We realize BMW’s latest art car looks simultaneously like a pincushion, porcupine, bloomin’ onion, armadillo, the Reaver from Starcraft, cardboard packing material, Zack Morris’ haircut and a deep-pile carpet scrubber.

BMW’s other art cars – especially ones by Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Sandro Chia – were pretty much all stunning. They often utilized an ex-BMW racecar packed with blisters, flares and spoilers either to maximize real estate for the artists or to ensure car guys would instantly appreciate the vehicle, regardless of the paintwork.

Creating an art car has always been simple: BMW ships the complete car to the artist, artist paints car, completed art car tours galleries across the world.

Underneath the spikes and ice (more on that in a minute) lay parts of BMW’s beautiful H2R concept/record-breaking car. It is powered by a hydrogen-fueled V12, has 285 horsepower and tops out at 300 km/h.

Artist Olafur Eliasson sheds some light on his creation.

“Our movement in space implies friction: not only wind resistance, but also social, physical and political frictions,” says Eliasson. “Thus, movement has consequences for self-perception and the way we engage with the world. One can look at the body as a mobile vessel or a vehicle that changes the parameters of time and space.

“In driving a car, one obviously also negotiates the way time-space is constructed. What I find so interesting in the research on movement and environmentally sustainable energy is the fact that it enhances our sense of responsibility in how we as individuals navigate in a world defined by plurality and polyphony.”

Eliasson’s work is BMW’s 16th art car, commissioned in early 2005. The vehicle was constructed by lifting the bodyshell from the H2R chassis, then clothing the frame and wheels in a complex skin made from steel mesh, reflective steel panels and many layers of ice.

Yeah… the ‘stripped-down’ (parts on eBay!) car frame was doused in over 2,000 litres of water in a special environmental chamber that keeps the whole bony enchilada frozen.

We’re sure it’s stunning in person and that photos don’t do it justice. Really. And good art is always supposed to challenge your perceptions of the world — velvet Elvis collectors need not apply.

Even so, making a statement regarding environmental sustainability by super-soaking a world-record-breaking car with 2,000 litres of water seems a little convoluted. Let’s not forget the energy required to keep the 800 sq. ft exhibit at its required temperature – from September 8, 2007 to January 13, 2008!

Originally, the art car idea came about in 1975 when French racing driver Hervé Poulain commissioned his friend Alexander Calder to paint his BMW racecar in the early 1970s — that vehicle was the spark that led BMW to develop the Art Car program.

Apart from being permanently displayed at the BMW Museum in Munich, cars from the collection have been exhibited by numerous museums and galleries worldwide, including the Louvre in Paris, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, and the Guggenheim museums in New York and Bilbao.

Probably the most infamous of all art cars was Andy Warhol’s BMW M1 racecar. All other art cars before had been designed in one-fifth scale, then scaled onto the full-sized car by a team of assistants. Warhol would have none of that, and ended up spending a reported 23 minutes painting the vehicle.

In 1979 it went on, like other BMW art cars, to compete at Le Mans with Manfred Winkelhock, Marcel Mignot and Hervé Poulain at the wheel. They placed sixth overall and second in class.

Our favourite art car, however, is Roy Lichtenstein’s 1977 BMW 320i Group 5 racecar. Its pictoral representation of speed and the passing environment play so well with the race-bred bodywork. It placed ninth overall and first in class.

For the latest art car, reaction on the web has been predictably hilarious — with some people predictably saying it looks better than a Chris Bangle-designed BMW. Whatever the opinion, Eliasson has forced us — and BMW — to think about what impact vehicles make.

Kudos to everyone involved for making something so wacky, but our eyes and stomachs still don’t agree with the result.

We hear its bespoke car cover is a burr-lap sack...