I spent a long time looking at the picture of the tachometer from the Detroit car, wondering why I found it so dissappointing when it had looked so good to me in the latest magazine pictures.

Finally, I realized that chrome coloured ring separating the numerals from the dash markings really ruined (IMHO) the look of the display. To me it makes it look, well... tacky ... no pun intended...


Top left pic shows the Detroit car with the ring photoshopped out.

Top right pic shows the tach as it appeared on the Detroit car.

Lower middle pic shows the latest magazine pics of the tach.


For my part, I hope they ditch that ring: I really think it ruins the look of the tach.

Anybody else have an opinion on this?:(

I'll second that opinion...

Strider-

The thing that bothers me the most is teh lack of an anolog speedo. I can live with the ring, but i need an anolog speedo.

the tachometer in the bottom picture is nicer looking because the car is turned on. At night, when the lights in the dash on lit up, the tachometer looks great because the numbers light up, the ring dissapears, and the digital speedo is on.

No Ring Please!!

FYI - The online order site (www.mazdarx8.com) shows no ring in the pics.

Originally posted by miata35
the tachometer in the bottom picture is nicer looking because the car is turned on. At night, when the lights in the dash on lit up, the tachometer looks great because the numbers light up, the ring dissapears, and the digital speedo is on.

Well, there you have it. It just means that all thoses who hate the ring will just have to exclusively drive their RX-8's at night.

:D

It actually took me a few second to even realize what you were refering to, but once I saw it, I also thought that it was an unneccessary accent and distracts from the look of the tach. Really not a big deal though. Also, though I would prefer an analog display, I don't really mind the digital speedo. Another large analog gauge might clutter the dash in front the driver too much.

actually that claim is incorrect. In the lit up picture the backlighting is white. The guages have white backlighting in the daytime and have red backlighting at night. I wouldn't worry about the ring, especially since you can't see it in the illuminated picture. I plan on my car being turned on when I am sitting in it.

Originally posted by miata35
the tachometer in the bottom picture is nicer looking because the car is turned on. At night, when the lights in the dash on lit up, the tachometer looks great because the numbers light up, the ring dissapears, and the digital speedo is on.

I thought of that, but I have a theory that the ring will illuminate also, and that it simply doesn't exist in the magazine picture.

I agree - I hope they dump the ring.

yea i don't like that ring at all.... definately looks pretty bad...

but didn't the FD also have a ring somwehere?!? probably wasn't in the middle like this one is.

Originally posted by miata35
the tachometer in the bottom picture is nicer looking because the car is turned on. At night, when the lights in the dash on lit up, the tachometer looks great because the numbers light up, the ring dissapears, and the digital speedo is on.

Uh, I think you should read all the thread before posting. My general feeling from when I saw the car at Detroit was that the ring was printed on the face of the tach, just like the numbers, and therefore it too would illuminate. The tach from the DET car is different from the magazine pic tach: you can tell this because the intermediate hatch markings are different lengths on the DET car, but always the same length on the mag pics.

Hopefully the mag pics represent what will actually be in the car. Since some of those pics seem to have been taken after Detroit, I think it likely we'll be seein' the GOOD tach.:)

No ring on "Autobild"-tachometer:

I read in one of the reviews (can't remember which once) that the guages turned to a "cool blue" color when the brightness dial was turned down. I wish I could remember what review that was.... arrgg... Can anyone verify?

I believe it was the Mazda press kit that described the elaborate lighting display. I am 95% positive, but I'm sure that with the other people on here we should be able to have that number up to 99.9% :cool:

yeah it is in a mazda press release. the press release is 12 pages long and has a table listing the specs of the JDM, NA, UK/Europe, Australian versions. if you search my posts you can find a reference to the blue color as well as the thread with the original link to the pdf. i think link goes to a page on the masdausa website so you might be able to find it there also. i'd look but i'm supposed to be working on a project right now.

Hey!? Wasn't the numeral '8' in the straight up position. Now it looks like 7500 is in the '12 o'clock' position now.

Is Mazda trying to emphasize the newfound bottom-end power of the renesis, instead of the high reving power. peak torque moved from in the 3 port opening area 7500 revs, to only when 2 ports are open 5500 revs.