BMW Gina. shape shifting fabric car

[erickonphoenix]

YouTube - BMW GINA Light Visionary Model: Premiere

Not the newest idea but a very nice application non the less.

[JDS]

He is a bad, bad man.

[cell21633]

reminds me of the catbus from my neighbor totoro

[dpatel01]

He is a bad, bad man.

X2. It amazes me how one man can destroy an entire line of fine cars.

[erickonphoenix]

X2. It amazes me how one man can destroy an entire line of fine cars.

It amazes me that Chris Bangle gets so much grief for his teams designs because I think many of them are the most beautiful BMWs ever built. True the Z and 7 series was a bit awkward but they've matured into some nice cars. Both the 5 and 6 series are dead gorgeous and the 3s are shaping up to be even better. Also, don't forget his team penned the X5 which was IMO the first beautiful sleek SUV. And of course don't forget the Mini, although it may be a chick car it has an urban chic feel to it and BTW drives like a fkn dream.

[JDS]

True the Z and 7 series was a bit awkward but they've matured into some nice cars.

The Z is actually not so bad, but the 7 series has only matured into a nice car if you're comparing it to Toyotas and Chevrolets. Sure, it's a nice car in that company, but if you're comparing it to its competitors, the A8, S550, XJ8, and Quattroporte...or, I dunno, say the E38 7 series that preceded it, then no, it's pathetic.

the 5

Worst BMW ever. Makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

6 series

Exactly the same as the "matured" Bangle-7. Nice in comparison to Toyotas and Chevrolets. Pathetic in comparison to its competitors, or better yet, its own predecessor, the E24.

the 3s are shaping up to be even better.

Now that's the one car that they REALLY got right. However, the previous designers got ALL of the cars right, so I can't really say that it's a very good batting average, by comparison...

Also, don't forget his team penned the X5 which was IMO the first beautiful sleek SUV.

Handsome, yes. Sleek? I don't know. It's still only my second favorite, after the Infiniti FX, which I still think should have been the sort of thing Porsche should have used for the Cayenne, instead of the aesthetic disaster that turned out to be.

And of course don't forget the Mini, although it may be a chick car it has an urban chic feel to it and BTW drives like a fkn dream.

But it's terribly not-mini...

It's two feet longer, a foot wider, and twice as heavy as a real Mini.

[erickonphoenix]

JDS I can't understand why the E60 M5 would make you want to gouge your eyes out. It's cabin is short and narrow while the body is long and wide giving it a purposful, powerful look. Maybe a bit anvil looking but you can't get more purposful or powerful looking than an anvil. Rakish it's not but it still has a hammer-like presence on the road which is all it really needs to be. After all, its not a girls car. Its' a mans car. So it's not supposed to be pretty.

[JDS]

I've NEVER seen an anvil with all those stupid swoopy angles and random curves...I mean just look at it, the lines of it have no rhyme or reason to them, they look like they were penned in the dark.

Those headlights are some of the worst I've EVER seen...poor headlight design has recently been a pet peeve of mine, and this is one of the worst.

Look at that ridiculous line formed by the randomly-chosen junction between the quarter panel, the bumper, and the ugly tail light. The upper edge of most bumpers is a straight line from one fender to the other. This is a straight line, then a curve up, then a corner, then an increasing radius curve down, then another corner, another curve leading to a straight line, and then the whole thing again in reverse. It makes my brain hurt to look at.

Even ignoring the headlights, the "nose" only has one good angle, straight-on. Anything else is just awkward, it looks like a blunt, round-nosed battering ram at best, and a bumpy, unrecognizable lump at worst. The front end of an E39, on the other hand, is good from any angle. Viewed from 120 degrees from the head-on (that is, out to the side of the car, somewhat behind it), is imposing...the bumper looks like a jutting chin, the edge of the headlight is simple and no-nonsense, the "power-bulge" (or whatever you call the raised center portion of the hood) lines up just right to give it depth. The E60, from this angle, has the profile that I imagine is similar to the glans of a penis affected by severe genital warts.

Can I mention the taillights again? The lights on this car were described by BMW as, and I am not making this up, "Samurai-inspired". I don't even know what to say about that.

While we're on the subject of lighting, what the hell is up with those fender turn signals? I THINK this is the same unit that first showed up on the later versions of the E46 3 series...either that, or they just look very similar. Either way, they are placed, like most fender turns, floating out in the center of of the fender with no lines to follow. As such, most manufacturers have the aesthetic sense to shape this unassuming little bit in a shape that flows nicely and doesn't draw attention...something with at least quadrilateral symmetry, such as a circle, rectangle, oval, or...um...whatever you call that thing that has two straight sides and two semicircular sides. But no, that's not good enough for the Bangle Style Movement. They have to take this little piece and make it stick out like a lesion, give it some sort of swoopy scalene triangular shape, except it's not really a triangle, the sides are actually sort of curved, but not all curved the same amount, so it ends up just looking like something Van Gogh doodled on the side of the car.

And what's up with those kidney grilles? I don't even know how to describe what's wrong with them...I think maybe they're too round, too much like nostrils instead of grilles. Either way I think it's the WIDE blank spaces where the bumper just melts up into the grille that make it really not work...there's just too much space between the kidney grilles and the headlights not to have a horizontal grille or something there.

And why is the trailing edge of the rear doors just...straight? It doesn't follow the lines of the fenders, it doesn't follow...anything. The doors just...end. If the trailing edge were a straight line, and the bottom of that line (nearly) met the point where the body curved up to form the wheel well, then at least that would make sense. But it doesn't, it's many inches away from there, just kinda randomly picked out. It looks like they hadn't drawn anything behind that point, and just said, "Meh, I think that's enough door. Cut it off there." Then later they discovered that the car just kept going way past that door, and didn't really have anything to do with that space, but meh, who cares. Let's "flame surface" it and call it a day.