Tuatara Interior v1.1

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

This is my Tuatura interior submission. I decided to take a different approach as was my original plan. Originally, I wanted to make a futuristic interior with lots of “out of this world” features and details, but after a couple of days working on it, I realized something: This could be a real interior in a real car. So I changed my direction and came up with this.
The reason for the change is because I wanted to make an interior that the actual buyer would enjoy. So to do that, you have to ask yourself, who will be the person who buys this car? Since this will be the Hypercar of all Hypercars, I would imagine it will be pretty pricey. So the buyer will be a person, man probably, of significant means and disposable income. Probably around 50 years old, just sold his business he’s been building for the last 30 years for $50 million plus, and is ready to retire and have fun. Or, he’s still building his empire, but has some down time for playing with his toys. I’m thinking guys like Paul Allen, Simon Cowell, David Letterman, or Tom Cruise.
Now I’ve sat in a Hypercar or two. I used to live near Greenwich, Connecticut where you can buy just about any exotic car you want. In the local dealer they have a Bugatti Veyron available, and I was surprised to see that such an exotic car had a seemingly luxurious interior. The same went for the Pagani Zonda. Even Lamborghini has moved towards a more supple and luxurious look to their interiors than the past, and I believe that this is happening because of complaints from their customers about shoddy and gimmicky interiors of the past. I remember watching a European auto show where they refused to give the original Shelby Supercar it’s just due because they thought the car “looked” like a kit car. The Tuatara needs to look breathtaking on the outside, but luxurious and functional on the inside. (That being said, I sure wish this challenge was a couple weeks longer so I could make a futuristic version as well…)
So, I’ve tried to create an interior that someone of means would enjoy being in. The “cloth” portion of the interior is all leather and suede of the highest quality. The main body of the steering wheel, center section of the dash, shifter plate, and various pieces and parts are titanium. The buttons and accents are all plated in nickel or gold. I think nickel looks better than chrome, and gives the car more class. There is zero plastic in this design with the exception of the carbon fiber parts and instrument faces. Plastic is cheap, and this car needs to look as expensive on the inside as it does on the outside.
I’ve put in a touch screen “command center” that doesn’t show itself until the driver turns the car on. Unfortunately, the animation done by Solidworks has some issues with my screen picture when it produced the animation, but you can get the picture of what I was after. When power is on, it rotates out of the dash (see animation). The command center is tilted towards the driver for easier access. The command center would have controls for the stereo, car setup, gauges, etc.
The HUD also rotates into position, controlled by the driver via the steering wheel or command center. It would have fully customizable displays configured with the command center.
The air vents on each side of the main instrument cluster are designed to work like the Dyson fans you see in Bed Bath and Beyond.
The steering wheel has much of the controls needed for the driver to control the car without their hands leaving the wheel. I have paddle shifters behind the wheel, and would have loved to delete the stick shift all together, however the challenge asked for a double H shifter, and I’ve included one. If we could delete the stick, I’d replace it with a “mouse type” controller for the command center. The car is started by a two step process. The driver scans his thumb on the thumb scanner located on the bottom spoke of the steering wheel. He then lifts the switch guard over the starter switch on the console, and presses the red start button.
The console has toggle switches for various normal controls such as headlights, hazards, etc. Next to the starter button assembly is a compartment where you can plug in your iPod, cell phone, computer, or whatever other digital device you can think of. The console has four side switches on each side that are custom configured to do certain tasks programmed with the control center, though primarily for climate control. There is also a button cluster behind the shifter to open the power windows and adjust the exterior mirrors. The shifter itself has an imbedded LED display that will indicate what gear the car is in. Of utmost importance to me, the console has an arm rest on it. I hate driving a car with no armrest. Opening the lid will reveal the CD/DVD player (DVDs can be played on the command center screen if you are in the mood to crash your car by not watching the road…).
The seats were designed to be as comfortable as possible. I hate hard seats, and so would a middle aged millionaire. I decided to use the little ledge in the Tuatara’s interior tub to allow for a telescoping headrest. I have never understood headrests on car seats- they don’t do anything unless you lean your head back into them. If you do that, you can't see the road, and you crash. My design has the headrest moving forward and backwards instead of up and down. This way you can move the rest forward to and actually lean your head against it.
I wish we had more time to work on these. I’d like to add some things, change some things, etc. My gauge cluster isn’t finished yet, but I’m pretty busy these next two days, and figured I’d better upload what I have now. Thanks to SSC and GrabCad for such an excellent challenge. I wish Jerod all the best with his car. If I manage to hit the lottery, I’ll be knocking on your doorstep next year in search for some keys- or the password to install my thumbprint.. lol