BMW GINA Light Visionary Model, Gunmetal Grey

The GINA is built more like a body than a car, a skeleton under a skin. Its structure is an aluminium space frame carrying a mesh of metal wires, with flexible carbon-fibre struts at the points that have to move, such as the air ducts, the door openings and the spoiler. Electric motors and hydraulic actuators push and pull that skeleton, and the fabric stretched across it follows, so the car can alter its contours rather than simply open and close. The rocker-panel contour can be adjusted to optimise an air duct, and if more cooling air is needed the kidney grille can be opened. Underneath it all sits the hardware of the BMW Z8.

This example is finished in a medium gunmetal grey metallic with a heavy flake that glitters across the wings, paired with a red interior, where red upholstery and a red-rimmed steering wheel meet grey lower trim and a column of round dials. The combination gives the car a harder, more technical look than the brighter colourways. Detail extends to the stalk-mounted mirrors, the open headlamps, the split-spoke wheels with BMW centre caps and the paired tailpipes in a carbon-weave diffuser. The plaque on its stitched grey base marks it as one of 7. Built at 1:18.