Great Speedometer And Dashboard Designs I Remember – What You See As You Drive

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– Posted on April 13, 2025

The “intergalatic” instrument panel of the 1959 Mercury–one of the greatest dashboard designs of all time!

 

One of the great mysteries of life is why we are drawn to the specific things that fascinate us.  This starts at an early age, like 4 or 5.  For me, one of these things was car speedometers and gauges of all types.  I had to check out the instrument panel of every new car I encountered.  At every house I visited, I had to see what kind of heating system thermostat they had, every clock, every thermometer, the radio and TV, etc.  Well, because I never grew up, not much has changed.  🙂  So I thought I’d share with you some of the great speedometer designs I remember and have discovered over the years.

Me around age 4. I was so cute in those days!

 

My Ross Deluxe 20″ bike after many years of hard use. This bike still exists in my parents’ attic.

 

When I got my first bike, of course it had to have an accessory speedometer installed on it:

This is the one I had.  I typically biked at 15 MPH;  the fastest I ever got it up to was 30, down a steep hill.  It amazed me that anyone could pedal hard enough to get to 40 MPH!

When it comes to cars, the earliest gauges were very crude and simple, with a kind of “steampunk” look.  The individual instruments often resembled pocket watches.

In the 1930s, the golden age of Art Deco, things became more artistically sophisticated.  The numerals often resembled radio dials of the period.

Some late pre-war luxury cars featured simulated polished marble made from Bakelite, one of those “World of Tomorrow” new wonder materials.  This is a 1942 Chrysler that was for sale near me.

Fine Art America, photo by Jim Hughes

 

After the war, auto sales boomed, and the manufacturers kept coming up with ever more elaborate, “futuristic” designs.  We are now seeing the beginning of what has been called “Gorp”, i.e. overwrought, science fiction movie-based, “dream car” cockpits.  Thus the motor vehicle is not just a “car”, but a kind of interstellar rocket ship seemingly capable of traveling light years into space.  Gorp will dominate (and escalate) into the 1950s and early 60s.   (1953 Pontiac shown).

Mom and her 1953 Pontiac.  This car was gone before I came along.

Photo from Flickr by Dusty_73

 

Here’s a truly unique one you may have never seen:  the 1954 Kaiser Manhattan.  The elegantly stitched padded dashboard was designed for maximum safety.

The 1955 Chevrolet was a landmark design in many respects, and its dashboard is quite beautiful.  However, I wouldn’t want that pointy “bullet” in the steering wheel hub aimed at my chest all the time!  Talk about “anti-safety”!

Now we’re getting into the era of cars that I have actually owned or personally experienced.  The 1958 Cadillac instrument panel had a lot of sparkling chrome (like the rest of the car!)  I used Turtle Wax Chrome Polish to make it extra-bright and shiny!  A previous owner installed period aftermarket round gauges (lower right) and the purist in me says they’re OK.  They’re vintage and they seem to blend in well.  Because I like all my gauges to work, I had the original clock restored with a quartz movement.  It was tedious to remove and replace the clock, but I was able to do it myself.  I really liked glancing at an accurate-running timepiece as I drove.

The 1958 Ford dash is a good-looking design for the era.  It’s improved over the previous year, with a textured silver finish instead of the plain painted finish of the ’57.  Oddly, the speedometer has no zero.  The steering wheel says “Master Guide Power Steering”.  Sounds very important!

The 1959 Chevrolet dash is extravagant (like the rest of the car).  There’s a slight touch of the Corvette.  George Barris incorporated this round speedometer into the 1966 TV Batmobile.  Very appropriate!

In 1986, I got to test-drive a 1959 Dodge Royal for sale.  I really wanted it, but Dad said no.  The horizontal speedo has little rectangles that “fill up” with color as speed increases.  There’s a color range:  green to yellow to red.  I thought that was so cool!

Thirty-five years later, I finally got my space age, Forward Look Dodge–a 1960 Dart Phoenix.  It’s hard to say which instrument panel is more “out-of-this-world”, ’59 or ’60.  The speedometer lens is translucent see-through, called “Safety-Scope” in Dodge-speak.  Dodge was billed as the first “all push-button car”.

This was my favorite dashboard as a kid–Mom’s 1962 Mercury Comet.  I also used the chrome polish on this one so it sparkled like a rare jewel!

I later got a 1962 Mercury Monterey–a big step UP from a Comet!  I love the pale gold finish and the “lightning bolt” Big M.  Sadly, this fragile gold finish is usually faded on the few ’62 Montereys that survive.  Mine was in mint condition!

One of the strangest of all time:  the 1962 Imperial.  This is the car I rescued out of the woods.  Story here.

Dad had a 1964 MG 1100.  A horizontal “ribbon” speedo like the ’59 Dodge, but without the color changes.   There was a beautiful real wood dash on this British economy car.  I used to like watching Dad shift gears!  (4-speed manual).

My maternal grandmother had a 1966 Plymouth Fury VIP.  I thought this speedometer looked really cool too.  It’s futuristic, but the mid ’60s aesthetic is somewhat different from the ’50s “gorp”.

Mrs. Alice Connelly and her new 1966 Plymouth VIP.  I asked her why her car said “Vip”.  She said, “It’s not ‘vip’;  it stands for ‘Very Important Person’ because you and I are very important people.”  Grandma was Valedictorian of Paterson New Jersey’s East Side High School, Class of 1932.  I believe Grandma.

Dad’s next car was a 1970 Opel GT, which I thought was the coolest car in the neighborhood!  To 8-year-old me it looked like a race car!  I found this rare pristine example at a car show last summer.

Dad’s 1970 Opel GT.

Left to Right:  Dad, Mom, and friends about the same time Dad bought the Opel.

My paternal grandfather had a 1971 AMC Matador wagon with a green interior just like this.  While the design is unique, the material quality was poor.  The sheet aluminum trim panels were held on with what looked like rubber cement, and the flimsy panels peeled off.  American Motors (Rambler, Nash, Hudson), once known for their above-average trim quality in the ’50s, had apparently lost it by the ’70s.  The automatic transmission dial was labeled SHIFT COMMAND, as if it were something special.  Pretty hokey!

My grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Pietro (“Pete”) and Agnes Pellegrino, leading citizens of Millburn NJ.  Grandpa had a business upholstering and restoring antique furniture, and he built several commercial buildings in town.  Grandma never learned to drive.  That’s me at lower right.

My second car was a 1972 Mercedes-Benz 250 sedan.  I thought this car just exuded class!  Everything in the interior was so well made.  Why were the Europeans using real wood on the dash, while the Americans were slapping on cheesy plastic “fake wood”?

My Mercedes, pictured at the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown NJ.

Consumer Guide photo

 

I later owned a 1991 Chrysler Imperial.  This was a very lush automobile, with a digital dashboard that seemed to convey a sense of fine precision.  Yes, the wood was fake, but I thought it was tastefully done.  My interior was maroon.

My present car, a 2005 Jaguar S-Type.  We now have real wood trim (“Bronze Madrona”) and Italian leather.  I added a custom wood and marble inlaid shift knob with Jaguar insignia.  The gauges and controls are actually quite simple for such an upscale car.  I like that–“classic European simplicity”.  I don’t want touch screens or anything else that’s hard to figure out and use.  I have the base V-6 engine, but the speedometer goes up to 170 MPH because the optional S-Type R tops out at around 155.  This Jag is a gem of a car–it’s distinctive and I get a lot of compliments on it.  The body color is “Radiance Red”.  As long as no serious problems come up, I’ll keep it.

1956 Packard Caribbean. Photo from Flickr by Bill Jarvis

 

As I look back on the photos in this post, I am struck by the beauty and creativity of all these dashboard designs.  Each one started out as a designer’s dream.  And yet they are so ephemeral.  Someone buys a car, drives it for a couple of years, then trades it in on something more exciting (or boring).  His or her “old friend” is quickly forgotten.

There are so many other dash designs I could have included in this article.  Do you have a favorite that wasn’t shown?  You can add it in the comment section below.