Look What I found

You heard me…cloth. BMW’s Head of Design, Chris Bangle, and his crack team set out to build the GINA Visionary Light Model six years ago. It’s only been revealed recently and is currently on display at the BMW Museum in Munich. Its name, GINA, is an acronym that stands for “Geometry and functions In 'N' Adaptations”. This basically means that they specifically built the car to change and adapt to certain situations or to change shape to the driver’s preference. Although this car actually runs and drives, it won’t see production, which is a shame.

A car built of cloth may sound structurally unsound or completely unsafe but amazingly it’s neither. The structure and safety of cars come mostly from the frame, not the shell. The shell, or panels, are mainly for looks and to keep things (i.e. birds, bugs, hobos, etc.) from getting inside your fancy BMW. With this mentality, Bangle and his team set out to design a lightweight car that pushes the boundaries of what we think cars can be. A new line has been drawn in the sand. The GINA consists of only four panels and the rest is a polyurethane-coated Lycra that is stretched over an aluminum frame that can be altered by electric and hydraulic actuators. The fabric completely covers the tail lights but is opaque so the light is visible through the fabric. The headlights open up like your car is waking up. It’s kind of cool and creepy at the same time (“Dude, I think your car just winked at me.”) BMW Company officials had this to say in regards to not placing GINA into any type of production, "It is in the nature of such visions that they do not necessarily claim to be suitable for series production. Rather, they are intended to steer creativity and research into new directions."

I love this idea. One of my goals in life is to own a BMW. It’s this direction in design that earns them the label ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’. Check out the video below for more information and to see this shape-shifting car in action.



*Okay, so you can’t get this fabric at JoAnn’s but you could totally decoupage some sweet paisleys or what-have-you to the outside. Huh…I guess you can do that with your car now…never mind.

via Wired