by Mike Gulett –
The interior is where we spend most of the time with our cars. It is also where most of us have the majority of our car tactile experience.
The materials are important – metal, real leather, high quality plastic and real wood should be used rather than cheap plastic, fake leather and fake wood.
We use the steering wheel to guide the car and the gear shifter to select the proper gear which means they both get handled a lot and thus should be comforting to the touch.
We spend a lot of time looking at the dashboard, or at least in the general direction of the dashboard. A well designed dashboard with easy to read gauges and a pleasing appearance is essential.
As the driver we do not get the pleasure of watching our beautiful cars drive by (because we are driving) but we do see quite a bit of the interior don’t we?
Yet most of the car photos published are of the exterior of the car and we tend to use the appearance of the exterior to make our judgments about beauty and style.
Today I will try and tip the scales a little in the direction of car interior photos by sharing several interior photos by Bruce Caron from the recent Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance.
Some are old cars, some are new and a couple are race cars.
See if you can guess what they are.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Update – see the Comment from Wallace Wyss in the Comment section – his photos are below.
Facel Vega
Bentley SC Continental
Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 Concept
Your lead car image is my favorite. The chrome roll bar, bright red interior and incredible dash create a wonderful visual.
That is an early Spyker – you can tell it is an early model because of the steering wheel shaped like an airplane propeller.
Great idea for a blog post. I see a coffee table book in the future.
OK you got me started, Mike. Here’s three of my favorites:
Facel Vega , with the many gauges, and the wood background
though of course the wood was “simulated.” I like the levers that look
like each controls an engine in a six engine bomber, “lets throttle back on Number five engine, Pierre.”
-The Bentley SC interior also had the gauges on a central console
making you feel that only you knew what they all meant
-The Bentley EXP Speed 10 concept car interior is almost too glitzy but they’ve got that diamond pattern down pretty well now. Now that the head Bentley designer went to a Korean firm, will we see Korean cars with this kind of Interior?
OK, your photos are posted as an Update at the end on this post.
Great interior choices!
Mike, excellent article and great contributions by Wallace. In the article, what are pix 1-4? I’m thinking that #1 is a 70s-early 80s Aston Martin V8 with its Blaupunkt radio on a stick while #4 is perhaps a Lamborghini Urraco. Correct me if I’m wrong. What are #2 & #3?
Miguel,
Good guess – No. 1 is a 1977 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe, No. 4 is a 1971 Lamborghini Espada.
Sorry, I do not know what No. 2 & 3 are – but they are beautiful.
Thanks Mike. Yes they are.
And I would also suggest my 1974 Lotus Elan +2s 130/5. Its as close as I can get to an Aston! The dash just “burls” me away!
Cool car and great interior.