Bentley to Ferrari: When Automotive Design Keeps Its Soul

There’s something we saw a while back in the Bentley Continental GTs, and then their other cars, and it surprised even Bentley. They, as everyone else, felt the need for screens in their cars, particularly in the center area with the infotainment-entertainment systems as well as for the handling of the different car functions and settings and so on. And so they did this. But, they’re also extremely well known for the level of quality that goes into their dashboards: they are truly things of beauty.

This was driven home to us as kind of a realization, because we were using one of the older Bentleys in a drive in the Australian Outback and we realized how pleasant it is to not have lights all over the place. Soaring through the black with nothing but dim gauges and yellow-tinged headlights.

Flip through the three-sided drum: one of sides features the more analog faces (above); another, the screen; third, a clean surface with burl wood, like the rest of the interior trims. *Bentley*

Bentley must have realized this, because their answer to that need for beauty without too much intrusion of light was a kind of a three-sided flipping dashboard display unit. This sounds complicated, and mechanically it is, but visually it is very clean.

It would give you three…well, initially it would give you two options. You either had the screen or you had the wonderfully knurled instrumentation for things like the clock and maybe a compass. However, because of the way they had to make things, it was a three-sided rotating drum. And because Bentley is Bentley, they made sure they finished the blank side as perfectly as they did everything else, so it was wonderfully rendered in burled wood to match the rest of the interior.

One side of the rotating display is a “plain” surface, with no screens or clock/compass faces, and blends with the rest of the interior. *Bentley*

Many people, ourselves included, said, “We like the blank face.” And so that became a thing. A wonderful example of combining need and current market, desire, and technology, but still keeping a soul.

Now let’s move this all the way to the recently announced Ferrari Luce interior design package. And let’s look at design in terms of how people best answer technical needs. The Ferrari Luce is Ferrari’s first electric road car. We were at the technical and engineering workshops last year in Maranello, and it is only now that we are able to say that it is actually called the Luce. Last year, we looked at mechanical parts and platforms and production facilities; this time we have a look at the interior.

Precision-engineered buttons, dials, toggles and switches are integrated with multifunction digital displays. *Courtesy of Ferrari*

This is important, because the interior was shaped in many ways by two very iconic designers, Jony Ive and Marc Newson. These are guys that are basically known for Apple iPhones and iconic smooth designs that use all that modern manufacturing processes are able to achieve. They are, in general, much more minimalist than what we now see in automotive interiors.

Look at the photos of the new Ferrari interiors and what you see is this wonderful space of extremely tactile switchgear, including buttons and switches and snaps and clips. But you also see a minimalism that reminds you a lot of older cars. It’s definitely a reinterpretation of the past, this combination. We’ve seen before in a lot of areas, including art and architecture and fashion, but here is the chance to add it into technology and movement, and it’s quite interesting.

This is going into the newest Ferrari, which is also the most groundbreaking model in the sense that it is purely electric. As we said last year at Maranello, it will be a four-door, four-seat, extremely capable but very flexible vehicle. We have yet to be able to say much more about it. So think about how nice this interior is going to be when you do sit in it. If you can.

The new Ferrari Luce will be in many ways exactly what Ferrari says about the vision for all of their cars: “A Ferrari for every Ferraristi.” They’ve kind of created a whole new world, or niche, for this. If you look at the-high revving, turbo-charged V8s and their successors that maximize the use of electrics as hybrids boosting power, you have racetrack vehicles. If you’re looking at big V12s, you’re looking at the more elegant long distance or boulevard cruisers. The new Luce is a completely different vehicle. It will answer completely different needs while still pulling forth an emotion that unites all the worlds.

In many ways, it could be the most heritage-invoking car in terms of giving a modern interpretation of what people may see as a historic Ferrari drive, but it will be surrounded by the most modern of technologies. This isn’t something new. There is a whole range of cars that try to combine old-school look and feel with modern safety and power and comfort: American muscle-car resto-mods, the Porsche-based Singers and RWBs, the classic Aston Martin shapes created by David Brown but with completely new internals. Many people love to drive reinterpretations of vintage cars with modern machinery, because they love all things vintage. But, they really don’t want to sit by the road while one little part breaks on their 60-year-old car.

So, there is no question a demand for this, especially at the price levels at which these vehicles are being and will be sold. And as we are seeing, the Ferrari that everyone thought wouldn’t exist, which is the Purosangue, is in fact now the one that you can’t get.

All of this points to the fact that these brands, whether they are Bentley or Ferrari or Porsche or Patek PhilippePatek PhilippeA Swiss watchmaker founded in Geneva in 1839 and widely regarded as among the most prestigious in the world, known for complications, hand finishing, and its slogan about passing watchesGo to Patek Philippe Glossary, understand that at their core, they really are who they are. And at their core, that is what people will want. There may be different interpretations as the world has changes, but it is always the core passion that will draw people.