There is something about the color black. It is often associated with power, mystery and elegance and it's no surprise why a lot of the products that we use, come in this color option and is preferred very much by people.
I mean, it just goes well with home appliances, cars, smartphones and other smart devices, guitars, you name it. Black is cool. Black is sexy and in my opinion, nothing will ever be "the new black".
Therefore, when Vantablack was unveiled in 2014 by Surrey NanoSystems, lovers of the color black went bonkers because it is one of the darkest substances known to us, capable of absorbing 99.96% of visible light. Looking at an object coated with this material will make you lose all sense of dimensionality because to the observer, it would appear as if the very fabric of spacetime has been ripped and a hole has been made in it.
You can imagine what effect a car painted with this substance would have on the observers. BMW in partnership with Surrey NanoSystems, have come up with a Vantablack version of their X6 car and it looks stunning.
Blackest Car There Is
Source: BMW
The Vantablack BMW X6 was unveiled last week by BMW and it is coated with a new version of Vantablack called VBx2 that reflects 1% of the light that falls on it. According to Ben Jensen, CTO of Surrey, it wouldn't have worked if they had used the original material.
Basically, it would have been too much for the viewer to handle, perception wise, which goes to show you just how dark this material really is. The newer material, thanks to the one percent reflectivity, allows for at least some hints of shape so that the car is at least discernible.
Even with this slightly less dark version of the material, the Vantablack BMW X6 is the blackest car ever made. It would literally appear as a gliding shadow on the road at night and scare the heck out of unsuspecting pedestrians. But that will only happen if BMW and Surrey figure out a way to mass produce this material for spraying enough cars.
Right now, the material is extremely expensive to produce and is not as durable as it needs to be for use in cars. The technology just isn't there to make that happen as of yet. In the future though, we can expect this to become widely used in all sorts of products, including cars.
Image Credits: BMW