[alfa] Re: Alfetta instrument placement

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Elliott very properly swats me down for overstating my argument on the
Alfetta coupe tach location. Guess I should fold the tent a little earlier in
the evening. The TZ1 certainly had a huge tach centered above the steering
column. Don't have a good shot of the Stradale dash. The SZ, like most of the
postwar cars, (and most post-Alfetta cars) had all instruments in a fairly
tight cluster in front of the driver.

I do feel that the layout of the Alfetta coupe dashboard was rooted more in
idiosyncratic styling than in functionality; some will undoubtedly disagree,
but it would be hard to claim it was not a dead end, a one-time event which
did not become an established part of Alfa's continuing best design
traditions. Some of the prior contributions to this thread had claimed a
strong rational and historic basis for the design ("It's the way that dash
boards were laid out in the classic age of motoring, so that the pilot could
concentrate on the critical engine performance data, and the
co-pilot/navigator could see the speedometer for time/speed/distance
calculations") and I got a bit carried away in looking at the way dashboards
were actually laid out in the Alfas of the classic age, to me the 6C and 8C
Jano cars. As always, YMMV, there is ample room for divergent personal
opinions and preferences, and Joe deserves full credit for a critical read.

Enjoy yours,

John H.
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided