The exterior is one thing, but I’m someone who loves the details of the interior. What can I say, my happy place is behind the wheel and there is nothing more infuriating than a fuel gauge that loves to play the guessing game, a speedometer that bounces around like a three-year-old after taking their first good swig of an energy drink, and let’s not forget my personal pet peeve, gauge lights that have zero desire to work regardless of what kind of magic you try to throw at it. To me, gauges make or break the car. I love the details that manufacturers put into the design, whether it’s the little flags in the small gauges on a 1970-78 Camaro, or the shiny gauges of a Dodge Diplomat, or the electrical readout of the best digital gauges of the 1980s. I love it better when they work right, and unless you are a masochist and think that the parts-store three-pod gauge pack and a tach qualify as “gauge package”, I’m willing to bet that you feel the same way.
One of Chrysler’s better gauge panel designs was the 1970-74 E-body “Rallye” gauge panel. Instead of one giant oil drum of a speedometer and a few small pods to provide some instrumentation, you got four huge holes full of proper instrumentation. Speedometer, tachometer, a combo fuel/oil pressure/alternator/coolant temperature gauge, and an in-dash clock meant that the driver came away well informed and ready to hit the road. Idiot lights? You know who needs those, right?
With the 5.7L Hemi swapped in and running, it was time for the 1973 Challenger that Dylan McCool has been putting back together to start informing the driver about what’s really going on. With Dakota Digital providing a look-alike Rallye cluster that will look about 90% like the real thing (but will function better than anything Chrysler made back then, and more accurately too), having your cake and eating it too never looked so good. Check it out:
