BMW GINA Light Visionary Model, Matte Black

Ask where the GINA's bonnet is and the honest answer is that it does not have one. The fabric skin runs unbroken from the nose to the windscreen, so BMW gave it a seam down the middle instead: for maintenance, the engine cover opens along its centre, by a mechanism BMW compared to a doctor's traditional medical bag, whose clip-lock fasteners are held together in the middle by a rail. Beneath it sits the V8 of the Z8 on which the car is based. The headlamps follow the same logic, hidden until small motors pull the fabric back from them like eyelids.

Matte black removes every reflection, and on the GINA that brings the body closer to the soft, light-absorbing look of a textile than gloss paint could. Against it the red interior glows (seats, door cards and steering-wheel rim, with round dials stacked in the centre console), and the bright split-spoke wheels, paired tailpipes and open headlamps stand out sharply. The crease down the centre of the bonnet, where the full-size car's skin parts, is easy to follow in this finish. The plaque sits on a stitched grey base. Built at 1:18.