So much time is spent talking about the exterior design of cars, yet most of the time car ownership doesn’t involve looking at the outside of it. No, the part that’ll be staring in your face for every mile you drive your car is the one that doesn’t get as much recognition as it should.
Subconsciously, the instruments are what connect you to the soul of your ride. Today, essentially every vehicle has a rectangular video screen to communicate your car’s information to you, and this uniformity is something that didn’t exist in years past. Most of my favorite gauge clusters were ones that were not only unique but perfectly fit the personality of the car- here are some examples.
Porsche’s “five circle” cluster has become iconic for good reason: it’s a no-nonsense presentation of information that is befitting of the cold, calculating nature of these precision machines. It also gives you a feeling of prestige even if you’re driving the cheapest Macan to see almost the same instruments as a 911 GTS Turbo Whatever in front of you.
The C4 Corvette’s reputation is finally getting the rehabilitation that it deserves. At the time of its introduction in 1983, it really was “the most advanced vehicle on the planet.”
Mere gauges with needles were not going to cut it in a car that was giving us a true glimpse of what we thought the year 2000 would hold. You could change the readouts to what you wanted as well, proving that this was a driver-focused machine unlike any ‘Vette that had come before.
The first Honda Prelude of 1979 was an interesting mix of sportiness and luxury, and it seemed to balance these qualities well as a “sports car for grownups” as Rocky Balboa’s coach told us.
Even inside, the Prelude had a solution to the whole tach/speedometer priority conundrum that I thought was quite interesting and no other car (other than the Fiat 500, I believe) seems to have latched on to. Both of these critical gauges were concentric, with the tachometer inside of the speedometer, and major warning lights covering the axis. So much packed neatly into a small space.
Citroens of the seventies and eighties hold a special place in my heart for their uncanny weirdness; it’s like aliens from Mars that had never seen a car before came down and designed the instruments. Even one of their tamer creations of the time- the GSA- did not disappoint.
It looks like the bridge of a starship from a sci-fi movie, with a big schematic of the car and all sorts of illuminated bullet points for trouble spots. This dominates the instruments, pushing the tach and speedometer (plus minor gauges) into little bathroom-scale-like windows with numbers on illuminated rotating drums. I don’t want to get into switchgear at this point, but I will say that those cylindrical satellite pods floating off the side of the instrument panel look like they’d make great fidget boxes if you could get some from a junkyard.
Subaru also once had the guts to do “weird” for many of their cars, and the wedge-shaped XT coupe was a perfect example.
Thankfully, the gauge cluster lived up to the promise of the wild exterior. The “car” shape sat on a “road” formed by the graphic bar tachometer on one side and the mirror-image turbo boost gauge on the other. Also, if you raised the XT on its height-adjustable air suspension, that little graphic “car” in the center raised up as well.
The only way it could have gotten better is if you had a button on top of the shifter that fired laser-graphics out of the car shape on the screen. Use the Force, Luke!
The whole interior (and exterior too, if we’re being honest) feels like Subaru looking at Citroen and saying “hold my beer.”
What’s fun about the screens in today’s cars is that they could replicate many of these old clusters. Why can’t more manufacturers have fun with it?
What gauges and dash layouts hold special attraction or fascination for you? Let us know!
The digital gauges of the early C4s are perfect for the era. They looked futuristic while functioning mostly like you’d expect. I have to admit though that the standard gauges GM used on the late C4s were better for readability and longevity. I’m guessing an army of old men demanded that those digital gauges be replaced with something more familiar to them. That’s always the battle Chevy has fought in using the Corvette as a technology demonstrator while selling it to an audience that isn’t always keen on new technology. At least until they said eff it and rolled out the C8.
Don’t think I can post a pic, but I loved the 66 Pontiac Bonneville dash. Not too fancy, very mid century and elegant. The turn signals were big green arrows. The high beam indicator was a small red Indian head. Very classy.
Thanks for posting my corvette dash though. When I first bought my 87, I was really digging the digital dash. One day I decided to wind it out and then I realized the tach graph follows the torque curve. I have the 4+3 and was pushing it in third with the overdrive off. I felt the acceleration pull back off as the revs went over the rpm peak. I’m like, dang, they thought this out.
+2 on the ’66 Bonneville, thanks for mentioning it. Real wood veneer FTW. And for the Malaise era, Pontiac took it again with the ’73-’77 Grand Prix.
Shocked no one has said the Lexus IS300… those gauges look like a watch-face…which ironically was offered as a watch that matched the gauges.
100% agree.. those IS300’s had a nice mechanical look to them. The ultimate iteration of the horology gauge theme is the jaw droppingly gorgeous Bugatti Tourbillon gauges.
Oh, and I think the OG Mclaren F1 gauges were remarkable for their beautiful black-on-white simplicity.
I got to drive a few NA Miatas back in the day and that gauge cluster with the chrome rings are still my favorite in terms of legibility and simple but elegant design.
Second-gen Volvo V70R gauges with the blue faces also fit that description.
I’ll take the plain old IP that used to go into every VW in the late 70s and most of the 80s. Round gauges in square bezels, with two rows of red, yellow, and green LED dots to indicate bad stuff happening.
I’ve always had a soft spot for 1990s GM dashboards. All the buttons, sliders and gauges!
Too bad they tended to look like crap after a couple of years.
I’m going to go with the 1935-36 Cord dash, big black rimmed/white face gauges in chrome rims, set in an engine turned metal fascia. No crazily expensive materials involved, but it’s classy and looks premium and gives you everything you need
I actually liked the big wide speedometer on my Chevrolet Celebrity, it only went to 85, but just loved the old style of it just spanning the cluster. Also it was a standard 3 box sedan, with square headlights and rectangle tail lights, so having just squares/rectangles for the gauges was very on brand at the time. Years later my Dad and I saw a similar cluster on a Yamaha Royal Star and were like, that’s pretty cool.
Ha! I hated that cluster in my Celebrity wagon…but that could have been b/c it was poverty spec-ed, so there was only that loooonnng speedo and a fuel gauge, everything else was square boxes with (IIRC) large idiot lights.
I think mine had just a couple other guages like fuel and voltage, and then the idiot lights, but just had fond memories of burying the speedo a couple times on highway downhills, thought I was really flying back then, now that’s just traffic on 77 or 85 lol.
I was always a fan of the Volkswagen Mk2 DigiFiz cluster. It was quintessentially 80’s.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Hgbjtxg8tbI/hqdefault.jpg
I never knew VWs had a digital cluster! Such a contrast to the analog cluster of the time, where each warning light was a bare bulb and there was only one bulb for both turn signals.
I’ve never seen that one before!
I am a child of the 80s, so I liked the futuristic stuff like the Corvette instruments, but give me old-fashioned gauges.
I loved the gauge package on my TBird SC -‘ especially when I got into boost. If it had Saab’s Night Panel, it’d be perfect.
https://bringatrailer.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1989_ford_thunderbird_EC1940D5-B749-4BD7-9BB5-9720AE7C8F33-91298-scaled.jpeg?fit=2048%2C1365
The overall layout was nice and clear, easy to see…the SN95 Mustang used a very similar version (tho no boost gauge) that continued until 2005!
I used to keep an eye out for which side of the dash the tachometer was on. I think there was something about right or left/ import or domestic.
Also mildly annoying when mentally switching back and forth – certain imports like VWs have the tach giving the values in double digits instead of the usual 1 x1000 setup.
I’m biased as I’ve still got the new car glow, but the whole cockpit experience in my 2013 Civic Si Sedan is pretty high on my nice meter. With the NAV screen and my phone hanging out on the center dash vent it feels very driver oriented and high-tech for an 11 year old design.
2013 Civic Si Dash
The Rover P6 bar graph speedometer that was just a piece of colored tape that scrolled back and forth across the display.
The movement of the LFA gauge cluster shifting over was the single coolest thing at the time. Maybe not the greatest ever, but one that’s stuck with me for how futuristic it seemed at the time.
A few months ago Doug Demuro did a video on the 2024 LC 500, and he spent a good minute or two straight just marveling at the moving gauge cluster and yeah – I’ve got to admit its just mind-blowing to watch in motion.
Not that I’ve got 100 grand to drop on a convertible but if I did, I would totally buy that car and not even drive it, so much as just sitting there and obsessing over that gauge cluster.
The Nissan Z31 digital dash holds a special place in my heart, thanks to the one Dad had when I was a yoot.
Same here. My dad got an ’85 Turbo with the digital dash and that was the coolest thing for a teen like me about to head off to college for a EE degree.
I was quite a bit younger than that when we had ours, but one of my clearest memories from that time period is sitting in the back seat while Dad was driving at night and being mesmerized by that dashboard. Maybe that’s why I also became an EE years later!
60s Ford Thunderbird “thermometer-style” speedometer.
Here is a video of the “thermometer” in action, really neat!
Ok, that’s pretty cool.
Well none of those! How about 1966 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa dash.
https://hymanltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/6445_10.jpg
Late 60’s GM was really a high point. I always loved the dash in my father’s ’67 Camaro. There’s just something about those deep-hooded gauges with the conical lenses over them.
I love my MGB’s as half of them don’t work, so it’s a lot less distracting 🙂
SAAB has a night panel mode for that effect. MG just had Lucas, Prince of Darkness.
Oh man, if aftermarket is allowed I’m gonna say Stewart Warner Stage III for older and Greddy Sirius for newer
I’d argue that pre-996 Porsche gauges are even better – completely separate individual circles stretching across the dash, with a less stylized, more readable number font. Beauty in pure function.
Along those lines, the gauge setup in late ’80s Camaros/Firebirds is pretty awesome, including the Camaro’s gauge-within-a-gauge.
Love the cluster in the Integra Type R. Those clean white gauges fit the car well and a tach with a 5 figure rpm looks the business
Porsche 911 997 (only downside is that one doesn’t see all instruments at the same time due to the steering wheel
BMW e39 540i, unbeatable clarity
e39 had the same issue with the sport wheel if I recall. Still, as long as you could see the speedometer over 80 mph who cares?
No oil pressure gauge on the e39 – just an idiot light. Sports cars should have an oil pressure gauge.
I really like the electroluminescent gauges in the original Charger. Beautiful design, and must have been crazy futuristic at the time.
Ditto
Lancia Delta Integrale
The Chrysler Astrodome Gauge
+1 for the Astrodome.
I like the rigor of the Lancia’s layout, but it would be even better if they gave the speedo and tach equal 8-to-4 sweeps. I can’t help thinking there’s some extra cognitive load in digesting the different sweeps.
That Integrale style would make a great skin for modern screen-based gauges.
I was looking for the Astrodome, but I’m glad you mentioned the Lancia dash, too! What a beauty. One of the few 80’s designs that are both ‘of its time’ and timelessly handsome.
This stretches out to the whole dashboard, but I always liked Saab’s driver-oriented dash, and the NightPanel feature was great. With how bright modern clusters (and infotainment) is now, you’d think it’d be an even better idea.
Saab 9000 Aero
Came here to say this. Nightpanel should be on every vehicle!
I greatly miss my ’96 900 interior, along with the glowing green gauges and the night panel option. Really all the controls in that car were pretty intuitive, despite most people finding them quirky.
The 9000 is my favourite interior – but sadly it lacks the Night Panel function. Might be because of the shared platform with the Italians.