Re: Why did dash designs go to pot in the 70's?

[Matthew Killick <m.killick@domain.elided>]

John Hertzman wrote:
>The Giulia TI had a trapezoidal instrument cluster 
with an asymmetrical layout, strip speedometer above three small rectangular 
gauges, and a dinky tach off to one side, all mounted in a dashboard with 
channels echoing the exterior panels, behind a gull-wing spoked steering 
wheel. Some vintage people who like the Arte Moderne funkiness of the tailfin 
era enjoy the TI dash, but the round instruments of the following Giulia 
Super looked a lot better to many, albeit still with the radial numbering. 
Not until the Giulia Nuova, well up in the seventies, did the Giulia sedans 
get upright numbers in white on a black ground, even if it was around a blue 
center.

By 1969 the Giulia TI had acquired a pair of large round instruments.
Tacho is set on the left with temperature gauge inset, speedo on the right
with oil pressure inset, and a small fuel gauge sits between them.  This
assembly sits in a plastic panel under a single hood.  It is all white on
black, with no brightwork.  Presumably, the layout is derived from the
Super, don't know, never driven one.

WRT the radial numbering, I'm not sure that it is an issue.  For me, the
strength of analogue instruments (and the failure of digital instrument
unless they are designed to mimic analogue display) is that the relevant
information, including rates of change, can be registered at a glance,
without having to be read.  I certainly don't have problems reading my
watch (time or elapsed time) in the gloom of 25m below MSL, even though it
has no numbers, just big green blobs on an uncluttered black face.

>It would be interesting to know just who designed the 1750 Berlina and GT 
Veloce dashboards, 

Perhaps this question should be expanded to include the Later TIs and
Giulias too.

Cheers
Mat

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