I am in the planning phase of my turbo setup, but one thing I have not figured out is gauges. Here are some considerations:

• Racingbeat ashtray gauges are probably the cleanest, but they are out of sight, and being in 1st, 3rd and 5th obscures them
• A-pillar guages - how do I even mount them? Also they look very riced/fast & furious. Might be the best option though...
• I do not like the look of the Lotek pod, it's a glued on piece of plastic and it doesn't hide that well.
• I would love to reverse engineer the OEM display and use the dot-matrix digits. I am an electrical engineer and I could easily build a little module to drive the display, but sadly I think figuring out the signaling will require a logic analyzer, and those cost thousands of dollars. It's not like that is a published spec... Maybe someone knows the manufacturer of that module?
• If I had a Nav system I could build a carputer, but there appears to be no way to buy the hood that flips open by itself.
• I've seen someone put 7-segment digits in the blank space underneath the volume ****, but it just seems wrong to put a boost gauge in the middle of all the audio controls

Would love to hear any ideas...

 

you could get the flip up nav setup and run a carputer ive seen it done alot

 

I have the RB ashtray gauges and do not find them hard to see. On option you have with them to make them easier to use is orientate the gauges so that under normal conditions the needles all point to nine O'clock. Then with just one quick look you could tell if something was not right.

 

I strongly agree with the OP. For N/A gauges the RB tray is fine, but I wouldnt want FI or track duty gauges down there. A-pillar is rice and restricts too much view. Lotek pod looks like glued on ****. There was that group buy for the Lotek pods being molded INTO the center console, and that looked much better.

But the only other choice i've ever seen was PTP who does not produce a pod at all, but quoted me $500 to build a one-off copy of the one they did for my old room mate - BigOLundh....

 

Hey OP here is the cleanest dash pod available yet-

https://www.rx8club.com/group-buy-center-85/official-group-buy-custom-center-triple-gauge-pod-168926/

reasonably priced as well

Edit: I guess the GB is over... maybe you can persuade him to do one for you

 

dam that really is sweet!

 

there is a mazdaspeed gauge cluster. you could check that out.

also, you could get the metra kit and run a carputer.

 

dude... I'm selling my carPC with everything and I have wired the nav hood to do OEM functions with a touchscreen inside... if you want digital gauges it is perfect.

I could give you a bit of a discount.

 

who wants to pay $1500 for the MS pod?? Sure it comes with some nice gauges(Defi BF) but if you consider the price of the gauges, your paying HUNDREDS for the pod. Not to mention that your dropping a lot of cash to be forced into the 3 gauges it comes with... to change them to desired gauges you have to spend yet more money. And to top it ALL off - in some lame attempt to satisfy LHD and RHD markets, the pod isnt angled at all, it points straight back. which does not give you the best viewing angle IMO

 

I think this is the tightest one

 

http://japanparts.com/db/partslist.p...volkey=&page=1

Japanparts has the Mazda Nav Tray, so you can install it and do a CarPc, Get Hymee's Software and have all the digital Guages you want.

Class Dismissed.

 

that carbon fiber one is pretty sweet, never seen that before, but it kind of looks like a robot.

 

CPE Triple Gauge pod? It says only FOR MS3? Maybe you can rebuild the bottom of the frame somehow to fit the rx8, IDK. It looks nice and also the AUTOEXE gauge cluster

http://www.streetunit.com/CPE_Gauge_.../mm3bezag3.htm

 

except that carbon fiber is played out

great solution, and IMO the best currently. the problem with it is that it involves carPC. which can be very costly* to have done right, and most cannot do this themselves. * if you dont have the NAV hood already, the one you linked is $1700... you still need the entire carPC setup, screen(if you want touch), and software(like Hymee's) --- you're talking $3K+ for most people

that would take so much fabrication to make it work you might as well make one from scrath with the OEM center hood


frankly I'm surprised there arent more decent options. You've got:
the MS which was mentioned,
AutoEXE makes a tape on junky one that is also not oriented for LHD,
the obligatory RHD stuff from FEED, KnightSports, and the like,
the gauge cluster hood in CF shown above,
the RB tray which is good for stuff you don't care to keep an eye on,
the obligatory A-pillar junk,
the defrost vent single pod(which i picked up, very nice),
and the Lotek pod

pretty much everything else is custom. the Lotek/MS/FEED location and idea is perfect, it just sucks that for LHD you have to fork out serious cash for the MS and then possibly more to get the gauges you want, and still deal with gauges that arent oriented for LHD(at this point it would be cheaper to have one custom made like i mentioned from PTP) --- or you have to go with the Lotek which is spot on except for it looks like ****, like you stuck some velco on the back and stuck it to your dash...

the group buy for the molded-in Lotek was a great idea, but doing them in small quantities at home like that makes it rather expensive.

 

Get the car PC that Alexb is selling. Then you can have any gauges you want.
If I'd have the money right now, I'd buy his stuff in a heartbeat. Considering what's included and how much work that is to get it done, the price is a steal.

 

Yeah not bad. Very shiny.

 

Perhaps. My turbo kit is going to surpass $5k already though.

I am gonna see if I can't dig up the electrical spec to the OEM display and design an inline module.

 

you could always get the lotek and some body filler and paint. If you're spending 5k on the turbo what's a couple hundred more to a body shop to make you what you want for your gauges?

 

Well the OP did state he is willing to do Car PC, Mech Engineer and such, and as you and I agree, that is the best solution, so I pointed him there.

However do I see my mistake, I pointed him in the wrong place. I should have checked Mazdaparts.com ... not Japanparts.com (Current Dollar to Yen is Atrocious...)

Retractable
http://www.mazdaparts.com/ProductDet...000-1159943707
Currently $394.49

Non retractable
http://www.mazdaparts.com/ProductDet...000-1151625379
Currently $125.00

You may be able to find these even cheaper, used, refurb,
Hell, check a junkyard maybe you can pull one out of a totalled car.

Nonetheless the price should come down to around 1-2 grand depending.
Definitely worth doing, just an added expense of going turbo. Good Luck.

 

^^ cool, honestly i didnt even check the details of the OP, i just was side ranting on the subject

 

The Lotek pod really doesn't look bad imo if you are careful when you install it, and it's a very nice location for the gauges which is by FAR the most important thing when chosing a gauge pod. If you want to make it shiny, you can paint/clearcoat it pretty easily yourself.

 

i certainly agree on whats important, and thats why the only pods i would own are the vent pod and the lotek... but i've seen a few of them in person and i think they all looked crappy. you just cant get rid of the taped on look unless you mold it in

 

the feed pod still looks the best... haha. too bad it's rhd.

 

yeah FEED is perfect, perfectly backwards

 

Lotek pod - molded in; and the defrost pod..... I have 4 critical gauges; all very OEM looking; then ashtray for the Boost Controller and Turbo Timer, and my radar detector hidden in my head unit.... IMO that is the only way to go unless you go carputer.



A bit more buffing and the center gauge pod looks a lot better.