It takes a Danish-based company to actually get the concept of a sports car right, would think that other car manufacturer’s from all over world would know how to make, granted they’ve done it before. But so far, the big boys have been missing the point entirely.  Yes there’s a recession going but sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics.  No fancy schmancy fluff like them floating seats, hackneyed design concepts or lame attempts at reinventing the wheel.  You see, sports cars are made to be fast, mean-looking and a joy to drive.  Really, how hard is that? You can make an argument about the car’s specs and whatnot, but really automobile business, at the end of the day, if you get the last two right, your consumer couldn’t care less if his/her ride is half a second slower than the competition. So kudos to Zenvo and it’s ST1 so far for simply going with what seems to be  a classic, no frills, kickass sports car.

[Source: Car Body Design]

There’s something to be said about intuitive and ground breaking design, and there’s also a lot tha can be said about design that’s just nice to look at.  Successful cars usually fall on either one of these categories, but it is the select few, the classics that somehow capture the essence of both design philosophies.   There many people who claim they can tell you, exactly which and what cars can do this, and even come up with awards for them.  With that in mind, does it really give a car manufacturer the excuse to put a $1.75 Million (or £1.2 million) price tag on your little snowflake?  Aston Martin seems to believe that yes, it sure does.

The Aston Martin One-77 debuts in Concorso d'Eleganza, Villa d'Este, Gaydon, Warwickshire

The Aston Martin One-77 was unveiled to the public simultaneous to its winning the Concorso d’Eleganza design award in Warwickshire, England, which we didn’t even know existed.  Probably a society thing in the UK. If that’s not high brow enough for you, it was held in the Villa d’Este, which is probably one of them fancy British hotels that we will never ever visit in this lifetime.  A quick look at this supercar concept will probably give you an idea as to why that just happened.

Nice sleek design and... stitches!? Must be going for the "hand-made" look

There’s really little that can be said about the exterior, and no, it’s not because this blog is only interested in the interiors, but come on look at it, it looks great and sporty.  A supercar that doesn’t even have those two prerequisites has auto fail on it.  Moving on however, the interior is really a little conundrum in a sense that we like it.  Monochrome pallete, leather all around, nice little metal here and there, a futuristic-looking center console which seems to be all the rage nowadays. But the stitches… while exuding that “hand-made” feel just looks a bit… tacky. It might be possible that the finished product will look different, but we’re not really keen on getting rid of the stitches just yet, executed properly it we feel it could give a lot more character than say… adding overpriced crystals on the damn thing.

Oooh... what does this button do?

Overall, the insides of the Aston Martin One-77 does look like the bastard child of luxury car (say, a Rolls Royce) and a sports car (say a Ferrari) but it works. Much can be improved on the seating design, but you have to give props to Aston Martin for at least trying to not use generic black leather seating in this one.  The details as to what else can be found inside this award-winning concept are scarce, so until then, we’ll reserve judgment on whether or not it really is worth the hefty $1.75 million.

The One-77's Interior is confused little thing, but it's lovely

[Source: Jalopnik]

While the Volvo S60 concept’s interior was more or less, classified as bordering exorbitant, these new shots of the S60 does show a bit of improvement.   While some may argue that the additional touches are more on extravagance than functionality, they certainly shows more promise than what was previously reported.

If one can get past the glass roof which will probably never make it to production due to criticism it’s going to get from motoring press or the gliding doors, the interior remains close to the design direction of the S60 which is based on Scandinavian ethos, whatever the hell that means.

Inside, the most noticeable piece would be the Orrefors crystal-made center console, making it look like its floating.  Another neat addition is the 3D spiral speedometer, which has the displayed numbers going further away as speed increases, giving a degree of immersion. What is not easily visible is the leather seats with center armrests, which are actually attached to the center console instead of the floor to make the illusion of hovering seats.  No word yet on what kind of bonus such a setup would give other than mere novelty, but details might come up once the concept is finalized and Volvo actually outs a working model.

In addition, it seems the S60 has done away with the all-white palette for the interior, and honestly, it seems like a very welcome development.

[Source: Car and Driver]