[Graustark]

Does the digital display at the bottom of the tach always display speed? Does it display anything else? Can you turn it off? I am just not a fan of seeing digital speed numbers bouncing around as I find it distracting.

 

[neilf]

Only speed I’m afraid. The only change you can make is choosing between mph/kmph.

 

[Viffermike]

Funny: I feel the exact opposite way. I'm thankful that there's a digital speedo at the bottom of the tach so I can monitor speed properly. The analog speedo on the left is so inexact and has such a low sweep angle and sweep ratio, it's basically useless.

I owned a first-gen (R30) Mini Cooper with a speedo at the bottom of its tach, too -- a feature that wasn't on early models. BMW was forced to add it late in the 2005 model year because the center-mounted analog speedometer, while huge, was so far out of normal field of view that many owners found it too distracting to have to consciously look over to it -- and came close to filing a CA lawsuit about it.

 

[aeronca65tl]

I guess you could always put a piece of painter's tape over it. Although I wouldn't.

……..I'm thankful that there's a digital speedo at the bottom of the tach so I can monitor speed properly. The analog speedo on the left is so inexact and has such a low sweep angle and sweep ratio, it's basically useless...…...

Agree. The increments are so big that the speedo is virtually pointless. They could have easily made it better with a greater sweep and lower Max value.

The instructor at the PEC told me he only uses the digital speedo for the same reason.

I'm not a fan of the oil pressure, water temp or fuel reserve gauges either. Too hard to read at a glance in my opinion.

I like the car but overall, the gauges and the cup holder are probably my main disappointment with the Cayman. I'm building a new dash for my vintage race car right now, so this is probably on my mind.

The cheesy gauges in my stock 1969 MGB are better!

 

[Graustark]

Funny: I feel the exact opposite way. I'm thankful that there's a digital speedo at the bottom of the tach so I can monitor speed properly. The analog speedo on the left is so inexact and has such a low sweep angle and sweep ratio, it's basically useless.

I owned a first-gen (R30) Mini Cooper with a speedo at the bottom of its tach, too -- a feature that wasn't on early models. BMW was forced to add it late in the 2005 model year because the center-mounted analog speedometer, while huge, was so far out of normal field of view that many owners found it too distracting to have to consciously look over to it -- and came close to filing a CA lawsuit about it.

I entirely see your point. The super compressed analog speedo increments are not very informative. For me, I would rather see a mild flutter in an analog gauge than integers bouncing back and forth among, say, 68 to 69 to 70 to 69 to 70 to 69, ad nauseum. I can be a little OCD so it just bugs me. I wish you could toggle it on and off.

My VW GTI frequently shows an up arrow in place of the gear indicator to encourage me to upshift. So irritating! Maybe I WANT to drive inefficiently for fun, eh? And if I drive stick then, hey, maybe I have a clue about when to shift It's like an eco-nanny. Fortunately, Porsche does not do this.

 

[jimmuller]

I like the gauges overall. But I agree the 175 degree speedometer sweep to cover 0 - 175mph is rather pointless. Maybe that's why they stuck it over on the left and kept it dark.

My VW GTI frequently shows an up arrow in place of the gear indicator to encourage me to upshift. So irritating!

The PDK shows a similar arrow when in manual mode.

 

[DriveInHouston]

Porsche, in its infinite wisdom, made the dark face dials unreadable in daylight. Perfectly useless! I can get killed while squinting to see where the speedo needle is... I strongly recommend to anyone that lives in a place where the sun shines, to specify a light color for the dial. Choose a different outer color if you have to.

I can see the dials at night, but by then the game is lost. I look at the digital speedo.

Another pet peeve of mine is that I downshift with the paddles sometime... In certain situations, I am in 3d, I downshift with the paddle, BUT THE PDK BEATS ME TO THE PUNCH and I end up in first gear, with the engine protesting loudly at 5500 RPM... I am not sure what the solution is, other than refraining to downshift or downshift before I touch the brakes.

First world problems... Nice to have!

 

[jimmuller]

Another pet peeve of mine is that I downshift with the paddles sometime... In certain situations, I am in 3d, I downshift with the paddle, BUT THE PDK BEATS ME TO THE PUNCH and I end up in first gear, with the engine protesting loudly at 5500 RPM... I am not sure what the solution is, other than refraining to downshift or downshift before I touch the brakes.

First world problems... Nice to have!

First world problems indeed.

There is an easy solution to that. Bump the shift lever over to manual mode if you anticipate needing a downshift. Then you can be certain it won't shift on its own. And while your hand is on the shift lever you can just push it forward for the downshift.

I use manual mode every so often, usually when I'm not in sport mode for some reason but want a higher shift point. The trouble with that is I usually forget it's in manual mode. It downshifts to 1st if I stop at a stoplight, but then when I pull away the revs keep climbing until I wonder why and remember to upshift myself. Duh...

Of course 5500rpm isn't such a screaming fit of protest after all. Now 7000 might be.

 

[4802]

Porsche, in its infinite wisdom, made the dark face dials unreadable in daylight. Perfectly useless! I can get killed while squinting to see where the speedo needle is... I strongly recommend to anyone that lives in a place where the sun shines, to specify a light color for the dial. Choose a different outer color if you have to.

I certainly wouldn't recommend white dials though. I had that on my first Porsche (987 Cayman) & whilst the dark dials aren't great, on a bright day (certainly on that car) the white dials were often impossible to read at all. I personally love the digital speedo due to its clarity.

 

[DriveInHouston]

I certainly wouldn't recommend white dials though. I had that on my first Porsche (987 Cayman) & whilst the dark dials aren't great, on a bright day (certainly on that car) the white dials were often impossible to read at all. I personally love the digital speedo due to its clarity.

This is interesting! How so?

White face, black numbers red needle?

I am not being facetious... It might help someone thinking about it.

Here in Houston, on a bright day you can't see the dark grey dial face. The only dial you see is the digital screen to the right of the rev meter. I do have film on the windows to cut the glare, but still... the center and the left dial are invisible.

Hopefully the next generation will be all-OLED screens...

 

[4802]

This is interesting! How so?

White face, black numbers red needle?

I am not being facetious... It might help someone thinking about it.

Here in Houston, on a bright day you can't see the dark grey dial face. The only dial you see is the digital screen to the right of the rev meter. I do have film on the windows to cut the glare, but still... the center and the left dial are invisible.

Hopefully the next generation will be all-OLED screens...

It was clear enough at night, but during daylight hours it was quite the most illegible speedometer display I've ever had on any car. The white dial being much more reflective than the standard, simply adds to the glare. Having learnt from that mistake I went back to a standard dial for my last car (981) & stuck with standard for my current 982.

 

[DriveInHouston]

It was clear enough at night, but during daylight hours it was quite the most illegible speedometer display I've ever had on any car. The white dial being much more reflective than the standard, simply adds to the glare. Having learnt from that mistake I went back to a standard dial for my last car (981) & stuck with standard for my current 982.

I have no problem with the dark dial at night. It is nicely lit and works well. During the day time it is practically invisible. I testrove a yellow Carrera T with yellow dial faces and there was no glare whatsoever. I know the white dial option exists, but never drove one with it.

Thank you for the info!

 

[duegatti]

I've got white instruments on my 718. The tach has excellent visibility during the day. I've never looked at the speedometer.

 

[4802]

I've got white instruments on my 718. The tach has excellent visibility during the day. I've never looked at the speedometer.

I think the problem with the white speedo on the 987 was also partly because it was set to one side, very cluttered & somewhat smaller than the tachometer (as it is on the 718). Both suffered from glare but the tachometer was more easily readable because to its centralised position & size. As a matter of interest, perhaps you could try using the speedo during daylight on your 718, see how you get on & provide some feed back for anyone considering the option.

 

[Wine.O]

Sorry the pic is rotated.
White gauges here and never any glare. Vis is great even w/ the top down and the sun behind me. Admittedly, I almost never look to the speedo but it's certainly easy to read when you like. If there's anything that might impede your view it would be the steering wheel.

 

[4802]

Sorry the pic is rotated.
White gauges here and never any glare. Vis is great even w/ the top down and the sun behind me. Admittedly, I almost never look to the speedo but it's certainly easy to read when you like. If there's anything that might impede your view it would be the steering wheel.

If you find them O.K as well then I can only assume they're a little better shielded in the 718 than the earlier 987. I personally wouldn't ever risk specifying them again though.

 

[Viffermike]

I manage digital signage displays as part of my job, and have a life-long interest in visual ergonomics (part of the reason I have my job, I like to think).

Black backgrounds, by their nature, create perceptibly more contrast and sharpness for both rapid- and elongated visual comprehension than white backgrounds do. This has been proven, time and time again, by scientific tests involving both large sample-size human interaction and objective measurement of color frequencies.

There is a reason most aircraft gauges have black backgrounds. There is a reason most multifunction digital displays have black backgrounds. There is a reason most racing gauges have black backgrounds -- and why the 1970s-era segmented-LED digital readouts that are still preferred for many rapid-change applications such as RPMs have black backgrounds.

The color and light receptors of the human eye perceive the edges of white as inexact naturally. It does the opposite with black edges -- particularly when a 'bright' color such as white or day-glo red is used against it.

White backgrounds are just a bad idea -- the only prevalent reason they are used in performance cars is to help enable the brain to initially identify the location of the entire gauge within a multi-gauge array set against a black dash. It is a spatial function, not a comprehensive function.

 

[johan]

I manage digital signage displays as part of my job, and have a life-long interest in visual ergonomics (part of the reason I have my job, I like to think).

Black backgrounds, by their nature, create perceptibly more contrast and sharpness for both rapid- and elongated visual comprehension than white backgrounds do. This has been proven, time and time again, by scientific tests involving both large sample-size human interaction and objective measurement of color frequencies.

There is a reason most aircraft gauges have black backgrounds. There is a reason most multifunction digital displays have black backgrounds. There is a reason most racing gauges have black backgrounds -- and why the 1970s-era segmented-LED digital readouts that are still preferred for many rapid-change applications such as RPMs have black backgrounds.

The color and light receptors of the human eye perceive the edges of white as inexact naturally. It does the opposite with black edges -- particularly when a 'bright' color such as white or day-glo red is used against it.

White backgrounds are just a bad idea -- the only prevalent reason they are used in performance cars is to help enable the brain to initially identify the location of the entire gauge within a multi-gauge array set against a black dash. It is a spatial function, not a comprehensive function.

Now we know why the airplane business aint having it too good!
They should have learned from Porsche..........
Color options = lots of $

 

[CaymanMatt]

I manage digital signage displays as part of my job, and have a life-long interest in visual ergonomics (part of the reason I have my job, I like to think).

Black backgrounds, by their nature, create perceptibly more contrast and sharpness for both rapid- and elongated visual comprehension than white backgrounds do. This has been proven, time and time again, by scientific tests involving both large sample-size human interaction and objective measurement of color frequencies.

There is a reason most aircraft gauges have black backgrounds. There is a reason most multifunction digital displays have black backgrounds. There is a reason most racing gauges have black backgrounds -- and why the 1970s-era segmented-LED digital readouts that are still preferred for many rapid-change applications such as RPMs have black backgrounds.

The color and light receptors of the human eye perceive the edges of white as inexact naturally. It does the opposite with black edges -- particularly when a 'bright' color such as white or day-glo red is used against it.

White backgrounds are just a bad idea -- the only prevalent reason they are used in performance cars is to help enable the brain to initially identify the location of the entire gauge within a multi-gauge array set against a black dash. It is a spatial function, not a comprehensive function.

I suspect part of this issue, for me at least, is that I am red/green colorblind, which is also the case for around 4% of males in the world. Therefore, my perception of colors is not necessarily what you might call the norm. I call the group of colors that include green/red/brown/orange/gray/etc "grown" (as in green/red/brown) because they all mash together. When it's darker or dusk, group membership expands to include many other colors including black (lack of color?!). So, when there is a dark cockpit, deep shadows, & unlit gauges and possibly a bright sunlight filtering through tree branches/leaves/etc, anything in the "grown" group will be indistinguishable from each other - meaning of course that the dashboard is unreadable.

With this as lead in, I think the problem is not so much with the black background as it is with the color (orange/red?) of the indicator needle. If the needle was white (like the Sport Chrono dial) it would be more visible in many more conditions. I do suspect that a set of white gauges may have their own set of issues but I'm pretty well convinced that I'd be able to see them much better and in more difficult lighting conditions.

Personally, I still don't understand why Porsche just doesn't give me control of my dashboard lighting! That I still find very frustrating. I guess then we wouldn't have anything to discuss here though.

MOO!

 

[greywing]

I share CaymanMatt's issues (unfortunately) and combined with the fact that I'm older than dirt also wish that i had (independent) control of dashboard lighting.