The Interiors Thread.

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I feel like this is missing from the Cars-In-General section. A thread devoted to automotive interiors. It is, of course, the space we actually occupy while operating a car, so it's fairly important. I, myself, am a designer so the interior of a car is just as important, if not more important, than the exterior, and is huge consideration to me when buying a car. That said...I've had cars with some truly awful interiors; foxbody mainly. I don't think there should be really any restriction on whats posted here. Stock, custom, weird, cool, super-modified, race car. I think it should, like the imports thread, be a collection of all that is interesting within the realm of automotive interiors.

I have a particular interest in gauge clusters, especially older types with interesting lighting. I absolutely love older Merc gauge clusters, especially at night.

I'll start things off with the Merc W108:

Beautifully and elegantly simple interior.

Amber backlighting

In general, I feel car interiors have become to 'noisy' or complicated design wise. But the newer Mercedes Benz and a few imports like the BRZFRS pair have started to move back to a more restrained look.

Anyway, I have no idea how this thread will go, but I hope people contribute!

 

[Heldenzeit]

Singer 911

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Pre-996 911's have one of the best interior layouts I can think of. I love how shallow the dash is and how simple and direct everything is. The singer improvements are simply gorgeous.

Everything I love about cars could be condensed and explained by a 911 tachometer.

The typeface, the size of the numbers, the angle of sweep, the zero position, the scale of the needle, the scale of the needle center, the extension of the needle past the center, the size of the hashmarks, the scale of the two size hashmarks next to each other, the color of the face, the color of the needle, the color of the backlighting, the placement of the tachometer itself, . It's just perfect. It simultaneously looks beautiful at the same time acknowledging that it is an instrument for conveying important information about the engine; it's very easy to read at a glance. Whoever designed the tacho for the 911 agonized it for a very long time, I'm sure of it. I think that's what I love about the 911. Every inch of it was agonized over to support the entire concept of the car as a whole. Every detail serves that concept of purpose and speed. And it starts with as something as small as a tachometer needle.

Now we get cars with a big flat instrument panel printed onto one large circuit board with a multitude of plastic bezels and trim rings that try to separate out individual "gauges" sitting at the base of some awful chromed-plastic tube with distracting coloring, poor resolution LCD displays and big honking piece of flat transparent plastic in front. Ugh.

 

[RocZX]

I like the interior in the Z32. It's clean and simple.

And I just love how the switch's for the air, lights and wipers are right in front of you by the gauge clusters.

 

[Heldenzeit]

I like the interior of my friend's NB Miata too.

 

[Cano]

1959 Impala:

 

[Clark]

Two of my favourite modern supercar interiors.

Zonda

Spyker C8

I also love any old Ferrari with a proper Nardi steering wheel.

And as @Heldenzeit already posted, the Singer 911 interiors are perfect.


Will post more later, there's loads of awesome interiors on loads of different style cars.

 

[mustang fanatic]

1969 Mustang Mach 1

Nicely styled, and not really square like everything else from that era.

 

[ilikewaffles11]

I've always absolutely lived the Alpine A110s interior, looks just as good as the exterior.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Audi R18 LMP1

Tesla Model S

Porsche 918

Nissan Leaf

 

[hemisport15]

Here are some great ones produced by the BMW Individual program.

More purple leather

But not much compares to an old Porsche, in my opinion.

 

[KM964]

I love the interior of the 2007-up Volvo S80. But I'm biased, since I have one myself.

I also like the interiors on the King Ranch edition Fords.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Spyker C8

View attachment 159994

One of the very few Spyker dealers in the UK was about a mile down the road from me when I was a kid. I sat in their C8 - one of the coolest car interiors I've experienced, and certainly the most quilted.

 

[TheCracker]

McLaren F1. Driver centered interior, with room for two passengers.

 

[ilikewaffles11]

I love some of the weird interiors you could get in old Porsches. Plaid? Why not. Black and white checkers? Sure.

 

[Clark]

Always loved the Miura as well.

 

[motortrend]

I usually don't like cars with small dashboards but I absolutely LOVE the Z8 interior

Also, pretty much anything with stack gauges:

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

I love the interior of the 2007-up Volvo S80. But I'm biased, since I have one myself.

I like that too. It's like a modern version of the W201 190E interior, which I really like:

Speaking of Volvo, I have to say I adore the 240 R sport cluster:

 

[Heldenzeit]

MMMMMM Mercedes dogleg gearbox.

 

[WrxScooby]

Not as a special historically but here are a few interiors of mine.

316 MotorWorks Rally car

Rally Interior by Scooby Wagon Photography, on Flickr


Rally Inside by Scooby Wagon Photography, on Flickr

My car

Inside HDR by Scooby Wagon Photography, on Flickr


Pioneer Deck by Scooby Wagon Photography, on Flickr



Just for kicks

 

[Kitten]

R34 Skyline Interior

 

[Murcie_LP640]

Honda S2000, in porno red of course:

My car:

DSC_0318 by Murcie_LP640, on Flickr

Complete with crooked floormat.

Lamborghini Reventon:

And one of my favourite "so crazy it's awesome" interiors, the Italdesign/Lamborghini Cala Prototype:

 

[McLaren]

McLaren F1. Driver centered interior, with room for two passengers.

To go with this post.

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

To go with this post.

I love it. Just from seeing a picture, you can sense what it must be like to drive. Explosive power and instant response. Mmmmmm. The front-lit gauges are interesting on an unlimited-budget supercar.

 

[Aquarelle]

I like the interior in the R33 Skyline

Simplistic with everything aimed towards the driver. While you could consider it a fairly generic 90s interior there are little details that set it apart in leaps and bounds to me.

Of course, I'm biased as heck since I own one but it remains the most pleasantly simple cabin I've ever been in - nothing really distracts you from driving as everything is within reach.

My next favourite would be the Z32.. I own one of these too.. yeah I should stop because I'm literally just saying I like cars I own, which of course I do otherwise I wouldn't own the freaking things

 

[ProjectWHaT]

Chevy Volt

Lexus LFA tachometer

Lamborghini Reventon

Lamborghini Aventador tachometer


interior

 

[ilikewaffles11]

I always thought the Volts interior looks like the buttons on a refrigerator door.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

I always thought the Volts interior looks like the buttons on a refrigerator door.

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" -Steve Jobs

 

[AudiMan2011]

I've always quite liked the interior on the Jaguar XFR

 

[Beeblebrox237]

Want to see some of my favourite interiors? Too bad, here they are anyway.

I've always felt that the British and Italians do interiors the best. They're the best at making you feel special. Italian interiors are generally very stylish and sporty, while the British interiors are more luxurious and warm. I like simple interiors, generally with curved and circular details rather than square and boxy designs. A good interior will make you feel comfortable, and will make you feel like you're the most important person in the world. It will always make your day.

Jaguar XJ - It's an interior that makes me actually say "wow" every time I get in one. Not think it, say it. It's incredibly luxurious but sporty at the same time. Everything is perfect except the infotainment system. Wow.

Lamborghini Countach - You're in a crazy car, and the no nonsense interior looks crazy and comfortable at the same time. Restrained and over the top at the same time.

Lamborghini 350GT - No explanation needed.

Ferrari 250GT SWB - Still no explanation needed.

Audi S5 - Audi interiors generally leave me cold, they're attractive but emotionless, which pretty much sums up Audis in general. The S5, for whatever reason, feels a lot more special than most Audi interiors. The design is one of Audi's best and it fits perfectly with the S5's size and character.

Aston Martin DB5 - The only car I've looked into and formulated a way of stealing it from the middle of a crowded exhibition centre. Seriously, you look at it and just want to get in and drive.

Singer 911 - Pure and simple, but the attention to detail is incredible. A perfect interior, simple and elegant, luxurious and beautiful, sporty and focused.

Pagani Zonda - Overwhelming to look at, with the most incredible details. But the basic design is simple, classic, and driver focused. The materials are perfect and the ambiance is Doctor Who meets Rolls Royce.

Pagani Huayra - Oh, you thought the Zonda was over the top? Behold, the Huayra. It's the Zonda taken to another level, even more incredible metalwork and more carbon fibre. I marginally prefer the Zonda for its simpler design, manual gearbox, and elegant airbag-less steering wheel. But look at that gauge cluster, and that shifter. Words cannot describe them.