Every year, people anticipate new car models that are about to be available to buy. It’s exciting to upgrade your car and check out all the new features the car industry has to offer, but one car, in particular, is taking over 2019.
The annual Frankfurt Auto Show is attended by nearly a million visitors every year. People know that it’s one of the best places to be the first to see the newest auto features, which is why so many people are already talking about the BMW X6 Vantablack model that will be there.
The biggest appeal of this model is the new shade of black that it’s made with. Read on to learn more about this new car color and why it’s amazed the car community.
It Plays With Your Mind
The color of a car is so important to the look and design of a new model. It changes how the car is perceived and how many people are likely to buy it. It’s rare for such a strikingly different color to be introduced in a car model, especially when the standard black paint hasn’t had many changes over recent decades.
BMW decided to change that when the company created the Vantablack VBx2 paint finish. They took the color black to a new level, changing how the human eye perceives the car just by altering the color.
Vantablack, created by BMW and Surrey NanoSystems, specifically coats the X6 and smoothes out any visual defining features. The car then appears as two dimensional, which is what stands out the most about this new paint. It’s been described as a rolling black hole, creating more of a buzz about the new model.
It Increases Driver Safety
While the Vantablack that’s used on the X6 was created with the car in mind, the original color formula was actually designed for aerospace applications.
The color was named after the Vertically Aligned Nano Tube Array which makes it possible at a molecular level. Every carbon nanotube that creates the shade is about 5,000 times thinner than a human hair, allowing a billion nanotubes to fit into a single centimeter.
That means that any light that hits a Vantablack surface is completely absorbed. This is crucial for drivers in a few ways. First, it keeps approaching headlights from deflecting and blurring an oncoming driver’s vision. That decreases the chance for a collision late at night or during rainstorms.
The color also makes headlamps and taillights more pronounced, so X6 drivers can see further and more clearly in the dark. Black cars have been shown to be more prone to accidents, so anything that makes them more safe is a major advancement in driver safety.
It’ll Be Available Soon
Although the Vantablack X6 has become the highlight of the Frankfurt Auto Show, BMW has announced that the model on display will not be available to the general market.
Instead, it’s meant to stir interest in the color for future models. BMW plans on using it as an interior color, to reduce reflections on mirrors and displays during daylight driving. Will it one day be used as exterior paint on consumer cars? Only time will tell.
