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BMW reveals GINA Light Visionary Concept

 
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BMW reveals GINA Light Visionary Concept

BMW reveals GINA Light Visionary Concept

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BMW has given us a preview of future vehicle construction and design with the unveiling of the new GINA Light Visionary concept car. The car’s new name stands for ‘Geometry and Functions In “N” Adaptions,’ and its design showcases a number of future-oriented production and functionality concepts.

The GINA has an almost seamless outer textile skin that stretches across a movable metal substructure. The car’s front and sides, including the doors, create one single uninterrupted, seamless whole that converges to form a structural unit.

To create this flexible body, the GINA has dispensed with the usual body elements found on production vehicles such as front apron, bonnet, side panels, doors, wheel arches, roof, trunk lid and rear deck. Instead, a new structure with a minimum amount of components has taken their place.


The special fabric is supported by a metal wire structure. At specific points, the high-strength metal is enhanced by carbon struts with a higher flexibility. The design of the frame has also been optimized to support the aspects of crash-safety, stiffness and ride handling, entirely without an outer surface.

The driver can move parts of the substructure by means of electro-hydraulic controls. This will also change the shape of the outer skin, which can thus be adapted to suit the current situation, the driver’s requirements and can also enhance the car’s functional range. The most striking example of this is the headlight design. In normal position, when the headlights are not active they are hidden under the special fabric cover. As soon as the driver turns on the lights, the contour of the front end changes.

BMW has a tradition of revealing its future technologies with eccentric concept vehicles and the new construction methods previewed in the GINA could make it to production one day. However, for now, the GINA is strictly a research model designed to present new ideas.

BMW GINA Visionary Concept

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Comments (17)

  1. Roy Posted: 6/5/2008 1:48pm PDT

    Consider our appetites whetted. I thought it odd that they would show someone driving it onto the truck but then have it pushed/towed up the ramp at the end. Did it lose an engine half-way through the video? Perhaps they just didn't trust their drivers...
     
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  2. roman Posted: 6/5/2008 3:11pm PDT

    man i have a feeling that thing is going to be good, i would pull a fast and the furious on that trailer, and hijack that x5 just to see what this thing is.
     
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  3. lynda Posted: 6/5/2008 4:03pm PDT

    @ roman i have the samme feeling :D
     
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  4. Roy Posted: 6/5/2008 5:21pm PDT

    I want rights to the sequel, where you'd have to drive it away 2 fast and BMW would be 2 furious!
     
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  5. Alan Posted: 6/6/2008 7:35am PDT

    Could this be another concept leading up to a R8 competitor?
     
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  6. daydaychu Posted: 6/8/2008 6:08am PDT

    this car's photos was shown on uk's CAR magazine month ago.
    it looks pretty cool!
     
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  7. lynda Posted: 6/10/2008 4:22am PDT

    in love whit this concept :X
     
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  8. Raptor Posted: 6/10/2008 4:59am PDT

    Yes, I like it. Like it a lot.
     
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  9. HECTOR Posted: 6/10/2008 5:31am PDT

    I see flame surfacing is alive and well...
     
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  10. bambam Posted: 6/10/2008 6:08am PDT

    I'm impress with the new prototypes around even with hybrids and super car.
    But will I ever see them on the road?.
    This is not bad by BMW, what did you wrap the car with?
     
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  11. Turkle Posted: 6/10/2008 7:31am PDT

    I really like some of these design elements, the shape looks enough like a Z4 that you know it is a BMW, but I wonder about the overall size. It looks bigger than a Z4. The cloth "skin" is simply impractical. Could you see coming out of your favorite store to find some kid with a pair of scissors cutting away your car's hood? Also, at speed, I would expect this cloth to flap, regardless of how tight it is pulled over the frame.
    It would be cool to be able to change the color of your car's exterior though. You could have several colors and spend a Saturday morning putting a new color cloth exterior on your car.
     
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  12. chris Posted: 6/10/2008 7:51am PDT

    turk, there were rumours a while back about a Z8 or Z10.. regardless... Id like to see this styling applied to any and all Z's. the only problem that i have with the Z4 is that they're trying to appeal to a male audience by doing a polarized design, but it still looks "girly" in a market that is dominated by feminine looking cars. make that Z4 look like the spawn of satan, complete with fire and all.

    I love it. the hood bulge is a little bulgey, and the bangle butt still shines through,... wish they could make it look more like an integrated spoiler rather than LITERALLY a "trunk" hanging off the back end of the car.
     
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  13. JVC Posted: 6/10/2008 10:21am PDT

    Talk about increasing wind noise due to excessive breaking lines in the body flow. It seems BMW got inspiration from the Audi TT Clubsport Concept to develop the styling (minus the ugly creases in the body).
     
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  14. Gus Posted: 6/10/2008 11:03am PDT

    I don't know. Just doesn't hit me the way the Saleen does, for example.
    I guess I'm more of a fan of British and American styling than the German or Japanese styling. Just looks too "mechanical" or "robotic" for me most of the time.
    Italian styling is usually the best...
     
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  15. SMC Posted: 6/10/2008 11:07am PDT

    As a concept, I have to say it's surprisingly fresh and impressive. As for practicality, some points would have to be addressed first. Like, is that material resistant to puncture by a sharp object? Or the first punk with a knife leaves you with a skeleton car.
     
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  16. Roy Posted: 6/10/2008 12:07pm PDT

    It sounds like if you don't like the creases you can just press a button and, presto, they disappear! That's the first button I would press (I think I liked it better when it was under wraps), but this has to rank as BMW's most ingenious design effort since the Z1.
     
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  17. BOb Posted: 6/29/2008 3:47pm PDT

    Like the form just put some solid panels on it.
     
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