2009 Bugatti 16 C Galibier Twittique – A quick design review
High expectations are reached on this Bugatti 16 C Galibier. Unique features like the crease along the roof that ‘themes’ off into a feature on the interior as the rear vision mirror, and as a spinal brake light along the rear backlight. From what I can see the bonnet opens as an old-style cabinet (not that you would use it if you owned one!)
Although initially thinking it would be cheesy, this car does pull off the intense chrome affect. It’s only applied to the clean surfaces so it doesn’t look messy and complicated. This way, the purity in the surfaces can be fully appreciated in such a sensitive finish.
The front and rear ends tell the story of the overall design language of the Bugatti, a clean and simple refined style, with lines that have been struck over the surfaces. This clean style is followed up in the interior, which provides a great platform to accentuate the natural qualities of the timber that is unsurprisingly framed with chrome.
Refined details - pinched crease that creates a spine from front to rear
Simple: chrome surfaces and lines struck across the rear
Same themes from the outside are portrayed inside.
I was curious, in a previous post I asked you about interior design. Here we have a half million dollar vehicle that’s as complex as anything on the road and it appears to have 5 gauges, an LCD screen an almost no buttons. Contrast this to your average Acura which has 25 buttons or switches and a half dozen gauges or BMW’s initial justification for the universally disdained iDrive that the number of buttons and gauges were growing geometrically. What’s your opinion? Is contrived complexity a design element?
To an extent I think that is possible! It does give the illusion that you are getting more ‘features’ if there were more buttons. For your current car, once you get to know all the buttons, I guess there is a feeling that there is ‘less’ than what you may have initially thought. In the instance of the Bugatti, the clean minimal feeling that is created (with a small amount of dials/gadgets) is where the technology comes into play. Technology that is hidden and only someone who knows the vehicle intimately will know how to work it… perhaps a more personal ‘relationship’ is then developed with the vehicle. In terms of style I think the clean inside reinforces that you are driving a vehicle that is equally the same on the outside.
I like the simplicity of the interior. It allows the drive to focus on the driving experience and not so much on managing the interior functions. I would like to see a voice activation system like Ford’s SYNC if it doesn’t have one already.
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