In the speedometer community, it’s generally accepted that American cars from the 1980s represent a sort of low ebb. That’s because in 1979 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updated the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 127, Speedometers and Odometers, to mandate that speedometers only have a maximum speed of 85 mph and must have 55 mph notated on the dial. As a result, all cars were required to have 85 mph-max speedos, even if they were capable of far more speed.
For most cars, this meant some pretty boring and uninspiring speedometers, especially in sports and muscle cars, where the speedo serves two important functions: one, to indicate current speed (duh), and two, to inspire and excite, to ignite dreams of irresponsibility and illegality with simple digits on the speedometer dial, promising dazzling speeds of 120, 140, 160, even if those will never, ever actually be reached. They’re just there to make life feel more exciting.
The 85 mph rule only officially lasted until 1981 or 1982, but the 85 mph speedos stuck around on many cars for a good bit longer. This is also why in the movie Back to the Future the production team had to rig up a digital speedo so they could show the all-important speed of 88 mph, because a stock DeLorean speedo tops out at 85:
But I’m not here to talk about DeLorean speedometers. I’m here to talk about Camaro speedometers.
Yes, Camaro speedometers! Specifically, third-gen Camaros made between 1981 and 1984, which took the restrictions imposed by the 85 mph speedo and turned it into something magical. Specifically, this:
See what’s going on there? Instead of just recalibrating the numbers to fill the entire dial like most boring-ass dash-designers did, the Camaro team decided to have some fun: they made the usual needle a double-ended needle, and put the kilometers-per-hour scale on the other side!
It’s so clever and unexpected; I can’t think of another car that has a double-needle speedo like this, certainly not a mass-market American car.
Look, here it is in a video:
I like this video because it also shows the gleefully bonkers Camaro interiors of this era:
That’s not some unhinged custom interior, either; the CAMARO-shouting interior was a factory option:
There was also a variant of the double-needle instrument cluster that didn’t have the tachometer, and instead had what might be the only metric-English fuel gauge I can think of:
Look at that! We have double double needle gauges! It’s rare enough to get an analog fuel gauge that actually tells the number of gallons in the tank, but this one also tells you how many liters! Or, in the case of this gauge, litres!
Also fascinating are those three idiot lights in the center for coolant temperature, oil pressure, and battery charge, which are just simple red lights but are set into circular housings with hash marks all around them like they’re actual gauges, which they very much are not. It’s so stupid, I love it.
The really amazing thing about these double-needle gauges is that in a lot of ways, I can’t think of a car that would need them less. The Camaro was an American car by both birth, and, generally, habitat. These weren’t being exported to Europe in huge numbers. By far the vast majority of Camaros were built for the American market, which did not give a brace of BMs about metric anything.
I remember being in grade school and every year being told that the US would probably be moving to the metric system next year, and of course that never happened, and eventually teachers stopped even pretending.
For whatever reason, we’re really married to our idiotic system of weights and measures. You’ve seen the SNL sketch, right?
I guess a lot of these ended up in Canada and maybe Mexico. I bet this was very appreciated in those markets, at least.
Anyway, I love the double-needles, looking like a pair of see-saws teetering as you drive. So wonderful and weird.
“My Maserati does 185,
I lost my license, now I don’t drive”
It would have been funny if the Ford Probe had this interior…the word “Probe” everywhere
The SVO Mustangs complied with this silly law by only marking the speedometer to 85mph which was at about the o’clock position. The speedo kept going and hand graduate marks just no numbers past 85
I used to drive between Michigan and Massachusetts a few times a year, cutting through Canada. Those double needle gauges would’ve been nice. Modern gauges show km/h as well as mph and are functional, but I like the double needles a bit better.
The seats look like they were inspired by Recaros, but built on a tighter budget.
Since we are on the subject of speedometers that read both mph and kph, I have a question. When speedo’s were mechanical, it made sense that there were different markings for both mph and kph.
My Ram 1500 still has the same thing… (https://i0.wp.com/carplaynav.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Carplaynav.com-2019-2023-Ram-1500-Truck-Speedometer-EVIC-Instrument-Panel-Cluster-Speedo.png?fit=1080%2C860&ssl=1) the larger numbers are for MPH and the smaller ones inside are for KPH.
The speedo is all digital. Even in the center screen you can display the speed as a number, and you just press the OK button on the steering wheel to switch the digital display from reading MPH to KPH. Why can’t they just change the sweep of the needle against the numbers when that change happens? Why need the separate numbers anymore?
Generic numbers and switchable Mph-Km/h sweep? GM did that, at least on some Cadillacs in the 90s and 2000s and other cars in the 2010s.
Daimler-Chrylser/FCA/Stellantis were just being cheap.
Can confirm, and it’s great. Especially since mine is a US import into Canada
The one that kills me is the 2007 to 2014ish Escalade. 160mph speedo in that brick. They came with 3.42 or 3.73 gears stock, theyd run out of gear/rpm LONG before 160 even with 1000hp. And there are some scary fast Escalades out there with that type of power. Built ls motor, turbocharger the size of a basketball. They are set up to run the quarter mile though, not to peg the speedo.
Maybe you could set a new record in the Escalade’s class at Bonneville. Some aero and gearing would probably do wonders for the Escalade.
The brilliance of the double-needle speedometer was that the Camaro only needed one gauge cluster for US and Canadian/Mexican markets, rather than a separate metric-forward one. Sadly, it was gone by ’86.
One of my favorite things about my old ’99 (manual) accord was that in 4th gear, the speedo and the tac moved PARALLEL to each other.
Local Interstate is mostly 60 or 65, and the Roadster’s tach is parallel enough in 5th that I’m comfortable with peripheral awareness of it that I won’t be stopped.
Virginia, so that’s important
My ’91 Sentra SE-R did the same, also in 4th gear.
I submit the 1988 Chevrolet pickup truck as the most useless speedometer. It was a disk that rotated instead of a needle. And later years put a red line on the opaque edge where the speed was, but the 88 just had half black half opaque. At night with the lights on the opaque side glowed green and looked pretty cool. In the daylight, no so much. You actually couldn’t tell the difference between the opaque half and the blackout half.
There were some 80s S10s that had a weird inverted hockey stick shaped speedo with the red to the left of your speed. Always irritated me somehow.
Speaking of governance, which I know this story was not about, when I was living in TX, a Houston station did a long-ish story about how the truck tires on both the tractors and the trailers/semi-trailers were only speed-rated for 70 mph. Yet there are broad sections of the state where trucks are allowed to go 75 (perhaps higher–the speed limit on I-10 east of El Paso is 80) like any other vehicle.
In the summer, especially, there were a lot of “road gators,” the carcasses of a truck tire that either peeled a recap or just outright failed.
One of the reasons I did not own a motorcycle during my time in that state.
Peeled caps etc happen elsewhere too. I had an ’80 Suzuki 550 in California with a Plexi-fairing and one day a car kicked up a “road gator” that hit the fairing, which shattered but also absorbed a lot of energy before all that stuff hit me in the chest while I was doing 60+ on I-80 between Sacramento and Davis. Without the fairing? I don’t know if I’d be alive on this planet.
I am realizing how off-topic this is and I apologize.
The trick with the Camero speedometer was that you could get the kilometer odometer parts and a 0.62 reduction gear and you had a 140 mph speedometer. I remember seeing ads for kits to do that.
My $2000 Masaratti had a 300 kph spedometer. Kids in high school in 1972 were very impressed.
Camaro and Maserati 🙂
An episode of American Dad had Stan and Steve restoring a DeLorean. At one point Stan said he had to get the car up to 88 MPH. Steve was thrilled that he was referencing Back To The Future. Stan. replied something like, “What? No! That’s the top speed. These things aren’t very fast.”
I remember when 85 MPH speedometers hit the market. I was flabbergasted at the number of people who thought that was the top speed of the cars. I wept for the human race.
My minivan has a 160mph speedometer. I wonder if Honda thought people would believe it could go that fast.
To dream the impossible dream.
Remember, a 1/4 pound burger is bigger than a 1/3 pound burger.
Don’t throw your education in my face.
I read that the Delorean went to 88 because they liked how it filled up the entire digital display and that effect was the reason for the digital speedo. 88 mph is an entirely made up number to produce 1.21 jigawatts, and it could have been whatever speed they wanted.
How dare you impugn the veracity of my favorite documentary film!? 😛
Thanks for this trip down memory lane! I had an 84 Camaro the same color as the one in the video, but a manual with tan interior. I had all but forgotten about the double needle speed-o-meter until seeing that picture then it all came rushing back to me!
It also had the worthless dial calendar and itinerary planner on the ceiling above the mirror. There was also a little leather bag on the ceiling between the t-tops to keep your aviators I imagine, but I used it for my Camels. Oh, yeah! I was cool! lol.
The speedometer mandate was the dumbest thing! Even the ’79 Ford Fiesta I had just out of college could bury the needle. Hell if I matted it long enough on the highway I could wrap the the thing down and point at the odometer at the bottom. Which kind of leads to what I feel was a better way of dealing with the mandate in a performance car. Some marked out the gauge such that 85 was 3/4 of the way around and 85 the last number indicated the markings continue the rest of the way, but were unmarked, just do the math. This was a great way to thumb the nose at the bureaucrats. Much more useful as well.
Wait until you find out about original Suzuki Katana GS1000 instrument clusters.
No one commenting on the double-double needle dash having counter-rotating needles?
That had a purpose: With the awesome acceleration of the Camaro, combined with the awesome fuel consumption, having both needles rapidly rotate the same direction could produce enough torque to upset the stability of the vehicle–potentially even causing a Bronco II!
No idea what you were on while writing this, but you have my endorsement, take your smiley!
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. Hmm, I’m gonna need some of that good stuff ya got going on for you over there
I remember seeing at least a couple Camaros equipped with the double-ended needle roll through the shop back in the day, but I never got to witness the glory of that Camaro Camaro Camaro Camaro interior.
Once the digital dashes arrived, the mph/km switch became a simple push of the button. I thought this was pretty cool in the ’94 deVille I bought. I made sure it was set on km/hr the first time I gave my parents a ride in the car. As my mom is an extremely high-strung and tightly-wound person, it was only a matter a time before she shrieked “Why.. WHY ARE YOU GOING SO FAST!”. Got a solid laugh out of The Old Man.
A buddy of mine had an ’83 with the Camaro Camaro Camaro Camaro interior. No idea if it had the double needle gauges though.