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Home> Design Reviews> Audi quattro concept

Interior Focus: Audi quattro concept

Monnerjan is full of praise for the coachbuilding skills of Italdesign, adding that "they learned a lot from us about Audi quality, and about materials and fitting, and touch and feel; and also through our fast process with CAD volume, checking it with this detail work that's something they'd never done before." The evolution of the IP has seen the overall shape and feel of the interior change over the concept's life, "The original dashboard theme from two years ago also had this cockpit feel, but included the center display that you see in all our production cars and therefore looked much bigger," reveals Monnerjan. "We took it out the interior became much more reduced in this second design phase." As in the A8, the lower console is visually separated from the IP. "This is really the archictural philosophy of all Audi interiors to come: the dash is horizontal and lightweight, almost floating, and the tunnel appears to be connected but shoots through and drives under the dashboard. The horizontal orientation is extremely important," adds Monnerjan.
Carbon 'blade' dominates luggage area of the quattro

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Photo Gallery

Rich combination of Italian leather and exposed carbon fiber fill cars interior. Click for larger images

Sketches show the MMI development as well as the drivetrain options

Development team working on the construction of the quattro concept

"When we looked back at the 80s Urquattro we saw that it had a very driverorientated cockpit with the switches beside the binnacle and a digital combi, which was really a new thing at that time," says Monnerjan. "It fits perfectly with the interior design philosophy of Audi today: driver-oriented, very compact, and simple to use. So for the concept we simply interpreted this in a modern way." The instrument cluster is fully digital, and the driver can choose between two display modes: Everyday, in which the screen depicts a traditional, circular revcounter/digital speedometer next to the navigation and media functions; and Race, whose graphic treatment harks back to the digital instruments of the Urquattro and gives navigational instructions in the style of a rally copilot. The binnacle itself is finished in aluminum and is unusually shaped, almost like a visor. "The idea was to create a sphere in front of the driver to get this 3D, wraparound character," explains Flatau. Framing the cluster and running either side of the binnacle, are the four flat buttons that are also a direct reference to the original car. The

This overhead sketch by Flatau is from the end of a four-week sketching and CAD phase.

The driver can choose between two display modes in the digital instument cluster: Everyday (left) and Race (right)

Fully digital binnacle is another nod toward the original Ur-quattro

The use of a turbocharged 5 cylinder engine meant a DSG transmission was not available, so the concept utilizes a manual gearbox

Rear luggage area's carbon blade is echoed in the air vent details

http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/home/design_reviews/display/store4/item213427/[18-07-2012 15:05:59]

Audi quattro concept - Car Design News ones on the left control the stopwatch functions in Race, the ones on the right the navigation and media in Everyday mode. Moving away from the upper IP, we find the car sports four-point harnesses attach to a blade-shaped crossbeam in the rear. "We had an original Sport quattro in the studio. I looked at this blade that the harnesses ran from through the seats and said 'wow'. It's a small detail, but for me it's one of the strongest parts of its DNA," says Flatau.

Redesigned IP and door panel design showing combination of the two contrasting materials

Sketch showing the four point harness and rear blade detail

Four flat buttons on the sides of the binnacle are also a direct reference to the original car

"In the air vent you see this carbon blade breaking out, as if the leather is stretched on top of this wing-shaped bone in the IP structure," says Flatau. The 30th Anniversary quattro racing shoe was "This is designed to communicate the also designed by the Concept Design studio in Munich central theme of light weight inside the concept, and was inspired by the original car which had this horizontal line between the air vents on the dashboard. But we made one surface volume out of it to make it feel more modern, less boxy. There's more refinement and tension to the surfaces." The inclusion of the MMI controller on the center tunnel is also to be noted. A reduced version of the one fitted in the A8, it allows the driver to pinpoint different areas of the navigational maps and scroll through the media menus using the tip of a finger. Significantly, the serial plate behind it on the console says '001'. "Wolfang [Egger] wanted to have the plate there to make a strong statement that this is not a show car, that it's really a prototype," says Monnejan, before adding, "This is number one of something..."

'001' designation suggests the quattro is more than a concept...

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