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Amber LCD bar graph

A backlit liquid-crystal dash in amber: a rising bar-graph tachometer, large slanted speed digits and segmented fuel and temperature gauges.
Technology
Liquid crystal display
After
Chevrolet Corvette (C4)
Gearbox
4-speed automatic

Original design inspired by 1980s digital dashboards. Not a replica of any manufacturer’s instrument cluster.

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Hold ↑, W or Space to accelerate and ↓ or S to brake while the dashboard has focus. K turns the key, L switches the lighting.

Controls

Keys work while the display or one of its buttons has focus. The simulation pauses when the tab is hidden or the display is scrolled out of view.

Start
Key on or K. Every segment lights, sweeps up and back down, then the gauges settle on live values as the engine starts.
Accelerate
Hold ↑, W or Space, or press and hold Accelerate. With the key off, this turns the key first.
Brake
Hold ↓ or S, or press and hold Brake. With both released, the car coasts.
Gearbox
A 4-speed automatic: it shifts up late with the throttle held, early when it is released, and kicks down when the throttle is floored at low revs.
Fuel and temperature
The tank drains faster at high revs; Refuel fills it. Coolant temperature climbs from cold to normal as the engine warms up.
Lighting
L or Night lighting dims the display, as the headlamp switch dimmed a real cluster.
Reduced motion
The start-up sweep is skipped and values change without easing.

Based on

The liquid crystal display of the Chevrolet Corvette (C4). The layout of the recreation is an original design, not a copy of the car’s cluster.

Cockpit of the Chevrolet Corvette (C4)
Chevrolet Corvette (C4)1984–1996CockpitIn progressPhoto: Llann Wé² · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons: source page for this photo (opens in a new tab)

Display layout

  • Bar-graph tachometer from 0 to 6,000 rpm, with the last segments marked as the red zone
  • Three slanted seven-segment speed digits in miles per hour
  • Gear digit for the four-speed automatic
  • Fuel and coolant temperature bars, each with its own warning
  • Odometer in miles with a tenths digit, and oil, battery and check lamps

Display technology

From the mid-1970s, several manufacturers swapped needles for electronic displays. Most were segment displays that could only light the shapes built into them: every bar, digit stroke and word was a fixed segment wired to a driver chip. That rule explains the bar-graph tachometers and seven-segment digits of the era, and the recreations here follow it too.

These are the three main technologies. Some early dashes also used light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

More cars from this period are listed under the era Digital dashboards (1976–1995).

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Fig. 1. Seven segments, a to g, draw every digit from 0 to 9. A segment display can only light shapes built into its glass.

Liquid crystal display (LCD)

An LCD makes no light of its own. A thin layer of liquid crystal sits between two polarising filters, and a voltage on a segment's electrode realigns the crystals so that segment blocks or passes light from lamps behind the panel. Coloured filters gave dashboards their amber, orange or green tint.

LCDs drew little power and could carry detailed shapes, but they turned sluggish in the cold, when the liquid crystal thickens, and the bulbs behind them burned out over time.

In the archive

4 of 5 shown.

Vacuum fluorescent display (VFD)

A VFD is a small vacuum tube. A heated filament gives off electrons, a fine wire mesh grid steers them, and segments coated with phosphor glow where the electrons land. The usual phosphor glows blue-green; filters in front of the glass produced other colours. The mesh is often visible over the digits.

VFDs are bright and work in the cold, so they spread through dashboards, radios and clocks. They need a filament supply and higher voltages than an LCD, and the phosphor dims with age.

In the archive

4 of 6 shown.

Cathode-ray tube (CRT)

A few cars put a small monochrome CRT in the dash: the same technology as a television, with an electron beam drawing on a phosphor screen. Because it could show any text or graphic, it suited trip computers and menu-driven controls, and some versions were touch-sensitive.

A CRT is deep, heavy and needs a high-voltage supply, and it is hard to read in direct sunlight. It stayed rare in cars.

In the archive

Cars with LCD instrument clusters

Showing 4 of 5 carsSee all

A liquid crystal display instrument cluster, as standard or as an option.

1 more not yet photographed: Subaru XT (1st generation). Add a photograph

Other recreation

  • LOWHOTOILBATTCHECK× 1000 RPM01234567km/hGEARFFUELHTEMPODOKM

    Blue-green VFD sweep

    VFDAfter the Aston Martin Lagonda (Series 4)1987–1990

    A vacuum-fluorescent dash that glows blue-green: a widening arc of tachometer segments, upright speed digits and vertical fuel and temperature stacks.

    VFD clusters

Photo credits

Photo credits (4)
  1. Chevrolet Corvette (C4), cockpit“W6074 Landreau BasBriace ACAL2025 Chevrolet Corvette C4 TunedPortInjection 26457XA2” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Llann Wé² · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons
  2. Audi quattro (Typ 85), cockpit“1990 Audi Quattro 20V - Flickr - The Car Spy (9)” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: The Car Spy · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons
  3. Mitsubishi Cordia (1st generation), instrument cluster“Mitsubishi Cordia 001” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Tennen-Gas · CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons
  4. Renault 11 (Mk1), instrument cluster“Tableau de bord renault 11 electronic” (opens in a new tab) · Photo: Pouichi1973 · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab) · Wikimedia Commons

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