Dandy Dashboard Delights

[Junkman]

The antidote to Dire Dashboard Disasters.
 
One of my favourites comes from a brand I otherwise totally dislike - BMW. But the E3 saloon dashboard is just a mighty fine excersise in industrial design.
 

 

 

Panhard PL 17 - because it's fuggin kewl:

 

 

Maserati Ghibli - because it's a damn nice place to be:

 

 

Facel Vega:

 

 

1958-60 Corvette:

 

[brickwall]

One of my faves:

 

 

 

[Junkman]

No idea from which cars they are, but the upper one looks very nice.

[Split_Pin]

 

Original, prefacelifted Rover 75 is one of favourite dashboards.

[Spiny Norman]

Think they're both Rover 800s.

Any pre 95 BMW dash is an object lesson in how it should be done IMO, with the E34 probably being the best of the bunch.

A dashboard should be functional, unobtrusive and it should place all the major controls in places you don't have to go hunting for them. The Citroen CX is a beautiful piece of art inside but try finding the hazard warning light or heated rear window switches in the dark, even when it's your own car.

Christ even finding the horn or the main light switch is a challenge if you've never been in one before!

 

To me, the Facel and particularly the Corvette (like most American cars) belong in the dire dash thread, they're hideous but each to their own.

 

I really liked the dash in the Alfa 156 I had.

[ifc63]

Maserati Boomerang (apparently!)

 

[pshome]

The one and only, stylish and in every respect perfect dashboard is of cours this one.

 

[DSdriver]

Mark one CX was in my opinion one of the best ever to use. Once you got used to it.

It was criticised because you had to actually read the speed numbers which were on a rotating drum. Not like a normal dial where you can glance to see where the needle is pointing as your brain knows that if the needle is over tdc you are over 70mph.

Drivers of normal cars hated the non self-cancelling indicators preferring the system where you have to reset the indicator when half way through a manoeuvre because it has decided that you should have finished with it by now.

But I loved it because everything was perfectly placed and easily operated.

More info in Citroenet here http://www.citroenet.org.uk/passenger-cars/psa/cx/cx-01.html

[DSdriver]

Maserati Boomerang (apparently!)

 

Blimey! that looks really amateur. Did they get the design office junior to make it with a box of bits they got at an autojumble?

[dollywobbler]

I agree on the CX, though I also like the Series 2. I think the CX wins the award for coolest ashtray ever.

[DSdriver]

I agree on the CX, though I also like the Series 2. I think the CX wins the award for coolest ashtray ever.

For those watching in black and white, that'll be the ball shaped thing perched on top of the radio.

You can smell the stale Goulois from here.

[stormee]

Boomerang! But it doesn't tell you how fast you are travelling apparently...

[Vince70]

I just really just want a talking maestro dash.

Knight industry's stole the design apparently.

 

Also I love the look of old BMC strip speedos fitted to the likes of the P6 and 1800 the minimalist look really does it for me.

[DSdriver]

Boomerang! But it doesn't tell you how fast you are travelling apparently...

Unusual in a road going car, more common for track cars where actual speed is not important in case it distracts you. Knowing the engine speed is paramount so you can change gear at optimum revs. 

[barefoot]

That's one of my pet hates, a rev counter which reads up to 8,000 rpm but which is redlined at 5,500.

Lots of wasted, badly spaced dial.

[Spiny Norman]

Unusual in a road going car, more common for track cars where actual speed is not important in case it distracts you. Knowing the engine speed is paramount so you can change gear at optimum revs. 

And in an old Italian car, a speedo is surplus to requirements, since it'll be getting driven as fast as it's possible to go.

What really matters is the oil pressure, water temperature & ammeter gauges anyway.....

[Junkman]

Be relistic. Italian ammeters always show zero. The most redundant instrument in the World. So do Italian oil pressure gauges when the water temperature gauge shows the cost of the repair bill in £x100.

[brickwall]

No idea from which cars they are, but the upper one looks very nice.

 

 

Aye, both Rover 800s. Tasteful without being ostentatious.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I just really just want a talking maestro dash.image.jpg

Knight industry's stole the design apparently.

 

Also I love the look of old BMC strip speedos fitted to the likes of the P6 and 1800 the minimalist look really does it for me.

image.jpg

image.jpg

 

Good call on the BMC1800 strip dash, but I can't help but hate them for designing this gorgeous minimalist dash and then going "right, now to drill a bunch of holes in it to accommodate those same Lucas switches we've been using since the Bullnose Morris". Imagine how great that dash would look if they'd designed some matching switches. 

[Sam Glover]

 

Oltcit!

 

 

[forddeliveryboy]

[Bobthebeard]

This is lovely....

Especially when the speedometer works.

[Coprolalia]

*Prepares for VAG hate*

 

Digifiz? 

 

 

Never made it to the UK. The dashes now sell for £800 on the bay to the pineapple posse.

 

Still would

[Richard]

[Barry Cade]

Trevi...

[vulgalour]

As a bit of design, I really rate the dash in the little 6.  I don't know what it'll be like to live with yet.  Everything is just really smart and crisp.  Underneath that steering wheel wrap is a nicely detailed wheel rim (no picture, sorry) that adds to the charming restraint of the rest of the design.

 

 

 

 

[captain_70s]

 

A touch of sporting class, a Dolomite is for a gentleman of course...

 

I also really like the old 1300fwd dash, it's like a shrunken Rover P5.

 

[Aston Martin]

[purplebargeken]

Now that was one thing I didn't like about my 1300 FWD's. That binnacle just looked so out of place, it didn't gel with the rest of the interior at all, an ugly lump of black plastic really didn't suit it. The Dolomite dashes were the nicest by a country mile. Even the 1300FWD ashtrays looked cobbled together. Such a shame. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

welcome to the late 80's

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