The coolest dashboard designs ever put in a car

Citroën has never been especially interested in doing things the ordinary way, and the CX dashboard is a lovely example of that mindset in full flow.

Instead of conventional stalks behind the wheel, the CX placed its secondary controls in sculpted pods close to the driver’s hands. Lights, indicators, wipers and horn could all be operated without taking your hands far from the wheel, which was both genuinely clever and extremely disorientating the first time you tried it.

Then there was the rotating drum speedometer, with numbers rolling past rather than a needle sweeping round a dial. It looked fantastic, like a small mechanical scoreboard for people who found normal instruments disappointingly sensible.

Very French. Very Citroën. Very much not the sort of thing you’d want to explain to a valet.

The Aston Martin Lagonda is proof that being ahead of your time can be both impressive and deeply inconvenient.

William Towns gave the car its famous razor-edged exterior, but the cabin was just as ambitious. Early cars had a digital dashboard and touch-sensitive controls at a time when most luxury cars were still perfectly happy with walnut veneer, round dials and switches that went “click” in a reassuringly expensive way.

The result looked extraordinary. It also developed a reputation for being, shall we say, emotionally complex.

The electronics were spectacular when they worked and rather less charming when they didn’t, especially if you were the person paying to make them behave again. Still, the Lagonda deserves credit. It imagined the future of luxury car interiors long before everyone else decided dashboards should become branch offices of Currys.

Some dashboard ideas are unusual. The Maserati Boomerang’s is slightly unhinged.

Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Boomerang put the instruments inside a circular pod, with the steering wheel arranged around them. The gauges stayed in the centre while the wheel rim rotated, creating something that looked less like a car interior and more like a control station for a small, stylish spacecraft.

Was it practical? That feels like the wrong question.

The Boomerang was a concept car, and concept cars are allowed to behave like this. They exist partly so designers can try ideas that would make production engineers quietly leave the room. As pieces of theatre go, this was sensational.

The Lamborghini Marzal is usually remembered for its huge glass gullwing doors, which gave the outside world an excellent view of your trousers. But inside, Marcello Gandini was having just as much fun.

The cabin used a repeated hexagon motif across the dashboard, seats, centre console and detailing. It wasn’t a small decorative flourish. It was a full commitment. The sort of commitment that makes you wonder whether someone at Bertone had just discovered geometry and decided everyone needed to know.

The Marzal’s interior worked because it felt like one complete idea. Slightly mad, yes, but coherent. And if you’re going to build a concept Lamborghini with enormous glazed doors, you may as well make sure there’s something worth looking at inside.

The Lancia Beta Trevi dashboard is one of those designs that divides people almost perfectly.

Some see a bold piece of industrial design. Others see a wall of holes and wonder if Lancia had accidentally hired someone from a colander factory.

That someone was Mario Bellini, an architect and industrial designer who approached the Trevi’s interior less like a normal car dashboard and more like a sculptural object. The result was a panel filled with circular recesses, giving it the famous “Swiss cheese” nickname.

It’s not conventionally pretty, but it is unforgettable. And frankly, that counts for quite a lot when so many dashboards from the period looked like variations on the same plastic shelf.

The Fiat Coupé deserves a mention because its dashboard did something wonderfully simple.

Instead of filling the cabin with fake luxury, Fiat ran a painted body-colour strip across the dashboard. It was a small detail, but it tied the interior to the exterior beautifully and gave the whole car a proper sense of personality.

It helped that the car itself was already a bit of a visual event, with Chris Bangle’s slashed exterior lines and Pininfarina’s interior work giving it more character than most affordable coupes had any right to possess.

It was proof that a cool dashboard didn’t need to be digital, bizarre or ruinously expensive. Sometimes one strong idea is enough.