Supercars, these days, are boring. They are! They all follow a pretty standard formula, at least where the people sit. Lots of carbon fiber, switches out of a spaceship, and the sort of quiet desperation that screams “I have money, please love me.” There’s nothing funky or weird or genuinely cool, at least not in the way that David Bowie would think is genuinely cool. But maybe these plaid seats are it.
These plaid seats belong to the Pagani Zonda HP Barchetta, a car that was made for Horacio Pagani himself and to his own discerning specifications, and at the so-expensive-this-number-must-be-made-up price of $17,500,000, one that was once lauded as the most expensive car in the world. Parked last week in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, its blue carbon fiber weave stuck out even among the three other Zondas just sitting there.
“Plaid” may have a reputation for cheapness, simply because in most people’s minds it now has an association with the original cheap-and-fun Volkswagen Golf GTI, but it wasn’t always like that. If we just accept it for the timeless fabric pattern that it is, we can appreciate it, just like Horacio himself does, for its appearance on things like Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196.
But forget the Fangio connection. Let’s just appreciate the plaid!
Plaid: it looks good. And cool. Give more supercars plaid.