Video: Are you ready for the fabric-covered car?
posted at 3:57 pm on June 10, 2008 by Allahpundit
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How bored is the media with politics right now? Bored enough for Drudge to have been leading the past 24 hours or so with a story about … tomatoes.
My impression of this thing? If you’re going to shell out for a Beamer, why on earth would you opt for the model that makes it look like you can’t afford metal? A good rule of thumb: A new invention is cool in inverse proportion to the number of words needed to explain its coolness. Behold.
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Your neurons are misfiring AP. This is stunning. Light years beyond the superficiality of ‘cool’.
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:02 PM
Oooooh, if it’s covered in cloth, can we embroider on it?
Sekhmet on June 10, 2008 at 4:02 PM
Just a note.. A BMW owner would refer to this as a “Bimmer” not a “Beamer”. “Beamer’s” do exist also, however. They are BMW motorcycles.
RobertCSampson on June 10, 2008 at 4:03 PM
Does the car shrink when it dries out after you drove it in the rain? Just curious…
JayB on June 10, 2008 at 4:03 PM
Bird Crap + Cloth = bad idea
trubble on June 10, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Who’s to say there isn’t something significant about the material itself? Perhaps bird crap/lime drips etc are easier to clean off, and don’t damage the surface – unlike metal/paint.
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:08 PM
Cloth + Car = bad idea.
What happens in a wreck
Confederate on June 10, 2008 at 4:08 PM
Can I Bedazzle it???
KelliD on June 10, 2008 at 4:10 PM
How do you get dog, bird, and love-bug stains out of it?
RushBaby on June 10, 2008 at 4:10 PM
I want a paisley one.
Geronimo on June 10, 2008 at 4:11 PM
TIE DYE! YIPPEE!
robblefarian on June 10, 2008 at 4:12 PM
I think the dude was saying that the underlying structure takes care of crashes.
Perhaps you can take the whole thing off and launder it with Tide?
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:13 PM
SNL did their version of this, called ‘The Adobe’..
a car made out of mud..
DaveC on June 10, 2008 at 4:13 PM
The skin of your car is not what saves you in a wreck.
NotCoach on June 10, 2008 at 4:13 PM
What if you have moths in your garage?
oakpack on June 10, 2008 at 4:14 PM
Many light airplanes are made of fabric, especially the wings. I don’t think this is such a bad idea, considering the cost of fuel. This car would be very light. Not to mention the versatility of different looks.
However, getting in an accident would definitely be problematic.
Troy Rasmussen on June 10, 2008 at 4:15 PM
I want one that has a ghostly fluorescence under UV
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:15 PM
One heckuvan engineering challenge, for sure….but why not?
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:16 PM
OK what happens when the neighborhood kids come over to prank it with a little lighter fluid and a Zippo?
RushBaby on June 10, 2008 at 4:17 PM
I’m not buying it unless it’s approved by Al Gore.
Nice try Allahpundit.
Indy Conservative on June 10, 2008 at 4:18 PM
I am impressed. This was obviously a powerful exercise in many ways for that team. They invented a powerful aesthetic principle for those materials achieved through innovative manufacture, not just some gimmick.
The future will continue to suprise you…but go ahead…continue to poke fun at it, people always have.
Dr. Manhattan on June 10, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Um, this is Hot Air. Some threads just beg for fun.
RushBaby on June 10, 2008 at 4:21 PM
If he thinks he’s getting approval for this retro split windshield he’s crazy.
Mr Bangle is the designer who gave us the current monstrous BMW 7 series. He was reviled for what he did to all of the BMWs in the past 5 years, but, regardless, they sold like hotcakes. Bangle also destroyed the current Rolls Royce, which now looks like a concrete block with beady bug eyes. It’d dismaying how much he’s gotten away with at BMW Group.
And now vinyl-covered roadsters? What is he smoking?
leftnomore on June 10, 2008 at 4:21 PM
Because it is so unique that everyone will know how much you paid for the damned thing anyway. It’s like the DeLoreans- you think anybody looked at those and thought the owners couldn’t afford paint?
P.S. I wonder if you could change those out for the seasons/holidays and have a Christmas-themed “slipcover”
or big old watermelons and daisies for the summer months.
highhopes on June 10, 2008 at 4:22 PM
They get pranked with buckshot
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:26 PM
lol
How about an internal projector that can make the car appear invisible?
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:29 PM
The fabric, it is made from the hemp plant.
abinitioadinfinitum on June 10, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Yeah but what if a Michelle Obama type decided to key your car when she found out you were a Conservative driving this “cloth” car?…. just sayin’
MNDavenotPC on June 10, 2008 at 4:32 PM
Hypercolor, ’nuff said.
chinotex on June 10, 2008 at 4:32 PM
Not exactly cutting edge, BMW. GM’s Saturn has provided safe SpaceFrame vehicles with nonmetal body panels on the road for over 15 years.
T J Green on June 10, 2008 at 4:32 PM
“… but really we want to achieve a higher emotional plane out of this…”
Really? I’m looking for my car to stay together, keep running, and get me from point A to point B. I’m not looking for an emotional experience here.
Maybe I don’t understand why rich people get expensive cars. Or designer suits. Or cars in designer suits (which I think this is).
gekkobear on June 10, 2008 at 4:33 PM
Don’t slash my car bro.
infidel on June 10, 2008 at 4:36 PM
I hadn’t even considered the possibilities of fashion designers getting involved! The spring collection from Versace or Project Runway-garage edition!
highhopes on June 10, 2008 at 4:37 PM
The Mercedes SLR already has fabric bodywork. OK, carbon-fiber fabric, encased in resin, like a Formula One car. Super light weight, but doesn’t exactly take fender-benders very well.
Alex_SF on June 10, 2008 at 4:38 PM
Dems get their way, your next car will be made out of air.
Rhinoboy on June 10, 2008 at 4:39 PM
Rhinoboy haven’t you heard. Air contains dangerous amaounts of the noxious toxin know as carbon dioxide! That car would be illegal for sale.
Dr. Manhattan on June 10, 2008 at 4:42 PM
Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer. Been done.
robblefarian on June 10, 2008 at 4:42 PM
When the cloth gets worn, you just order up another and have it installed. You drive out with a brand-new exterior. Pretty slick.
I would like to see how a convertible top might work, here.
gridlock2 on June 10, 2008 at 4:43 PM
What happens after it sits out in the sun and the fabric starts to get brittle, and all those wrinkles get baked in?
RushBaby on June 10, 2008 at 4:44 PM
lol. I think I remember, didn’t it end up as a chia-car in the end?
deesine on June 10, 2008 at 4:45 PM
A couple years ago I saw a news report on a new type of fabric that can carry a video signal through it. Now we have cars wrapped in fabric…
Just think what you could broadcast acrossed your bumper to a tail-gater!?!
Hootie on June 10, 2008 at 4:46 PM
The Hawker Hurricane was covered in cloth. Then the late Thirties happened and they came out with more modern material.
I hope Al Gore gets one so I can sit on the hood. (oooops, sorry Al)
Is there a tissue paper luggage rack?
Hening on June 10, 2008 at 4:47 PM
Anything that brushes up against it will cause pulls, tears, etc. in the fabric, you’ll constantly be changing it or looking nappy.
Alden Pyle on June 10, 2008 at 4:48 PM
Spoken like someone who’s never driven a Bimmer before. :-) You think you drop $40K+ on a new car to be pragmatic? It’s all about the joyride.
Hootie on June 10, 2008 at 4:49 PM
Didn’t the Wright Brothers do this with an airplane some years ago…? Ah, what was old is new again.
Swinehound on June 10, 2008 at 4:50 PM
Methinks they forgot the “Va” at the beginning of the name.
Blacklake on June 10, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Is there a special dry cleaner car wash for this?
Hening on June 10, 2008 at 4:51 PM
How much laundry detergent does it take to clean that thing?
Warner Todd Huston on June 10, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Actually longer than that- think “Fiero”.
And if any of you think fabric skinned car bodies are new, you apparently don’t know what a Weymann-bodied car is. And, oh, yeah- the Velorex ended production just about 20+ years ago.
Pat Nixon had a coat cut from whole Republican cloth- I guess we can have a car made the same way.
BillH on June 10, 2008 at 4:52 PM
Never saw that coming…..fnaaa fnaaa
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:53 PM
Is it just me or when BMW shows the engine, it feels like the car is giving birth?
Lance Murdock on June 10, 2008 at 4:55 PM
I’m gonna order mine with several different plies of different colored fabric. When Kojak with his Kodak clocks me doing 160, I’ll just pull over and peel off a layer before he catches up to me. “Me, speeding? I don’t know anything about a red bimmer going 160. Mine is obviously black and I never speed.”
innominatus on June 10, 2008 at 4:56 PM
I don’t think that is relevant at all. Sure, the idea of fabric car skins may not be novel…..but the application of modern technology in ways that achieve what would have once been deemed impossible, that’s something else.
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:56 PM
There’s your ‘GINA
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:56 PM
It will open a whole new world for tire slashers.
BL@KBIRD on June 10, 2008 at 4:57 PM
Why can’t the skin absorb the radar?
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 4:57 PM
It’s cool, even with the pinhead presenter.
deesine on June 10, 2008 at 4:58 PM
I think LimeyG’s onto something!
innominatus on June 10, 2008 at 5:02 PM
I love BMW’s. The car I drive most often is a BMW 318i with 262,000 miles on it (I got it brand new). It is 14 years old and I can get 40 mpg with it. It never misses a beat and has been driven across the country and back 4 times.
BMW is probably the most under rated of all cars even though it does have a good reputation. Those cars run forever. I have driven mine like a tank and expect to get 500,000 miles out of it.
ThackerAgency on June 10, 2008 at 5:04 PM
Oh yeah, and you don’t have to worry about door dings with the cloth skin
ThackerAgency on June 10, 2008 at 5:05 PM
Oops hit “submit” too soon…
A Stealth car that absorbs radar. I like.
innominatus on June 10, 2008 at 5:05 PM
I’m getting a tingle up my leg
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 5:08 PM
First thought was it being slashed once I parked it somewhere…bad bad idea…but they are Germans afterall. (smirk)jk ~B
Brian on June 10, 2008 at 5:09 PM
That is what the roll cage is for..
Chakra Hammer on June 10, 2008 at 5:11 PM
@ Alex_SF on June 10, 2008 at 4:38 PM
Carbon fiber is stronger than steel. Dont know what you were talking about.
muyoso on June 10, 2008 at 5:12 PM
I see an application for conductive fabric…..50,000 volts should do the trick
LimeyGeek on June 10, 2008 at 5:12 PM
Does it come in Kevlar?
steadyrock on June 10, 2008 at 5:17 PM
This should be entitled “Christo goes to Detroit”.
Great idea: make humans expendable so that the machinery can look “cool.”
/SARC
It appears to me that some kind of mass insanity has gripped these people and made them forget what machines are for and who is the master in the man-machine relationship.
More evidence that the Eugenics crowd is still pushing euthanasia?
landlines on June 10, 2008 at 5:23 PM
I don’t see how this is helping Michelle’s kids.
Oh, and I’d also like to know how one would prevent the scissor-wielding thief from stealing this imagination of a car.
Seixon on June 10, 2008 at 5:25 PM
It was the general feel- vibe, if you will- that the thinking (here on the thread) was for the novelty factor, not any technological advance. It is a cool car for making the point that “old” materials can be used in “new” ways. But cars like this tend to never see production in any form. Few, if any of the ideas are so watered down by the time they reach proles like us, the effort seems almost wasted. Therefore, the purported advances that were made are simply for bragging rights, and nothing else. Answering your question about radar- it can’t. The car’s signature would be too large, it would travel too slowly to beat the radar, and any coatings that would help this feature are classified for national defense.
That pinhead presenter is the guy who designed it :P
BillH on June 10, 2008 at 5:31 PM
Damn you, Landlines, that made me spit out a rather large swallow of iced tea :)
BillH on June 10, 2008 at 5:33 PM
I’d prefer something a little more substantial, like the 240-mph wooden car AP linked to in the headlines a few months ago.
rivlax on June 10, 2008 at 5:37 PM
This has got to be the dumbest, stupidest, most moronic imbecile idea to come cranking out of the hallowed halls of modern science since the invention of that lousy greasy-tasting artificial crap they came out with to replace real butter on movie theater popcorn.
pilamaye on June 10, 2008 at 5:39 PM
ust a note.. A BMW owner would refer to this as a “Bimmer” not a “Beamer”. “Beamer’s” do exist also, however. They are BMW motorcycles.
RobertCSampson on June 10, 2008 at 4:03 PM
We refer to our cars as beamer too!
xler8bmw on June 10, 2008 at 5:43 PM
BMW reliability is hit-or-miss depending on the model and model year. This is true to some extent of most manufacturers, but BMW seems particularly mercurial.
Blacklake on June 10, 2008 at 5:50 PM
They tried this with magical machines filled with hydrogen. Of course if they put a hydrogen fuel cell in these…
So if you get in a wreck and your car catches fire, you’ll burn up on the ground. Cool car skin to environmentally unfriendly ash in 3.2 seconds…
Hindenberg anyone?
catmman on June 10, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Once again BMW has the most spectacular lines on a vehicle ever designed. It looks very similar to their new concept car which is going after the Aston Martin market except the lines are more beautiful!
xler8bmw on June 10, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Scissors of Life…
serenity on June 10, 2008 at 5:56 PM
Thacker…I’m with you! BMWs are highly underrated!
My grandson is learning to drive on my ‘86 325es that I bought new. It still gets 26.5 mpg around town, and 40 on the highway. I tried and tried, but I couldn’t break the dang thing!
I’m now driving a 2003 Z4, and loving every minute of it.
If BMW comes out with a fabric Z4, and I can change it’s “clothes”, I’ll be the first one in line to get one!
kakypat on June 10, 2008 at 5:57 PM
I’ll take a mustang – or maybe a jeep – in a nice strong denim. The more wear it gets the better it will look.
Stephen Macklin on June 10, 2008 at 6:19 PM
Well then, you live in the wrong neighborhood. :)
Aggie85 on June 10, 2008 at 6:34 PM
A beamer that looks like it has some character.
Hooray.
Not bad at all..
Reaps on June 10, 2008 at 6:38 PM
Yeah, why couldn’t he just say “Is this cool-looking or what?!” and leave it at that?
If I drove one, would it would turn me into a prancing Democrat?
drunyan8315 on June 10, 2008 at 6:42 PM
If I drove one, would it would turn me into a prancing Democrat?
drunyan8315 on June 10, 2008 at 6:42 PM
Actually more conservative republicans drive them because we don’t believe in the global warming crap!
xler8bmw on June 10, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Is that going to be Kevlar lined cloth??? If so you would have a ding proof, scratch proof, skin. The frame is what actually absorbs a wreck not the skin anyway.
The weight savings will mean higher power to weight ratio and gas millage.
My guess this would be the BMW version of the US Corvette and its fiberglass skin.
C-Low on June 10, 2008 at 6:57 PM
It doesn’t have to be Kevlar to be ding-proof and scratch-proof. Some of the newer textiles are extremely durable, aerodynamic and flexible (see some of the new high-performance swimsuits), as well as stain-resistant in a way that even baked-on enamels aren’t.
.
And, call me a girly girl, but I think it’s sexy. If I were younger and fitter, I’d have to stop myself from trying to drive country roads in it buck nekkid.
leucanthemum on June 10, 2008 at 8:53 PM
Absolutely, that was my first thought. I married into an aviation family and got hooked pretty quick. Lots of experimentals are still made with cloth.
Fabric airplane wings are coated with special coatings to prevent UV damage.
The biggest problem with the Hindenburg was that the skin was coated with ammonium nitrate to protect it from the elements. Ammonium nitrate is one of the prime ingredients in solid rocket fuel… not good around flame!!!
dominigan on June 10, 2008 at 8:55 PM
1. WANT. For speed, add lightness.
2. The back end isn’t so great, but almost no cars outside of Italy have good looking rears.
3. The headlights are 29.4 kinds of awesome.
4. “Bimmer” is “correct” for the cars according to the BMW associations. Most people outside those clubs say “beemer.”
5. As they said in the video, crash safety isn’t about the skin – the skin is there to control airflow and for looks.
Merovign on June 10, 2008 at 9:04 PM
I would have to think hard about this. My last new car got $800 in falling tree limb damage within 60 days of purchase.
I like the concept of altering the shape of the vehicle dynamically too.
DrSteve on June 10, 2008 at 9:28 PM
Cloth covered car. Riiigghhhtt. Some punk kid could total it in under 15 seconds with a .99 boxcutter. Not to mention it would be a major tag magnet for graffiti artists.
Guardian on June 10, 2008 at 9:31 PM
What I thought of was the birdair product used for the roof of the denver airport, georgia dome and other structures. It’s essentially self-cleaning thanks to teflon impregnation.
Tension structures are way beautiful, and the fact that it’s shape is morphable is really cool. For those of you worried about damage, think how much easier repair will actually be. It’s a fabric cover. Think sailcloth, not rayon, and you’ll understand that fabrics can be very, very tough. Geotextiles come to mind too. It’s all just engineering.
TexasDan on June 10, 2008 at 10:44 PM
Makes you feel old, right? Me too.
MrLynn on June 10, 2008 at 11:02 PM
While I love the idea of being able to manipulate the contours as needed for aerodynamic reasons, I’m still concerned about accidents. The video didn’t work well and I couldn’t plod through the entire linked article to find out about the cloth. While the frame may protect from gross impacts, was there any information to indicate that a shattering 2X4 bouncing out of the back of a truck and into the car body would be deflected by the cloth? How about a cinderblock or a metal pipe? If the cloth distorts as the frame bends in a multiple impact rollover, what reduces the possibility of sticks, rocks, broken bottles from ripping through the skin and becoming injury creating objects? What happens if you hit a deer? Don’t depend on the frame to protect you from objects smaller than another car when you’re moving at highway speeds. If they are saying the cloth can deflect objects as well as metal or possibly even fiberglass can, we may have a winner. Otherwise, I’ll stick with something a little stiffer.
Catseye on June 11, 2008 at 12:05 AM
Its it machine washable?
Capitana on June 11, 2008 at 1:09 AM
And if I was younger and fitter, I’d have to stop myself from stopping you from stopping yourself.
platypus on June 11, 2008 at 2:13 AM
Surely, Chris Bangles is living in a solitary closed environment with controlled temperature and humidity. He just needs a companion.
Monas on June 11, 2008 at 9:46 AM
Troy Rasmussen on June 10, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Yeah…some of those fabric planes can be had for less than the price of the BMW too (Well a less than a five series anyway). Don’t laugh at fabric, that bird will cruise better than 180 mph at about 14.5 mpg.
MMW on June 11, 2008 at 9:55 AM
Bill Clinton called.
My collie says:
How did you know?
CyberCipher on June 11, 2008 at 10:24 AM
I guess it is safe to say this vehicle does not come with a cigarette lighter or ashtray.
MSGTAS on June 11, 2008 at 10:31 AM
It is pretty cool. I like the vagina hood…
I wonder if the fabric flutters in the wind at 100 mph?
Wyznowski on June 11, 2008 at 12:13 PM
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