German Car Zone

Bangle is not the ultimate decision maker regarding the design within BMW Group. Mind there are people from strategic design department (who research future tastes & trends), people from Advanced Design Studio who create new trends & ideas, there is chief of Development (part of which the Design department is), and there is the Board of Management which is responsible to giving green light to the final decisions.

The greatest Bangle's contribution is he is an extraordinary motivator, very open-minded person who thinks out-of-the box, great manager, a philosopher with a vision. He was able to revive the BMW design department - and that was the aim when he was brought to BMW in 1992.

Regarding GINA: Bangle gave non-automotive designers from DesignWorks a task to design a car: to get the ideas how a non-automotive designers would design a car. I'm sure many ideas were presented, but the "flame surfacing" one was ultimately chosen as the right one. Remember - BMW decided in mid-90's to go avant-garde with the design, and I guess Bangle (and others) convinced the Management Board to go with flame surfacing.

I guess that was the upcoming trend ... Mind Fiat Centro Stile designers were keen on sharp creases with convex/concave surfaces: therefore Alfa Romeo got such design, and Seat as well (after W da Silva came to Seat from AR), and BMW as well after Bangle came from Fiat etc.

I'm sure without Bangle BMW would be on Lexus level of design today ... Of course he has got a clear vision, got the support from other departmets (like Strategic & Advanced design departments), and was able to convinced Management Board (and the Development chief in particulary) to start a design revolution.




Again: Bangle is a great leader with a vision ... he is able to get the best from the Designers, and to motivate other departments to cooperate, and influence & persuade the bosses to take a risk, and pick a specific design direction.

Think of him as of a creative motor of BMW AG.

While I'm sure it's possible that GINA or similar has been a citizen of designworks for a long while, the detailing on this concept plants it clearly in the present (the interior, however, looks like its from a CS1-era brainstorm). I'd have a hard time believing that this specific design was birthed any more than 3 years ago.

The wide CS-like grille, sophisticated flame sculpting and aggressive, "leery" headlights tell us that GINA is definitely a post E65-generation composition. What's exciting is that all these details are a bellwether for the forthcoming Z4, and from what we've already seen in camo'ed spy shots, we can count in it having a great deal in common with this concept.

If you take a look back at BMW's X-Coupe showcar it's impressive how far the flame surfacing agenda has advanced itself in such a relatively short time. It has gone from something funky, challenging and disruptive to something mature, resolved and engaging. I'm really excited about this next "evolutionary" generation of BMWs, because they're taking themes that were difficult to swallow 5 years ago and, in some ways, are cranking them up to the next level.

If GINA is any indication, the next Z4 is going to be brutally gorgeous and will reset the bar for curb appeal in its segment.

A car that looks as if it is alive...while growing up I always thought this would be cool (hence my love for Transformers), actually watching the video and seeing these pics leave me with a different feeling.

If I saw this car in production on a late night, and the owner just happened to have some Comfort Access system to make the car open its eyes and start blinking....



...You're absolutely sure this thing won't start talking back to me?

Had to look again.

I keep getting goosebumps. I blame it on the the dark ('tis nightfall where I am, and awfully quiet).

This is going to take some getting used to--

Lol...

It makes you feel so, doesn't it?