Features

What do we need the skin of a car for anyway?" asks Chris Bangle of BMW design, sounding for all the world like a man who's just had a bump on the head. Well, Chris, if BMWs didn't have door skins, and roofs didn't contain any roof material, we'd all be barging around in roundel-badged Ariel Atom analogues, covered in flies, and soaking wet.

But the question isn't as odd as it sounds, as Bangle explains: "The aspects of crash (protection), stiffness, ride and handling can be handled in a space-frame-type vehicle entirely without the skin, and, therefore, to go away from a metal skin, to something that can move, be lighter, have capabilities beyond metal, that's something that the GINA Light model brings as a question." Seems like that bang on the head shook something good loose.

And it was that very thought process that led Bangle and his BMW team to the car you see here on these pages: the GINA Light Visionary concept. Now, 'GINA' is a slightly streamlined acronym that stands for Geometry and Function in 'N' - representing an infinite number of ways - Adaptations. Bangle goes on to explain that basically he means that there's a lot of change possible with GINA. And he's not being metaphorical. For once.

Under the über-flame-surfaced exterior, GINA is an alloy space frame with a front-mounted V8 driving the rear wheels - a basic structure nicked direct from the now-dead Z8 Roadster. But the 'skin' of the car is actually made of a rubbery, metallic fabric instead of metal - which allows for some interesting morphing, thanks to movable structures underneath the flexible covering of textile. The space frame and most of the basic shapes are built from wire, but allied to those forms is a set of carbon struts that move according to what they need to do - body customisation literally on the fly.

For instance, if the car should require more downforce for high-speed driving, it can 'grow' a rear spoiler at will. If it needs to get more air into the V8, it can open its mouth - sorry, widen its front intake - and the bonnet opens 'like a doctor's bag', slitting itself down the centre line like a zip. Even the headlights are exposed by a disconcertingly animate blink, and someone in the design team obviously has a sense of humour, because instead of flashing its lights, GINA winks.

The fabric itself is a man-made, swell- and shrink-resistant, temperature-inert, silvery weave, that looks to have a texture somewhere between rubber and lycra. Although opaque, shine a light through it, and you can see the tail-lights and indicators lurking just belowthe surface, invisible until they come into operation. The whole super-smooth look is completely deliberate - you only get a sense that the car isn't made of metal when the doors open and ruck up fabric along the newly created acute angles, or when the car stretches a new form into position from inside the seemingly solid bodywork.