Photos: GINA concept shows BMW's light side

BMW's design group has come up with a concept to conceptualise their most radical thoughts on car making. Behold the GINA Light Visionary Model!

Derek Fung

Derek loves nothing more than punching a remote location into a GPS, queuing up some music and heading out on a long drive, so it's a good thing he's in charge of CNET Australia's Car Tech channel.

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Derek Fung

June 13, 2008 12:24 a.m. PT

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BMW's design group has come up with a concept to conceptualise their most radical thoughts on car making. Behold the GINA Light Visionary Model!

Hi I'm GINA and I'm from Germany
If ever there was a case of trying too hard to make a meaning fit an acronym then GINA is it. It, supposedly, stands for "Geometry and functions In N-Adaptions". Alrighty then ...

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No, not a Z4
Although from some angles it looks like a Z4 roadster fed with BALCO's finest, GINA is meant to challenge some of the established notions about car making. For instance, do car bodies have to be made from just metal and plastic? So GINA's skin is made out of a textile fabric. Here it is cleaving open down the middle of bonnet to reveal the engine bay.

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Open sesame
Here the car's flexible skin crumples slightly as the doors swing up and out.

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Autobots roll out
Another element of the GINA concept is that certain elements are only revealed when necessary. In the top photo the headlights are hidden while, in the bottom photo, they're on and visible. Additionally the car's tail has been raised.