Pinched this from gt40s.com. I think it looks great.

Owner says “As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this forum, my view is that the biggest failing of any kit car is the dash. The car looks great, until you look at the dash, and it looks half built. I feel they should look ‘busy’. When it came time to do mine I went for plenty of instruments and switches in order to get an aircraft cockpit quality about it. I’m using Smiths Telemetrix instruments, Rover toggles with MkII Jaguar blades, engine start button from Demon Tweeks with audio control knobs to match for AC control, hazard and Bluetooth phone connection. I’m using engraved plastic labels for the switches. They’ll be silver to match the instrument bezels with the engraved names showing in black. Everyone that’s seen it likes it”

Cheers

Fred W B


gt 40 dash

[Edited on 6/9/07 by Fred W B]

I like it

In any other car i would have had to vote for OTT, but GT40 style its cool.

I can hear the pre flight switches being flicked already

Bit OTT for my taste. Nice craftsmanship, but just far too many gauges and switches. The ergonomics don't look very good either.

OTT - you'd never be able to spot if something important was happening (unless you also had an aircraft-style hooter that shouted 'oil pressure low' - 'oil pressure low' - 'oil pressure low' in times of crisis...).

More to the point - who managed to click on the 'non-option' below 'OK'? Early morning mouse problems?

quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
OTT - you'd never be able to spot if something important was happening (unless you also had an aircraft-style hooter that shouted 'oil pressure low' - 'oil pressure low' - 'oil pressure low' in times of crisis...).

More to the point - who managed to click on the 'non-option' below 'OK'? Early morning mouse problems?

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what a pointless waste of money and time and weight. *

the guy has no idea about Human Interfacing - if he wants to looks (& be distracted by something), why didn;t he fit a plasma TV in the dash?

It is all so wrong ; as DJ pointed out, you would have no idea if something went wrong.

The placement of dials is wrong too - dials with simialr pointers that point to the same place at normal should be next to each other - the human eye is extremelty good in picking a differnet item in a group of similar items.

the only dials you need are speedo, rev counter, oil and wter gauages.

* I best not show my Land Rover dash panel then

As fred says, its a 'look' he is going for, i think he has achieved it.

So long as he knows which dials and guages are the ones to keep an eye on then im sure he will notice anything untoward should anything happen

quote:

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Originally posted by 02GF74
what a pointless waste of money and time and weight. *

the guy has no idea about Human Interfacing - if he wants to looks (& be distracted by something), why didn;t he fit a plasma TV in the dash?

It is all so wrong ; as DJ pointed out, you would have no idea if something went wrong.

The placement of dials is wrong too - dials with simialr pointers that point to the same place at normal should be next to each other - the human eye is extremelty good in picking a differnet item in a group of similar items.

the only dials you need are speedo, rev counter, oil and wter gauages.

* I best not show my Land Rover dash panel then

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not my cup of tea at all Im afraid. Keep it simple is a great philosophy!

Whats he got there?

10 gauges

Revs
Speed
Fuel gauge x 2
Oil pressure
Water temp
Clock
Amps

Oil Temp?
Fuel Pressure?

Cheers

Fred W B

wiring was bad enough on my car for 3 gauges and a vapour imagine the back of that lot!

completely disagree with him that a dash -should- look busy or the car looks unfinished. IMHO thats just confusing looking and looks tacky!

Definitely not to my taste although it does look well put together.

IMO simplicity is the key to a good and useable dash. Don't clutter it with stuff that doesn't really matter or tell you anything vital.



instrument inset panel

Years ago a mate of mine had a Moggy thou pickup with aeroplane gauges from various sources. He even had the altimeter and artificial horizon. That was almost as overdone as the one in your picture I think.

Got to take these things in context - for what it is I think its brill. Having said that the only instruments I have are an oil pressure gague, a rev limiter warning light and a bike speedo - but the GT40 thing is a gendre in its own right and whats wrong with a bit of bling on a saturday night?

not for me

I have to agree with those who say keep it simple and to the minimum,

that looks like a panel from a industrial complex,
also if the builder is over here would it pass SVA with those switches and knobs,

Looking at the instruments, i take it that the car in question is turbocharged, and that the it's twin tanks aren't linked in any way?

Surely linking the tanks would have easier, and cheaper, than two fuel gauges.

Also the clock is a curious choice in that type of car?

totally OTT. very difficult to get the information you need from all those dials and a big distraction to the driving experience

Ditch

i like it, its the reason that its just because its new you need to know where to look at if you need to know certain information. saying that every control need to work, else its useless.

also if you step in a cockpit of an airplane
you will feel the same, but after some lessons you will see that it makes sense.

sow i guess just more time needed to learn. also on the oil warning etc. you could easyly fit a buzzer for that.

Tks

I don't think the layout of the gauges is quite as bad as people have stated....

look at where the steering wheel goes.. to right you have the fuel together and is that a boost gauge?

to the left you have 2 pairs of smaller clocks seperated by a clock....

It's not to my taste but i think people are being a little harsh...

As for the switch gear....... that's another story altogether!

I didn't think toggle switches would get through SVA ?

Too busy for my liking

[Edited on 6-9-07 by speedyxjs]

maybe because a lot of us are track orientated it seems wierd. For a roadcar its probably fine but on track you need to know immedietly if something goes iffy

def not for me less is more if you know what i mean but hey each to their own i suppose

far to ott

As long as he doesn't take his eyes off the road too much to check his gauges, who cares?

Waaaaaaaaaay too much for me!!

I like my dials and toys but that's taking the mickey.

What's with all the toggle switches.
I bet at least five of them are in series going to the starter button but it means you can do lots of flicking before the car starts....

Oh well, each to their own but at the end of the day that's a lot of unecessary weight to carry around and the dash probably needed re-inforcing to carry it all.....

Hohum...

Not my thing really but I can see what he's trying to do - easily twice as many guages and switches as the real thing.

Way too cluttered - I just hope that he has small fingers as if he has fingers like pigs tits he'd try to switch on his bluetooth and fire the ejector seat and send up a smoke flare!!!

Way too much and above all, not LOCOST!!

How could you manage to memorise what swith, knob, button was supposed to do...I think I would be looking at the consol, and crashing into a telegraph pole!