Fabric Body
BMW said the flexible, stretchable water resistant translucent man-made fabric skin – polyurethane-coated Spandex, is resilient and durable. It resists high or low temperatures, does not swell or shrink and the movement does not slacken or damage the fabric. The body changes its shape according to exterior conditions and speeds, and it also allows the driver to change its shape at will. The fabric is stretched over a moveable frame; essential shapes are formed beneath the skin by an aluminium wire structure, though at points where movement is needed (ducts, door openings, spoiler) flexible carbon struts are used. The shape of the frame is controlled by many electric and hydraulic actuators, for example, the headlights are revealed when small motors pull the fabric back in an eyelid like fashion. As the fabric is translucent the taillights shine through it.
Read more about this topic: BMW GINA
Famous quotes containing the words fabric and/or body:
“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air.
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself—
Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Certainly the effort to remain unchanged, young, when the body gives so impressive a signal of change as the menopause, is gallant; but it is a stupid, self-sacrificial gallantry, better befitting a boy of twenty than a woman of forty-five or fifty. Let the athletes die young and laurel-crowned. Let the soldiers earn the Purple Hearts. Let women die old, white-crowned, with human hearts.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929)