A collection of digital dashboards from the 80s.

"SegaDreamcats" (SegaDreamcats) 08/22/2013 at 21:25 • Filed to: None

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
I wish my car's interior looked like the future.

dogisbadob > SegaDreamcats 08/22/2013 at 21:27

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Digital dashes are so cool! Why did the car magazines hate on them?

SegaDreamcats > dogisbadob 08/22/2013 at 21:36

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I wasn't alive when these were around, so I haven't seen many. But my brother used to have a 50th Anniversary Edition 300ZX and the speedometer only worked about 30% of the time. So I imagine it was a reliability issue, but they sure looked neat.

dogisbadob > SegaDreamcats 08/22/2013 at 21:39

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Yeah, but car magazines only deal with new cars, so reliability doesn't really factor into it.

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > SegaDreamcats 08/22/2013 at 22:11

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This. My father used to own a white Chevrolet Monza (Opel Ascona) with a digital dashboard and it failed constantly and consistently. Plus, the hugeass speedo was large enough to read from the backseat and I remember my grandmother wouldn't shut up about how we were going too fast and how we'd die in a horrible crash everytime we went on a road trip.

Seriously, fuck this shit, it's not even that futuristic, but it still made my life hell for a while.

SegaDreamcats > dogisbadob 08/22/2013 at 22:22

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Oh, my bad. I thought you were referring to magazines back then.

Money Hustard > SegaDreamcats 08/22/2013 at 23:59

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Nice find, it was an extremely enjoyable read. All these weird steering wheel/dash combos made me go dig up this gem.

SegaDreamcats > BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion 08/23/2013 at 00:06

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I guess maybe it's good that they're gone then.
However I'll stick by my opinion that they're super cool.

SegaDreamcats > Money Hustard 08/23/2013 at 00:21

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I love this ad so much. Grace Jones getting eaten by Grace Jones. What better way is there to sell a car?

BlazinAce - Doctor of Internal Combustion > SegaDreamcats 08/23/2013 at 00:39

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Well, I wasn't being totally serious, haha... The one on dad's Monza did suck balls, and I tend to prefer the traditional analog stuff, but if they work alright and don't glitch at anything that even remotely resembles speed, I guess it's alright.

They are better suited to concepts though, I guess.

Sparf > SegaDreamcats 08/23/2013 at 08:13

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I'm starting to wonder if it would be possible to hook up an old school digital dash to a brand new aftermarket ECU (or at least get the graphics to look the same) in a car running a newer engine swap, say an '87-'89 Trans Am GTA with an LS1. Would be really cool!

dogisbadob > SegaDreamcats 08/23/2013 at 10:16

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I was. For example, Car and Driver during the 80s reviewing the then-new 80s cars :)

Supposedly they really pounded digital dashes. Reliability wasn't the reason, because they simply didn't know and couldn't know.

Mazarin > SegaDreamcats 08/23/2013 at 12:13

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No Starion? No LeBaron? Awww.

SegaDreamcats > dogisbadob 08/23/2013 at 13:05

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Oh, right, I understand now. Sorry for my massive derp.
Maybe they were just upset about it because they never got an Atari for Christmas.