Our Mustang needed some gauges. Gotta know what’s going on under the hood, right?
Prosport Gauges is a newer customer here at GRM, so we thought we should give them a try.
These modern digital gauges are reasonably priced at an average of about $60 each and are easy to install. The gauge h…
Just a suggestion--include a photo in a dimly lit room illustrating the face what we may see in the car. I suppose you thought one of your photos would include this but then realized what you had wasn't adequate--I know, things happen. Still, you could include a shot of them illuminated for a future article! 
In reply to DavyZ :
Exactly right
My company sells fuel pumps for classic cars, and we deal with fuel pump and pressure questions from customers almost daily. The number one thing we tell them in troubleshooting fuel systems is to have a fuel pressure gauge that you can read WHILE DRIVING. It is very common to have perfect fuel pressure at rest with the hood up, only to have it plummet when flooring it while driving. Just a thought. Also, the cool looking liquid filled gauges are very sensitive to underhood heat, reading lower as they get hotter even if the pressure is steady......
I'm with cholmes. I have a fuel pressure gauge in my race car, and I refer to it regularly. It confirms I've got fuel at least to the engine compartment - the gauge is on the regulator on the firewall, next stop carbs. I can refer to it if there are every running issues on the track. Also, my Triumph GT6 does not like a hot restart with hot fuel in the float bowls sitting above the exhaust header, so I routinely shut off the fuel pump when I get to the grid, watch the pressure drop to zero and let the engine run for a few minutes after to make room for fresh fuel on a restart.
also - fuel level in a fuel cell? Did not know there was a way to monitor that. Tell us more.
All I see is five mirrors. Possibly convex smoked glass. Look to be tough to read in a street car also.
back when "digital" meant "displays a number", some testing reportedly showed that it took more time to interpret while driving.
it was also seen i in some race cars that the gauges were rotated such that "normal" was straight up (12:00).....a quick glance at a cluster told a lot.
what we really need is an Arduino Copliot to process the info and then present only interesting info, such as "oil pressure out of range for RPM and Temp" or "oil pressure transient drop when right turn over 0.7g x 5 seconds".
Analog gauges might be better. Rotate the gauge so the needle is straight up when it's showing a normal reading. That way you can tell at a glance if things are ok.
I have always hated digital gauges. The only gauge I use that is digital is AFR, where I can get a more accurate read on a quick glance....or where space is limited and the gauge is purely auxiliary like vacuum or clock, etc. For precision readings, you are far better off datalogging it and reviewing afterward.
This is why i like my FuelTech FT550 so much. Dash, ECU all in one and can be configured to display anything I want.
For a track car...
Gauges are great if you actually look at them. I prefer idiot lights that are giant and super bright with gauges as a backup. Even better, logging of everything so if there is a problem you can see the history leading up to it and have a better idea whats broke. Even more better, transmitting that data to the pit so that someone else can review the data and the driver can concentrate on driving.
The gauges are also nicely lit when the car is on and blacked out when the power is off. While these gauges are great for a street car, in a race car they are a bit tough to read.
jerel77494 said:Analog gauges might be better. Rotate the gauge so the needle is straight up when it's showing a normal reading. That way you can tell at a glance if things are ok.
100%.
I like digital (numeric) gauges for things that change slowly but have to be precise, like coolant temp or a street car speedo. Analog gauges for things that change quickly like a tach. And definitely add warning lights for when something goes out of range.
The cluster in my race car has analog gauges with supplementary warning lights, like a series of orange lights on the tach that start to lower the redline as the car gets hot and "freakout mode" for a problem reading. Easy to read and the car will alert me if I'm not monitoring something closely enough or there's a catastrophic change like a total loss of oil pressure.
Selecting a set of gauges for a race car that are hard to read in a race car seems a poor decision.
philacarguy said:I'm with cholmes. I have a fuel pressure gauge in my race car, and I refer to it regularly. It confirms I've got fuel at least to the engine compartment - the gauge is on the regulator on the firewall, next stop carbs. I can refer to it if there are every running issues on the track. Also, my Triumph GT6 does not like a hot restart with hot fuel in the float bowls sitting above the exhaust header, so I routinely shut off the fuel pump when I get to the grid, watch the pressure drop to zero and let the engine run for a few minutes after to make room for fresh fuel on a restart.
also - fuel level in a fuel cell? Did not know there was a way to monitor that. Tell us more.
I have an atl cell. There is an accomodation for a sender already there. The sender kits come in different lengths for your particular cell shape.
rb92673 said:For a track car...
Gauges are great if you actually look at them. I prefer idiot lights that are giant and super bright with gauges as a backup. Even better, logging of everything so if there is a problem you can see the history leading up to it and have a better idea whats broke. Even more better, transmitting that data to the pit so that someone else can review the data and the driver can concentrate on driving.
+infinity. The times when you will probably have low anything is in the middle of the corner when you need to focus on where you are going. An Oh E36 M3 light for emergencies, and a recorder when you are in a safe place to look at it.
In reply to alfadriver :
indeed....so wouldn't it be nice to program in some protection / actions (back off throttle or limit rpm or shut down) if programmable criteria are met...without requiring the driver's input....and "playback" later for analysis?
In reply to BimmerMaven :
Depending on when the power goes away, that could be exciting.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
so, pick a DELAY, during which you get a loud buzz or flashing light, giving you DELAY seconds to balance the car for power loss...
better than seizing the engine when it wants to?
the basis here is that you get to pick your own plan ahead of time, vs while concentrating on driving; you fly the plane, the copilot deals with the mechanical problems.
In reply to BimmerMaven :
Or you get the loud buzz or flashing light and you shut down the engine once you are at a good moment to do so. Basically, your copilot lets you know of a mechanical problem so you take action. But the copilot doesn't get to just chop the throttles.
It would be trivial to engineer in an ignition cut when (parameter exceeded). But it's maybe not a good idea.
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