BMW GINA Light Visionary Model, Sage Green

Concept cars are usually remembered for how they look; the GINA also left a mark on how BMW builds cars. The company has said the study helped it develop rapid manufacturing, digital tooling techniques and a robot-guided steel embossing process, used to create the complex bonnets of the Z4 M Roadster and Z4 M Coupé. It is a striking legacy for a car whose own skin was not metal at all, but polyurethane-coated fabric stretched over a moving wire frame. Conceived under Chris Bangle and revealed in June 2008, the GINA is now kept at the BMW Museum in Munich.

Sage green metallic, a pale, silvery green that reads almost grey in shade, covers this example, with a white and light grey cabin. The soft colour suits the long, tensioned flanks and the deep scoops behind the front wheels, keeping the attention on the form. Inside, the white-rimmed steering wheel and stacked dials are clearly modelled; outside, the open headlamps, split-spoke wheels and paired tailpipes are finished in bright silver above a carbon-weave diffuser. The plaque on its stitched grey base marks it as one of 7. Built at 1:18.