Design Influences

In July 1971 the SD1 had reached the full-scale model stage with a huge amount of Italian Farina and Michelotti style influences mainly the Ferrari Daytona, management viewed the project. They were very impressed with the designs that were being shown. It was at this point that the styling was yet to be finalised by Bache, but the board gave the SD1 the green light for production on the strength of what they had seen so far.

When speaking in an interview with Car magazine in 1982, Bache actually cited the Ferrari 250LM and 365GTB/4 Daytona as the major influences on the SD1 - and this can certainly be seen in the style around the front end of the car; the headlights and indicators are practically a copy of the classic Ferrari's. Another feature that the SD1 shared with the Daytona was its side swage lines, which managed to add practical as well as aesthetic benefits to the SD1: dirt kicked up from the road was caught in the side creases and the upper flanks would therefore remain relatively clean – there would be no mucky hands when pulling the door handles of the SD1!

With the exterior styling of the SD1 settled, Bache worked on the interior, which like the body styling was also a complete departure from the P6. He moved to a more "industrial" design, forgoing the wood and leather ambience of the P6 in favour of an almost stark, Germanic style. The dashboard and steering wheel were textured from soft-feel plastics, a move which in itself was ahead of its time. The design of the dashboard was cleverly made symmetrical in order to facilitate the assembly of both left- and right-hand drive cars.

Throughout the interior, clever touches abounded: fully-adjustable steering column, ample small storage areas including nifty under-dashboard lockers, folding rear seats, a removable parcel shelf and internally adjustable door mirrors, to name but a few of these features. All taken for granted in this day and age, but back in 1976, a great leap forward in interior ergonomics. Bache reasoned that he could make a feature out of the fact that the instrument cluster was a unit incorporated as part of this symmetrical dashboard. It wasn't styled, as such, but was simply designed as a box with instruments in it, parked on top of the dashboard in front of the driver.