BMW GINA

The GINA Light Visionary Model is a fabric-skinned, shape-shifting sports car concept built by BMW. GINA stands for Geometry and functions In N Adaptions. It was designed by a team led by BMW head of design Chris Bangle, who said it allowed his team to challenge existing principles and conventional processes; other designers include Anders Warming. Construction began in 2001 and the finished car was presented in 2008. BMW claims the elastic, water-resistant, translucent man-made skin, polyurethane-coated Spandex, is resilient and durable, resisting high and low temperatures and neither swelling nor shrinking, and the body changes shape according to conditions and speed and also lets the driver change its shape at will. The fabric is stretched over a frame with moving parts, with shapes formed beneath the skin by an aluminium wire structure and flexible carbon fibre rods where flexibility is needed.