Autopartswarehouse Great Finds!- Car Out of Cloth!

Concept cars has given designers and car manufacturers the chance to make their wild imagination work in their car models and concepts. BMW has come up with something as strange as it is innovative -- a shape-shifting car covered with fabric. Yes, with cloth!

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Instead of steel, aluminum or even carbon fiber, the GINA Light Visionary Model has a body of movable metal frame that enables the driver to change it's shape covered with a stretched fabric all over it. This model which actually runs and drives is an artistic work headed straight directly for the BMW Museum in Munich so the production will not be open and visible to all, but building a practical car wasn't the point.

Chris Bangle, head of design for BMW, says GINA allowed his team to "challenge existing principles and conventional processes."

 "It is in the nature of such visions that they do not necessarily claim to be suitable for series production," company officials said in unveiling the car Tuesday. "Rather, they are intended to steer creativity and research into new directions."

Bangle and his team GINA which means, "Geometry and functions In 'N' Adaptions" - six years ago but kept it under, i mean keeps on wrapping it until Tuesday. BMW said, this model's skin is made of polyurethane-coated Lycra - is resilient, durable and water resistant. It's stretched over an aluminum frame controlled by electric and hydraulic actuators that allow the owner to change the body shape. Want some accesories like spoilers and fenders? Worry no more, "The drastic reinterpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car," BMW says.

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GINA has just four panels - the front hood, two sides and the rear deck. The doors opens in jack-knife fashion and closed smoothly. Access in the hoods and engines are through the slit in front. The fabric is translucent so the taillights shine through, and small motors pull the fabric back to reveal the headlights.

The interiors are really great and innovative. The gauges and steering wheel are cool. And the headrest rises from the seat when the driver seated to make it easier to get in and out of the car.

BMW says GINA is built on a space frame that provides all the safety of a conventional car, but we suspect people - not to mention BMW's lawyers and government regulators - wouldn't embrace fabric bodies. Still, the company says GINA could influence the design of future Beemers.

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