SSC Tuatara: interior preview

Shelby SuperCars has unveiled the interior of its upcoming Tuatara supercar. Among the features are the aerospace inspired design and the distinctive hole patterns.

Designed by Jason Castriota, the Tuatara is a supercar expected to be built in limited series within the next 2 years.

The interior design of the V8-powered sportscar features a design strongly influenced by the exterior aesthetics as well as by the aerospace world.

Among the distinctive details are the instruments, consisting of glass screens lit up by Pico projectors behind – similarly to HUD displays – and complemented by small displays on the sides, showing additional infos such as the current gear.

Two small auxiliary screens are dedicated to the car passenger with the goal of providing a co-pilot-like experience.

The center tunnel is dominated by the large touch display, combined with additional circular controls and buttons.

The same circular theme is adopted on the hole pattern design – also present on the exterior body panels – which is visible on the center console, door panels, along the base of the windshield where it serves as the defrost vents and along the rear console positioned between the seats.

Below we report additional details from the official SSC’s release.

Just on the left side of the central console is the red “START” button, which when pressed initiates a clockwise-motion lighting sequence on the red lights located around the start button. The engine turns on immediately when all the red lights have illuminated.

Large woofers are located in the lower portion of the door panel design as part of the Tuatara’s premium sound package.

Displayed in this interior fly-through are both the 7-Speed H-Pattern manual gear shift, as well as the steering column mounted 7-Speed paddle shift available as an option on the Tuatara.

The central AC vents are inspired by the Tuatara’s twin central exhausts. The side AC vents are inspired by the 4 rocket exhaust design found on the Space Shuttles.

Optional Interior colors will consist of a 2-tone appearance accented in exposed carbon fiber and elegant touches of metal.

The door pulls of the Tuatara are meant to resemble the styling of the flying buttresses from the rear sides of the car’s exterior.

(Source: SSC)

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2013 Dodge Small Car Spy Photos: This Time We Get a Peek at the Interior

CHRIS DOANE AUTOMOTIVE, KGP PHOTOGRAPHY, AND THE MANUFACTURER

We’ve reported numerous times about Dodge’s highly anticipated replacement for the unloved Caliber. We knew it will be built upon a stretched and widened version of Fiat’s compact-car platform and wear a rakish sedan body. Power should come from a turbocharged version of Fiat’s 1.4-liter four-cylinder, and a reworked version of the Caliber’s current 2.0-liter remains a possibility. (For more powertrain info, head over to this story.)

The last time we saw the car, we got a good look at its front end—albeit sans headlamps—capturing a seemingly production-ready nose complete with crosshair grille. This time, the schnoz is well and truly camo’d, but the headlamps are partially visible through the disguise, and they appear to be less-complicated versions of the Charger’s squared-off units.

With the body covered in the squiggle pattern now common on prowling prototypes, the Alfa-esque body contours are less discernible than before. But we now have a look at the rear end, which features taillamps that stretch onto the trunk, although they don’t appear to span the width of the car, à la Charger. (Wouldn’t that be cool, though?)

We’re also getting our first glimpse of the dashboard through the passenger window, and it appears that Dodge’s little one will be more stylized without losing the brand’s decidedly American flavor. The center-stack controls are rendered in shapes that recall those of the aluminum-trimmed Charger, while the arching binnacle appears to be padded and covered in stitched-look vinyl—a huge leap from the Fisher Price–grade environs of the Caliber.

We still don’t know what Dodge will call its small car, which should appear early next year as a 2013 model, but we’ll again mention that it’s not likely to be named Hornet. That said, given Dodge’s penchant for insects that sting (see the recently announced Charger Super Bee and Challenger Yellow Jacket), who knows—maybe they’ll apply it to a future special edition?

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2013 Audi A3 Interior Spied, Looks Similar to the Concept’s

Prototypes of the upcoming Audi A3 have been running around for a few months now—we posted some spy photos a while back—so why run pictures of what might be the exact same car again? Because this time, our spies were able to peek inside.

The interior appears more upscale than that of the outgoing A3, if not quite as avant-garde as the guts of the A3 concept that debuted to much fanfare at the Geneva auto show in March. Significantly, the A3 seen here features a new-school MMI infotainment system with a flip-up display screen above prominent, turbine-style air vents. In the A6, A7, and A8, there’s a touchpad next to the MMI controller on which drivers can scrawl characters with a fingertip as a means of entering information into the navigation system. In the A3 concept—and in the prototype seen here, we’re guessing—that touchpad resides on top of the MMI knob itself.

As for the exterior, the pictures we ran back in August actually show more than these, since this three-door is wearing a coat of aneurysm-inducing squiggles instead of the more-revealing matte black of that last prototype. Both put most of the headlights on display, but obscure other key stylistic elements such as Audi’s signature grille frame and the LED taillights.

Just as with the current car, we are more or less guaranteed to not get the A3 as a three-door in the U.S., although we will be able to buy it in sedan and five-door hatchback forms. The latter will almost certainly be a virtual clone of the three-door, but with an extra cutline on either side. You can find a rundown of what we expect to see under the hood, including diesel and S-grade motors, by reading our previous story here.

Of the various body styles, the three-door is expected to appear first, with a European debut in 2012. Sedan and five-door models will follow in 2013. We’ll see the first next-gen A3s on our shores then, likely starting in the low-$30k range.

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