BMW GINA Light Visionary Model, Teal

Chris Bangle's years as BMW's head of design were defined by arguments over form. His 'flame surfacing' used new panel-pressing technology to give steel more complex shapes, and the E65 7 Series divided opinion sharply. The GINA pushed the argument to its conclusion by asking whether a car needs a metal skin at all. Built as a research vehicle rather than a preview of anything BMW intended to sell, it replaced panels with fabric stretched over a movable frame, so that shape could become something the car adjusts rather than something fixed at the factory.

Teal metallic covers this example, a deep blue-green that turns almost petrol-coloured in shadow and brightens towards aqua across the crowns of the wings, with an orange cabin inside. The colour suits the GINA's long, tensioned surfaces, each hollow in the flanks catching a different shade. Detail runs to the stalk-mounted mirrors, the divided windscreen, the BMW roundel on the rear deck and the paired tailpipes in a carbon-weave diffuser, and inside to the orange-rimmed steering wheel and stacked round dials. Its plaque, on a stitched grey base, marks it as one of 7. Built at 1:18.