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?
posted Jun 11th 2008 12:58AM
OK, then.
GEE I WONDER WHERE THEY THOUGHT THAT UP?
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2008/141/926596_20080521_screen001.jpg
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
flashpoint
what the hell am i looking at?
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.
Flashpoint, it looks way more like the Batmobile than the vehicle in your image.
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.
@flashpoint
mgs me thinks?
Its the skin on your B...GINA!
Sigh... poor Metal Gear Ray.
Holy shit that thing is awesome....
Way to continue innovating BMW....now plz innovate a way so that I can afford your vehicles...
They have a one series now.
Who would buy that though?
@Abuzar
I would, it does 0-60 in 4.9 seconds, if I wasn't 14.
I still think it looks cool id say it isnt all that much cheaper, i d say its aimed at new rich drivers??
I would buy. You know it kinda resembles that BMW Z3/Z8 replacement prototype running around.makes you wonder.......
@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?
Some ideas should stay in the cartoon realm
If looks could kill, that car would. Just touching it would make you bleed.
Agree
---
BTW I've never really liked BMW and now they're thinking to make something as fugly as that..
*sigh*
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.
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.
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.
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.
bad*
nah, just go get some botox...
fix it right up..
Botox huh? So what happens when you run out of it and the skin starts to hang and sag like old tits? GROSS
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.
You may want to see an eye doctor, because the 2008 M3 Coupe is so sharp that you WOULD bleed from touching it.
.... 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.
Well I have seen quite a few of the 2008 M3 and I prefer the E46's looks.
Actually the previous 3 series in general looked less like a family sedan.
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!?
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"?
@ 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.
lol Yeah, I always wanted an M3.
Soooo sexy. But that just begs to be slashed....
"It puts the lotion on its skin"
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?
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.
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.
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."
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
Yeah, pretty impractical, but an awesome concept none the less. BMW always brings interesting stuff.
So ... can you iron out dents?
Yup. You can also stitch it where you've been keyed.
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.
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.
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!
looks more like a stretchy VA-GINA
Wow, you're mature.
mmmm...exactly the same thoughts...i'm wet now
Yeah i know what this is about... a whole new market for sunscreen.
What is the purpose of this? This looks like some totally random attempt at designing something random...yeah, thats sounds just about right.
It's kinda like a bat if you think about it.
Hey did they name that on the new crowdsourcing model too :) Bout time they paid us for ideas...especially because i would have named it something else...Skirt...the Suv Version could be called mini-skirt.
http://namethis.com/signup/referral/9123
As Carnac might proffer,
something Bangle never gets....
Vehicle
Adapted for
Geometry and functions
In
'N'
Adaptations
Engadget, for the love of amusing posts, bring back 'Highest Ranked'. Please.
It comes with a chest separator to make you feel like a surgeon when you are performing the simplest oil change!
so basically you will need to have your car dry cleaned every time you manage to get bird sh*t on it, or anything else that contains oils that stain. Can you imagine that dry cleaning bill. But hey on the upside i just found a new business model. Drive-Through Car dry cleaning!
Textile outer 'skin'? Great, I bet it is 'hand wash only'.
This thing intrigues me, and at the same time grosses me out, especially when it opens the hood and displays the motor...
They should tone down the organic features, and make it more like T1000 from Terminator 2.
Skinning an open frame is sort of an old concept in the aircraft industry, but nice to see it now being applied to cars. Saves a lot of weight for the aerodynamic advantages it returns, although as mentioned above, damage may be a bit of an issue. Either way, I appreciate BMW even thinking of this...
ASIMO is gonna look good pillaging the countryside in that
Does it shrink after the first wash? I mean you buy the Coupe and bamn, it's a Sportster after going through the car wash.
Nice, now car and owner can have matching wrinkles.
Epic sexiness !!!!
Seem like a viable idea, as im sure they can reduce the cost of bodywork repairs to under the current prices and make a profit from it also.
They could market it as easy to repair bodywork. Guess it could tempt slashers if they called it and easy fix system. but then again bmw drivers should keep their cars in a garage.
At first it looked like a new version of the Batmobile =|
Strangely autoerotic.
GINA? shoulda called it JAWS.
GINA eh? it puts a new dimension to the phrase 'riding your car'
But does it have a vagina!?
http://bmw-web.tv/en/video/OOWelgb/BMW%20GINA%20Light%20Visionary%20Model%3A%20Design
First, that car gives me wood.
Second, they should use this shape for one of their next models (instead of waiting for tech to allow the whole skeleton and skin thing) 'cause it's damn hot.
Wow...that's really cool BMW....useless, but cool. I can't wait to get one for the Bat Cave at home.
How 'bout investing those concept car dollars into Hybrid or Electric technology instead.
Gas prices in LA today are just over $5/gallon.
Or working on that Hydrogen 7 thing....
Well, a car without a metal exterior, just a cage, will be lighter, so it will consume less fuel... combine all the technologies and you have a light fuel efficient car... somewhere in a couple of years...
As if we are dreaming to have this?
I demand that they produce them in Virginia. Then the SKU for that particular vehicle can be "VA-GINA"
Ok, you can vote me down now.
"man, i'm starving, i could seriously go for a shake and some fries."
"yeah, man, me, too, let's hop in my GINA and head over to sonic's"
"your what?!?"
"my GINA... it's my new car dude, get your mind out of the gutter."
@Abuzar: I agree with you here. The post face lift E46's are much better looking than the E9n's
Skin made of carbon nanotubes. Stronger than steel.
I have submitted your article to http://www.autocar-live.com which is a social site where users can submit car/auto articles and vote for already submitted articles.
that is the bat mobile