BMW GINA Light Visionary Model concept car has skin, skeleton, blinking eyes

This angry-looking skinned beast is the BMW GINA Light Visionary Model. GINA, which stands for Geometry and Functions in 'N' Adaptations -- whatever that means -- is shelled in a textile fabric wrapped around a carbon fiber and metal frame. This means that the skin and skeleton can bend and contract like, well, real skin and skeleton. For instance, the doors bend up, the headlights are exposed like eyeballs under eyelids, and the hood opens from the center like some sort of gaping maw to expose the engine. Even the interior is skinned and modular: only the dash displays that you need at any item are available via openings. Don't get too excited, though -- this is purely a concept and nothing you'll see in a showroom any time soon. We can dream, though, right?

[gad get @ Jun 11th 2008 1:02AM]

OK, then.

[Flashpoint @ Jun 11th 2008 1:12AM]

GEE I WONDER WHERE THEY THOUGHT THAT UP?



http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/141/926596_20080521_screen001.jpg

[NineT9 @ Jun 11th 2008 1:34AM]

A little late on this news Engadget?

For you readers out there, head to http://www.worldcarfans.com/ for more info about this, or the direct link:

http://www.worldcarfans.com/3080610.001/bmw-gina-light-visionary-model-concept-car

Really nice website for car news, been going there for years :D

[Ian @ Jun 11th 2008 2:56AM]

flashpoint
what the hell am i looking at?

[ethan @ Jun 11th 2008 2:59AM]

IT PUTS THE LOTION ON IT'S SKIN OR ELSE IT GETS THE HOSE AGAIN!!!




Hey, anything to stop shopping carts from making annoying marks on a new car.

[Wayne @ Jun 11th 2008 7:20AM]

Flashpoint, it looks way more like the Batmobile than the vehicle in your image.

[spil @ Jun 11th 2008 9:51AM]

Ethan: Except now the shopping cart rips through the skin of the car!

On the bright side, the body work must be cheap; just put an old t-shirt over the hole and spray paint it silver.

[Lamp @ Jun 11th 2008 9:57AM]

@flashpoint

mgs me thinks?

[OneLove @ Jun 11th 2008 11:00AM]

Its the skin on your B...GINA!

[DeoWulf @ Jun 11th 2008 12:20PM]

Sigh... poor Metal Gear Ray.

[B3astofthe3ast @ Jun 11th 2008 1:02AM]

Holy shit that thing is awesome....

Way to continue innovating BMW....now plz innovate a way so that I can afford your vehicles...

[Abuzar @ Jun 11th 2008 1:05AM]

They have a one series now.

Who would buy that though?

[Striker @ Jun 11th 2008 2:03AM]

@Abuzar

I would, it does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, if I wasn't 14.

[Niz @ Jun 11th 2008 3:10AM]

I still think it looks cool id say it isnt all that much cheaper, i d say its aimed at new rich drivers??

[94 taurus owner @ Jun 11th 2008 8:18AM]

I would buy. You know it kinda resembles that BMW Z3/Z8 replacement prototype running around.makes you wonder.......

[caleb @ Jun 11th 2008 5:56PM]

@Abuzar: Are you kidding? The 1-Series has the exact same powertrain as the 3-Series only it's lighter and $6K cheaper. *drools @135i*

Oh! ...or were you looking at a bimmer solely as a status symbol?

[Juan Garcia @ Jun 11th 2008 1:03AM]

Some ideas should stay in the cartoon realm

[karts41 @ Jun 11th 2008 1:43AM]

If looks could kill, that car would. Just touching it would make you bleed.

[sirius @ Jun 12th 2008 3:37AM]

Agree

---
BTW I've never really liked BMW and now they're thinking to make something as fugly as that..

*sigh*

[Temple @ Jun 11th 2008 3:48AM]

Being that this thing uses a polyester cloth as its outer skin, I would hate to see what an exacto-knife would do to it. Much less what would happen if it got into an even mild accident.

Also, while it may look good with dramatic studio lighting, a cloth exterior would look pretty horrid in real life. Seems like they are using the same type of material that you see on those stretchable truck tonneau covers. I would prefer my car to have metal panels and not textile cloth panels. Its a fun concept car that should stay a concept.

[Shunnabunich @ Jun 11th 2008 5:43AM]

Never mind an exacto (er, x-acto) knife; what if you're driving one of these on the highway and a rock decides to get kicked up from the tires of the semi ahead of you? VVVVVIP FWOOMP! Instant parachute. Actually, wait, that'd be kinda funny.

[Ken @ Jun 11th 2008 9:58AM]

This whole skin-on-frame idea, while nothing new, is refreshing to see it approached again with modern materials and design techniques. I could imagine this being a viable way to reduce the weight of the car while focusing the steel that is used purely on structural function. Depending on the material and the means to manufacture the skin from said material, I could see it going both ways in terms of cost. Current approaches would be expensive, but there seems to be an entire frontier of innovation available for such a design. I like it, even with the creepy wrinkles.

[Bunson @ Jun 11th 2008 1:03AM]

Imagine how much of a bitch it would be to get a sliver in this thing?

"Oh need to reskin my entire car, that will be about 5,000 dollars down the drain."

There are better concepts out there, but this one is pretty original. Too bed the seemingly best concepts rarely make it.

[Bunson @ Jun 11th 2008 1:04AM]

bad*

[blade417 @ Jun 11th 2008 8:40AM]

nah, just go get some botox...

fix it right up..

[Raytaka1222 @ Jun 11th 2008 9:45AM]

Botox huh? So what happens when you run out of it and the skin starts to hang and sag like old tits? GROSS

[Abuzar @ Jun 11th 2008 1:06AM]

Man I sure hope one day the M3 will look like that. The new one is so Ugly. It looks like a family sedan, not a sports car.

This seems like a roadster kinda thing though.

[Striker @ Jun 11th 2008 2:14AM]

You may want to see an eye doctor, because the 2008 M3 Coupe is so sharp that you WOULD bleed from touching it.

[Reid @ Jun 11th 2008 2:38AM]

.... Because the previous generation M3s looked more like sports cars than like a normal 3 series?

The M3's an outstanding performance car/sports coupe/sports sedan (I used to own one) but it's not a sports car. For one, it has 2-3 too many seats.

[Abuzar @ Jun 11th 2008 2:38AM]

Well I have seen quite a few of the 2008 M3 and I prefer the E46's looks.

[Abuzar @ Jun 11th 2008 2:39AM]

Actually the previous 3 series in general looked less like a family sedan.

[Rynth @ Jun 11th 2008 5:02AM]

Dude, the point in the M3/M5's Is to look like a family saloon.

Then, when some annoying ricer with his fart cans tries to do you at the light *VRoooom*, that sound of a german engineered V8 revving to god-knows-where, and a Honda Civic left in a large could of your dust+tyre smoke.

On the subject of the car though, looks to me like its based on the Z4 chassis...

Man: Honey, I'm just off outside to massage some lotion into the car =)

Wife: Say wha!?

[patsy @ Jun 11th 2008 8:55AM]

If you want an understated performance car whose technology eventually makes it into every other car on the planet, buy German. If you want an ostentatious show-off car to compensate for certain shortcomings, buy Italian, or perhaps American.

What exactly is a "sports car" anyway? Isn't it ironic that most so-called sports cars are driven by aging fat bastards whose only association with "sports" is through "sports cars" and "sports lounges"?

[daaper @ Jun 11th 2008 11:10AM]

@ patsy:

Eh, around here most BMWs are for eurosnob-funboys (hey if you can over-simplify, then why can't I?). I have yet to see an M3 not driven by someone who's a complete douche.

[Abuzar @ Jun 11th 2008 2:35PM]

lol Yeah, I always wanted an M3.

[Alexander @ Jun 11th 2008 1:11AM]

Soooo sexy. But that just begs to be slashed....

[Cunthor @ Jun 11th 2008 1:13AM]

"It puts the lotion on its skin"

[Wes @ Jun 11th 2008 1:19AM]

So what happens when you scrape a guard rail and that skin rips and then you get cut in half by that rail.... Then you have tons of medical bills and you have to pay $8,000 to re "skin" your car?

[Gfxlonghorn @ Jun 11th 2008 1:43AM]

You do realize that this is probably some cheapo fabric? If it isn't, I am sure if they ever decide to go large scale with this, they would probably have precut sheets that would fit on every car.

Not to mention, that a tear in a fabric will probably be easily fixed, if not replaced. Where aren't dealing with metal here. Hancock Fabric may become the cool new hangout for car enthusiasts.

[Reid @ Jun 11th 2008 2:39AM]

If you got cut in half, you probably wouldn't have to worry about your car anymore.

Also, how often do you go around SCRAPING GUARD RAILS with your car? You're unlikely to get a proper fix from that for less than $5k on a conventional car, since you'll have scraped two bumpers, two fenders, and 1-2 doors.

[Lamp @ Jun 11th 2008 10:02AM]

yea, no kidding.
how often do you scrape against guardrails?
you make it sound like a common occurrence.

"yea that skin is good and all until your car BLOWS UP!
just imagine how much it would cost to recover your.....car."

[wako @ Jun 11th 2008 1:20AM]

LOL! Not only do you have to worry about scratches on the car but now rips!


Doesnt sound like a car i would want =X

[2Shea @ Jun 11th 2008 1:22AM]

Yeah, pretty impractical, but an awesome concept none the less. BMW always brings interesting stuff.

[Darayz @ Jun 11th 2008 1:25AM]

So ... can you iron out dents?

[James Mack @ Jun 11th 2008 1:30AM]

Yup. You can also stitch it where you've been keyed.

[atomicmatt @ Jun 11th 2008 1:32AM]

I know it is concept but think about it. People scratch cars surfaces all the time with keys dings and what not. They make clear bras for rock scrapes and dings. If the matierial is cheaper and better for the environment and it only took about 5 hours to skin the entire car, then the labor is down, the cost would also be down. You could buy all kinds of "SKINS" for your car and possibly make it to install yourself at home. You have to think putsode the box on this one. What they should be concentrating more on is the source of "FUEL" if they thought this way on fuel several years ago we would not be in this problem we face today.

[Gfxlonghorn @ Jun 11th 2008 1:45AM]

Yes clearly we need to focus the immense amount of energy on creating skins for cars on something else. Because this must have been ridiculously difficult to convert it to cars after the engineers pioneered those crazy stretchy book covers.

[Lamp @ Jun 11th 2008 10:09AM]

yes, cause these are the people that work on new fuels.
hey, why not nurses too?
forget your patients,
you should be focusing on alternate energy!

[jared @ Jun 11th 2008 1:35AM]

looks more like a stretchy VA-GINA

[Striker @ Jun 11th 2008 2:17AM]

Wow, you're mature.