BMW Unveils Trippy New X6 Sprayed In Vantablack, The Blackest Black On The Planet That Eats 99% Of Light

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The first ever car painted in Vantablack will debut as a one-off for a special edition BMW X6 at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

Described as the “world’s blackest black,” the pigment was invented by Surrey NanoSystems and absorbs 99.96% of all light.

BMW Group


According to HYPEBEAST, the Vantablack VBx2 pigment was developed for scientific and architectural projects and makes objects appear two-dimensional and lose all design details, deeming it unsuitable for a car. British artist Anish Kapoor pissed a lot of people off when he bought the exclusive rights to Vantablack in 2016, but the Vantablack VBx2 is a slightly different material.

BMW uses a VBx2 variant allows a tiny amount of reflection while still making the car appear two-dimensional, thus making it street legal.

Vantablack, an acronym for Vertically Aligned Nano TubeArray, was first developed for aerospace “as a coating for components that would be sent to space to enable observation of distant galaxies and faint stars,” according to CNN.

It contains carbon nanotubes with a length of 14 to 50 micrometers and a diameter of 20 nanometers, making it around 5,000 times thinner than a human hair, allowing for a billion of these vertically aligned carbon nanotubes fit into one square centimeter. Thus, it absorbs any light that comes in contact with it, converting it into heat rather than reflecting it.

Surrey NanoSystems CTO founder and Chief Technical Officer Ben Jensen said:

‘VBx2 with its one-per-cent reflectance provides just enough of a hint of shape. Add to that the contrast between the matte black surface and details such as the Iconic Glow kidney grille, the headlights and the windows – everything is just set off beautifully.’

Jensen said the finish is unlikely to be used for production vehicles any time soon.

“Developing a Vantablack VBx2 car paint durable enough for daily use is a huge technological challenge,” he said.

Vantablack was previously used by architect Asif Khan and Hyundai, who teamed up to 13,000-square-feet and 33-foot-tall pavilion for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea–marking the first time the color had ever been used in architecture.

According to Motor1, prices for the vehicle’s third generation start at $65,290 (including the $995 destination fee) for an sDrive40i, $67,595 for the xDrive40i, and $86,465 for the M50i. They will arrive in showrooms in November.

 

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.