Long before it built cars, the Bayersche Motoren Werke was busy building airplanes. That was before WWI, when planes were built with cloth stretched over rigid, lightweight frames. Under the category of "No New Ideas," BMW has reached back to those, ummm, simpler times to inspire tomorrow's (well, maybe another decade's) BMW car. Read the full press release after the jump...

 

lol this reminds me of 40 year old virgin.

is it gina with a hard "I"?

 

Must be.... look at that flappy "skin" it has on the door.

 

lol the vaGINA concept.......

Sure this is by BMW and not the VAG group?

lol

 

All silliness aside, this is a very interesting concept. Reminds me of some current fighter jets which have flexible skins. Presents some intriguing possibilities.

 

This really does present some strong potential... I'm sure the skin weighs a tiny fraction of what sheet metal normally does, and if the underlying frame itself is sufficient enough for crash protection and chassis structure and doesn't weight any more out of necessary reinforcements then this might be a great way to make an ultra light weight vehicle.

My only concerns are the durability of the skin... will it stretch over time? Fade? Rip? I'm sure they've taken all of this into consideration or at least will have if it ever gets past the concept exercise stages. That and possibly noise, though I know well enough that synthetic fabrics can be made with some pretty crazy properties these days and could easily be made to block as much or more noise than a single layer of steel.

Consider any car with a space frame... like the Corvette for example. The body panels on that car provide virtually no structural support... it's not unibody, it's a space frame design. The panels are really just there for cosmetics, aerodynamics, and to shield the occupants from the outside world / elements / noise. If the same thing could be done with a much lighter weight skin, then it sure would be neat.

 

The *what* curtain?

 

http://www.bmw-web.tv/en/channel/new

A very nice idea!

 

I definitely like the idea...

 

A friend just sent this to me and I'm in class so I had to just watch w. sound off, so I have no idea if anything worth while is said ... but it looks like something really cool ... so here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY

 

lol @ the blinking eye headlights
pretty cool concept

 

oops, looks like i just made a repost ...

 

Reminds me of a pissed off looking Z4 or something...

 

I hope it has good Kung Fu. Otherwise.. How well would this car survive a knife fight?

 

He says it only takes 2 hours for them to put the skin on the car. so a "repaint" would only take 2 hours + taking the old one off and probably be much cheaper. would there be aftermarket skins?

how would you wash it?