The Italians are excellent at making great things – from designing stunning homes and handbags, to brewing the perfect cup of coffee. They are also pretty good at automotive design, with their cars taking up most of the posters and dreams of many enthusiasts’ childhoods.
One particular aspect where the Italians have always had the upper hand was with their models’ interiors. From the crummiest of hatchbacks, to the most expensive and exclusive of hypercars, the interiors just looked better than anything the rest of the world was doing. Even today, with the current Alfa Romeo Giulia. Alfa Romeo obviously used the BMW 3-Series’ interior as inspiration, but they made it prettier to look at – even if specced in all black. Then there are the supercars, like the Pagani Huayra and De Tomaso P72 – two of the most gorgeous interiors of any car, ever.
The Italians just know how to design their vehicles to look fantastic – both inside and out. With that, take a look at some of these most stunning interiors in Italian sports cars.
8 Ferrari Roma
The Ferrari Roma is one of the best-looking cars to come out of the Prancing Horse’s design house, featuring elegant yet athletic curves and bulges. While the Roma is simply a re-bodied Portofino, it is so much better in every way.
The interior of the Roma is different from every other Ferrari on sale as it features a swooping center console separating the driver and passenger – much like a smaller version of the one found in the Chevrolet Corvette C8. The infotainment screen is also in a portrait configuration, following what McLaren has done for the last few years.
7 Lamborghini Huracan
The Lamborghini Huracan is nearing the end of its production run, but its interior is still one to ogle at. Featuring much of the same styling as the larger Aventador, the Huracan’s interior is all angles and leather. The engine Start/Stop button is even enclosed under a cover, like in a fighter jet!
Lamborghini updated the Huracan’s interior in the final Huracan Tecnica, replacing the physical buttons on the center console with a touchscreen, but it still keeps the same style and design as the normal model. Let’s hope the Huracan’s successor will have an interior just as striking.
6 Iso Rivolta GT
The Iso Rivolta GT was the Italian company’s flagship model in the 1960s. It was also the first grand tourer the company designed and built, after changing directions from building affordable motorcycles. The Rivolta GT was fitted with a 5.4-liter Chevy 327 V8, which produced around 300 hp.
While the exterior was a gorgeous thing to look at, it was the interior that was the centerpiece. With soft leather seats, a wood inlay running along the whole dashboard, the polished metal switches and gearstick, and the wooden steering wheel, the Rivolta GT was a piece of art.
5 De Tomaso Pantera Si
The De Tomaso Pantera Si was the final hurrah for the Pantera model. Sold between 1990 and 1993, only 41 cars were produced, of which 38 were sold to the public. Two were used for crash testing and one was reserved for the De Tomaso Museum.
The interior of the Pantera Si was much the same as the normal Pantera, but it featured more wood in the dashboard and had a slightly redesigned center console. The best part of the interior though was the gated manual shifter – which was a dog-leg 5-speed no less.
4 Alfa Romeo Disco Volante
The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante is a fabulous car. The original was built in the 1950s as a modified racecar and was essentially a redesigned body, which had been aerodynamically tested in a wind tunnel to be as streamlined as possible. In 2013, the famous Italian coachbuilder, Touring, built a new version based on the already spectacular Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.
The new Disco Volante had a body reminiscent of the original but was modernized and beautiful. The interior also got a slight overhaul so as not to confuse it with the 8C. The steering wheel is a bit more aggressively shaped, and the dashboard could be specified with red accents. All-in-all, the Disco Volante by Touring is one of the most gorgeous cars ever made.
3 Ferrari 250 GT
The Ferrari 250 nameplate is legendary in its own right – mostly thanks to the mighty Colombo V12. Other than the extraordinary manually shaped exterior panels, the interiors are all bespoke and beautiful. The proper grand tourer models, specifically the 250 GT Pinin Farina Coupé, had custom-made interiors according to what the client wanted.
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The 250 GT Pinin Farina Coupé’s interior was relatively simple but was exquisitely designed. Featuring only the needed gauges and radio, the dashboard was minimalist and directed attention to the beautiful wooden Ferrari wheel, with its trademark three spokes. It was genuinely a masterpiece.
2 Pagani Huayra
The Pagani Huayra may only be the second car the Argentinian-Italian automaker has produced, but it had one of the most beautiful modern interiors in the motoring world. Featuring mostly leather, milled aluminum, and carbon fiber, the interior was a blend of the classic design styles mixed with modern manufacturing.
While everything was fantastic to look at – including the seat adjustors which were designed to look like jet engines – the centerpiece of the interior was definitely the gear selector. The Huayra has two ways of controlling the transmission, either via the gorgeous flappy paddles on the steering column or via the center console-mounted gearstick – which has exposed internals to show exactly how the 67 different parts come together to provide the driver with a satisfying mechanical click.
1 De Tomaso P72
The De Tomaso P72 debuted in 2019 and was the first car to be produced by the company since the failed Guarà in 2004. The P72 was designed to pay homage to the De Tomaso P70 race car. The P72 shares its underpinnings with the Apollo Intensa Emozione, but instead of a screaming V12, the P72 is fitted with a supercharged Coyote V8.
The interior of the P72 is styled like old race cars, with only the most important gauges featuring on the dashboard. The rest is swathed in soft leather, carbon fiber, and milled copper trim pieces which give the interior a super-fancy look. The steering wheel is flat-bottomed – again, like a race car – and the gear selector takes the Pagani Huayra approach with its exposed linkages. All-in-all, the De Tomaso P72 is one of the most stunning interiors on an Italian car ever.