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What's your all time favorite cockpit design for a production sports car?
- Thread starter myhui
- Start date
can't say i've ever been in a fighter jet, so i can't say i prefer it or not... but while the NSX is nice, there is just not enough headroom for me to fit a helmet in there... and you kind of want that in a ideal sports car.
f430 is the best interior. its easy to get in and out of, its roomy, seats are comfy and supportive, big yellow tach right in the middle, big paddle shifters... turn signals, lights, wiper swtich, etc. where they are supposed to be.
f430 is the best interior. its easy to get in and out of, its roomy, seats are comfy and supportive, big yellow tach right in the middle, big paddle shifters... turn signals, lights, wiper swtich, etc. where they are supposed to be.
Post #54 of the "Which car(s), if any, look better than the Nsx?" thread dissed Lotus Esprit interiors. I loved versions of that car as a kid and felt compelled to look up photos even if it might crush memories of drawing car pictures and talking about cars we'd own one day back in junior high library period in the 80's. This picture sent chills down my spine. Is the center arm rest made of armadillo hide and is the radio just lying on the console?
LINK
But this one looks a little bit of alright! Or actually a lot of alright!
LINK
I forgot or never realized how reasonable the cockpits became later in the 90's after new owners got involved. Seems like a short shifter would be welcome and I'd personally prefer all-black to the Steelers color scheme but I think this cockpit looks pretty good even today.
Unrelated: found this Esprit buyer's drive-home story while looking for pictures. Kinda entertaining. Watch the pulch video link. Great accents, lol.
LINKBut this one looks a little bit of alright! Or actually a lot of alright!
LINKI forgot or never realized how reasonable the cockpits became later in the 90's after new owners got involved. Seems like a short shifter would be welcome and I'd personally prefer all-black to the Steelers color scheme but I think this cockpit looks pretty good even today.
Unrelated: found this Esprit buyer's drive-home story while looking for pictures. Kinda entertaining. Watch the pulch video link. Great accents, lol.
D-Type
Hi,
Not a production, but one that i always remember: 1985 Concept Nissan CUE-X
the NSX is my favorite, due to it's clean simplicity and extreme funcionality.
Nuno
Not a production, but one that i always remember: 1985 Concept Nissan CUE-X
the NSX is my favorite, due to it's clean simplicity and extreme funcionality.
Nuno
McLaren F1
I always thought the RX7 FD cockpit looked great.
viper styling cues came from the FD.
MacLarin MP4 12C, almost any Aston Martin and NSX.
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This needs a bump. Unless all the "best" cockpit designs have already been created (which is something I too often think may be the case...)
S2000. /thread
Seriously, everything is within fingertip reach while driving. Digital dash FTW. Just a tiny, short reach to the perfect manual shifter. Love it.
Seriously, everything is within fingertip reach while driving. Digital dash FTW. Just a tiny, short reach to the perfect manual shifter. Love it.
Hands down the P1 gtr cockpit....
NSX and E36 M3. And McLaren F1, though I only sat in one for a few minutes so I couldn't appreciate everything (classmate's father had one).
NSX is so simple and well laid out. So is the E36 (like other older BMWs), and I liked how everything was slanted towards the driver.
NSX is so simple and well laid out. So is the E36 (like other older BMWs), and I liked how everything was slanted towards the driver.
I would love to hear more about the experience of getting into it and then sitting in it. As far as getting into the seat: was it rather cumbersome? Did you come in from the left side, and did it require any awkward reaches or balancing? If you can remember as well as look past any excitement of the moment, are you able to look back and think "I'd really not want to do that more than 1x a day..." or was it that easy?
Getting in from the left side doesn't look like it'd be as casual an affair as the NSX, which only requires good knees and the smarts to know about not rubbing the bolster. But if sliding into & out of the NSX wasn't the painless affair it is, like if the NSX had a huge sill to slide over like some lambo's and/or if getting in required coming in from the passenger side or say through the window, I can't help but think I'd not consider it my favorite cockpit feel.
Now as for sitting in it, how did that feel, and do you recall noticing anything in particular similar/different/same or worse/better than our NSX? I'm always interested in hearing others' impressions about what it feels like to sit in and/or drive a car, and how comfy or claustrophobic you feel. There are some where you instantly feel at home and just crave to go for a spin, while there are others that honestly make me kind of shocked like this was allowed to be put out when there are so many examples of what a good cockpit feel should be, even with today's rigid safety standards and awful high beltlines and claustrophobic-close dashboards. First time I sat in a Ford GT (it was a beat up test mule) I recall a big bubble burst, as it felt so claustrophobic and tank-like. I'd love a 2nd chance with a finished product. Similar for most lambo's I've sat in. Sitting in a C5 makes me feel like I'm in a 5,000 pound car....sitting in most any Audi TT feels like "home," as most Miatas I've sat in. Porsche Caymans feel 85-90% as good as sitting in an NSX to me, even with my Honda/NSX bias put aside. My 2002 Honda Accord and 2006 BMW ZHP 3-series felt pretty near-perfect for what they were too. Driving my friend's new Toyota Camry felt awful, and driving my other friend's 90's Firebird/TransAM was something I'd rather not do ever again - similar to the C5 but with even worse low-raked windshield and a dashboard surface that went on forever, I had no idea where the hood or front of the car was. Piloting my '93 Probe GT and '91 300ZX were 90-95% of what the NSX feels like, all power/handling considerations aside.
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I do remember it was quite cumbersome getting in the car. I got in from the left side. Definitely not something I'd want for a daily. Then again, I'm someone who finds getting into a Tesla Roadster and a Lotus Elise difficult.
But once in and seated, it felt "right". Really cool sitting in the middle. I think I was most surprised that it had a radio, haha. Keep in mind I was just a dumb high school kid who didn't know much about the car except it was rare and really expensive.
Ok! Here I was hoping it was somebody you kept in touch with from school, and his dad was Warren Buffet.
Jaguar XKE series 1
This is a very interesting thread to me because I've always really valued the feel of a car's seats, controls, visibility, IP, etc. much more than blindly looking for who had the fastest 0-60 times, and I've always rated the NSX as having one of the best cockpits. In fact really I've had a hard time warming up to any current offerings other than BMW E46's, Caymans, and R8's because I don't much care for modern design's preferences in cockpit design with some way overly thought-out interiors/IP's as well as claustrophobicly high cowl heights, thick A-pillars, and gunslit windows. In the 90's as a new Ford engineer, the NSX and 300ZX were my two favorite cars but even used ones were still way outside of my budget so I settled on a 1993 Probe GT and was so surprised how similar the NSX, 300ZX, and Probe GT's cockpits felt. The Probe GT and NSX both had that prominent "ring" design feature where the dashboard meets the windshield,and the 300ZX & NSX both shared the control pods idea within a finger reach of the steering wheel.
Anyway, those are my 3 favorites. I've already owned and sold two. One more to go (and keep this time)!!
Probe GT:
300ZX:
I have always thought the 300ZX's interior was fantastic for its day and very similar to the twin-pod NSX with the ramp up center console.
In a similar way, the Porsche 928 dash is a wonderful design.
The new NSX is pretty sweet too as well as the latest Porsche interiors are pretty nice and tend toward the twin pod design with a ramped center console.
I do not like interiors that have a separation between the center console and the dash like the 458/488 and so many others.
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I'd tend to agree but wonder if there's a functional reason for this...
The last post before yours was 2 years ago?
Wow I miss the days Prime was the first and last site I checked out daily, and good threads like this lived on weekly if not daily for long stretches!
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