Insane Design Concept: The BMW Gina

This BMW came up in conversation in SoundDomain's Off-Topic forums (must be logged in to view) a few days ago, but I had yet to see the video until today. BMW's designer Chris Bangle has caused quite a bit of controversy over his recent designs, you either hate the new BMWs or you love them. I'm a lover not a hater. I really appreciate his desire to break out of the typical car design mold, but I'm not sure what to think about this design concept.... I do think the idea is quite revolutionary, but for those of us who appreciate a quiet interior (and sometimes spend ridiculous amounts of money and time on sound deadening), I'm curious how he plans to battle road noise? The soft skin almost seems to give the car life, and the hood and headlights are particularly trick. If I happen to find myself in Germany, I'm definitely going to stop by the BMW museum to check this out in person.

Member Spotlight: PUGMEgti's Pretty Perfect Peugeot 106

Here's another crazy find from CarDomain's "Top A/V" list: PUGMEgti's 1997 Peugeot 106 show car. This thing is insane...

Where our BMW 5-Series choice from a few days ago was pretty  OEM-plus looking, the Pug's install resembles something you'd see at the Geneva Car Show as a concept. The interior was re-worked in white leather from head to toe, the dash completely customized, and the trunk loaded with bass. The dash is one of my favorite upgrades - the entire dash was smoothed, and the center stack made to look like a seamless futuristic console like those on the USS Enterprise. The double-DIN Alpine touchscreen and Dakota Digital gauges look absolutely sick behind the plexi and the Alpine remote mounted to a custom fabbed "arm" is just tough. This truly is a unique install.

Hit the jump to see a few more pics of this crazy UK show car.

in the forums!

Uber-Smooth BMW 5-Series

The E34 BMW 5-Series has always been my favorite generation for this luxury sports cruiser. I was scrolling through CarDomain Top Overall A/V nominations when I came across the uber-slick 1990 5-Series owned by CarDomain member e34zoui. The work put into this ride is amazing. It's not over-the-top at all, it's clean, its fresh, it's just done right. The owner reworked the car both inside and out, and there's not much I can say should have been done differently.
The trunk received an impressive custom-fit fiberglass build out for the DLS audio system, and I'd love to say it the most impressive part of the install, but e34zoui never posted pics of the finished install! But from the progress pics and comparing it to the work in the rest of the car, I'm sure it was stunning. The interior was completely restitched in white and beige, including the European M5 seats (the back seats are dope!). It looks like a custom center console was fabbed between the two rear buckets, but I"m not sure. If so, then he did a fantastic job! There's also custom kick panels, custom dash with an 8" touchscreen screen, A Via-powered carPC system, head rest monitors, and a HUGE turbo upgrade (GT28RS) pushing out 426HP to the wheels.

We've got a system list and a few more pics after the jump.If anybody has any other details on this car, we'd love to hear it. Let us know if the forums!

in the forums!

Video: Making of Alpine's Sinister Six Pt.2

We showed you guys the first part of the Alpine Sinister Six build on Friday, so to get your week off to a nice start, we're going to show you Part 2. In this installment the guys take the the framed out, roughed MDF, glass, and bondo structure and transform it into the finished product. These guys really are amazing.

The video is available after the jump.

Video: Making of the Alpine BMW Sinister Six

Alpine hooked us up with another build video, this time for the incredible Alpine Sinister Six. The car started life as an $83,000 BMW 645Ci and was transformed into one of the most amazing demo vehicles evar. This car has made it's rounds to many different shows, so those that have had the pleasure of seeing it in person can attest to its sheer brilliance. It's hard to choose just which aspect of this car is more amazing.... The motorized entry and exit? The LCD screen taillights? The fact that it has no steering wheel, just a steering knob? The 26x13 rear wheels? I could keep going. One thing the Alpine guys did tell me, is that this has one of the most expensive remote start systems ever. Since the car was so new, no bypass module was available to integrate with the factory alarm system, so the team had relocate the factory ignition switch, leave a key in it, and the use a motorized actuator to remotely turn the key in order to start the car!!

Check out Part 1 of the Sinister Six build video after the jump. Have you seen this car in person? What do you think was the craziest thing Alpine did to this BMW 645?

in the forums!