen Berg’s Tic Tac-sponsored BMW E30 M3 that ran in the 1991 DTM season.

“For people like me, I’m very passionate about the car art and I know a lot of the other WRT personnel are super passionate about it too,” said McIntosh.

“It’s a lot of history for me because when they gave me the book of liveries we could choose from, it was like, ‘Wow.’

“The Tic Tac, I didn’t even know it existed. They started talking about the DTM and how it was used and I started looking and I was like, ‘That’s fantastic!’

“I don”t see a lot of this-color green. This and gold is amazing. It just looks so good.”

When asked if any of the designs will honor past BMW Art Cars, McIntosh said: “They came with a good mix of inspired liveries from Art Cars, from classics. I can’t give too much away but they have really done a fantastic job.”

In addition to the car, and all associated spares, McIntosh, Thompson and Harper’s fire suits will also be unique for each race.

“A fresh livery and a fresh suit every race sounds fantastic to me, as long as our car is fast and it looks good,” Thompson told Sportscar365. “I have to say it’s cool to be part of a team like this. But Tony is really the brainchild here.

“It was Tony from the start that had this idea. It’s pretty cool that it got approved.”

When asked about the costs involved for having a bespoke livery design for each race, McIntosh replied: “Who could put a price on art? Some of the pieces of art are selling for $15 million. Some vinyl is not going to hurt anyone.”

“It cost money but every single crew member is so stoked about it. Sometimes that can make the difference between winning a championship and coming in second place.

“All the arrows are going in one direction and we’re all pumped about it.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John