BMW Introduces GINA Concept Car, Covered In Fabric

smithtuna33 writes "Ever wondered what the metal skin on your car is actually good for? Engineers at BMW have decided that fabric might work just as well. The doors literally peel away from the side of the car, the engine bay opens up down the middle, and pretty much everything (such as headlamps) is hidden until the fabric reveals it. It is a stunning concept that has already been influencing BMW's designs. The video is well worth watching."

Appropriate name

I'd call a car made out of nice fabrics a 'gina too!

Re:Appropriate name

I'd call a car made out of nice fabrics a 'gina too!

A vagina analogy in a car forum! Welcome to dotslash!

I swear that technology like this is the reason that I am studying to become an engineer. Not only to help design them, which I would love to do, but to afford them when they become available. Expect to see me first in line when this technology becomes available in a consumer vehicle.

Re:Appropriate name

Reminds me of one of Vince Ebert's jokes. He's a physicist turned commedian. So after explaining relativity a bit, he goes something like, "So the faster something goes, the shorter it gets. Also known as the Porsche Driver Syndrome." ;)

Re:Appropriate name

Well, they could have redesigned their logo to match, but another company already uses it [photobucket.com]...

Tm

Re:Appropriate name

I wish it was developed by Volkswagen. I'd get into a VWGINA any day.

Finally..

the skinnable car!

Re:Finally..

Just having watched the vid, it's quite a cool concept. Though I can well imagine a jealous walker-by accidentally slashing it with his pocket knife. That would ruin it a bit methinks.

Re:Finally..

What you're suggesting is the fabric analog of getting keyed. I imagine repairing a tear caused by a key, or a pocketknife, or a rock on the freeway, would be a lot less expensive if the repair consists only of replacing a piece of fabric.

I'm more concerned about security. Would this feature make it easier to break into my car? Would it make it easier to sabotage or steal from my engine? My gas tank?

Re:Finally..

JThough I can well imagine a jealous walker-by accidentally slashing it with his pocket knife.

There are already plenty of fabrics which are resistant to casual slashes, and some in the pipeline which are even more durable [slashdot.org].

Vandals can already do a significant amount of damage to a painted metal car body with a knife or even a coin. If the repair costs of the fabric are competitive with metal, it might even reduce costs over the life of the vehicle.

Re:Finally..

And I don't think I've ever encountered ANY fabric that can't be cut with a sharp enough knife

There are fabrics that can withstand a running chainsaw [wikipedia.org], and they are in common use.

Likewise, stab or cut-resistant Vectran fabric [scoop.co.nz] is now relatively common. I've worn turn-out gear which is designed to resist that sort of damage, and while it's expensive, it isn't prohibitively so.

Re:Finally..

Great! Now the kids are gonna want designer 'clothes' for their cars.
A Ralph Lauren skin, or a Prada Skin, and even some of those ludicrous-speed expensive handbags.
I can see the fashion shows being conducted on *actual* runways.... 'Oh the humanity....

-I am sure Larry Flynt has some creative ideas for 'skin' designs for his new BMW 'GINA car too... a very slippery slope... LOL (Cool, I just made a Double Entendre!)

It winked!

Any car that winks at you has to be taken seriously... ;)

Re:It winked!

On the youtube link someone posted a comment I had to quote: people dont want a car that feels like a condom. ROFL

Re:It winked!

people dont want a car that feels like a condom

BMW drivers do.

They're all dicks.

Re:It winked!

What's the difference between a porcupine and a BMW?

The porcupine has its pricks on the outside.

Very cool

The video is really cool, but was it a real car or a computer model? And I wonder how the fabric behaves at high speeds. And how do you wash the car? I have loads of other questions but I think the concept is fantastic. Cars that can change shape! Mmmmm... :)

Re:Very cool

Gives a new concept to Transformers, doesn't it? They can now wear clothes!

Re:Very cool

"Bumblebee! Put some pants on! I can see your 'Cybertron'!"

hope they thought this through

So the chassis is still rigid right? Imagine unintentional impacts with external objects. The skin was meant to be protection for the car and driver. Flying rocks, small animals while the car is parked, pranksters, and thieves of engine parts make this not work so well. As well psychologically the driver will feel less protected in this new concept of a fabric skin. Imagine if your house was made out of cardboard... On the other hand I always like making cars lighter. I can see this becoming the norm if all the kinks are worked out.

Re:hope they thought this through

I can see this becoming the norm if all the kinks are worked out.

It's fabric. The kinks don't get worked out, they get ironed out. Pay attention.

Re:hope they thought this through

small animals while the car is parked

The car is parked in a driveway. A cat jumps onto the hood expecting a nice warm sunny place. Next thing it knows, the hood opens up, swallows the cat, the car emits a nice burp, and your gas tank increases by a few gallons. Sounds good to me :).

Skin-schmin

First off it's a concept vehicle. The point is to try new things, good or bad, to see how it works.

Moving forward, the skin of this car is almost purely for aerodynamic effect. There is a certain amount of visual additive, and it keeps the wind and dirt off the occupants. In reference to other mechanical value, there are plenty of cars which have no skin at all and are faster than pretty much any other production road going vehicle. Ariel's Atom [arielmotor.co.uk], to name one. Cars don't need skins. Hell, look at motorcycles. The passengers aren't even contained in the vehicle!

I think it's an awesome idea. Of course, my current roadster is paint chipped all to hell and being able to replace body panels of fabric would be rather appealing, but think about washing your car. Strip it down like bed sheets and throw the skin in the washing machine. Want a new paint job? Maybe a thousand dollars of fabric, or perhaps even just a dye job. You could change your car's color in a matter of minutes.

That brings up a really interesting point. How do the police identify cars? Color and shape? Well those two are irrelevant with this vehicle. You can change the shape while you're moving and theoretically the color in about 10 minutes, I figure. It goes into a parking garage as a red roadster and comes out as a green pickup truck.

Most importantly, and realistically, I'm sure the weight savings are impressive. And saving weight improves performance both in the go fast and the save fuel sense of the term. Imagine this combined with the Tesla Roadster. Shazam!

Interesting concept...

Which is exactly what that is, a concept, BMW comes up with an idea and floats it with the public to see what they think. Saturn did this with plastic bodies, "you'll never get a dinged door from a loose shopping cart.." While the metal skin of a car doesn't provide much protection, I bet it does add quite a bit to the weight of a car, and quite a bit of manufacturing (stamping, painting etc..) than a textile based covering.

At least they're thinking different.

Bah!

This has been done before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velorex [wikipedia.org]

Re:Keying

I tested this theory by keying my jeans... while it somewhat hurt my thigh, the cloth was quite unaffected.

My conclusion: cloth is more resistant to minor cosmetic damage than painted sheet metal, and harder to cut than flash.*

Seriously though, cloth is actually quite resistant to things like impact and scratching, which to me sounds like a great reason to make parts which are really prone to little other than cosmetic damage out of it (keep in mind that in a serious accident, the damage which we are concerned with is not to the painted sheet metal on the outside, it's to the frame and chassis... if those are essentially undamaged, then any damage is really just cosmetic). Even a flimsy t-shirt requires some serious twisting or a tremendous amount of blunt trauma to take any noticeable damage, and something like canvas is substantially tougher, not to mention Kevlar and other synthetics which are highly resistant even to sharp trauma.

*Do not try this at home, goodness knows I didn't. All experimental data is fabricated... get it ated. I crack myself up.