Skip advert
Advertisement

Pontiac GTO hood tach - Art of Speed

A prototypal head-up display predating digital examples by decades, the Pontiac GTO's bonnet-mounted tach was both flamboyant and flawed

Pontiac GTO hood tach

Porsche puts it dead centre, Bentley at times turns it upside down and Pagani has been known to embed it within the steering wheel boss. Yet almost all tachometers share one common and perhaps obvious principle: they don’t form part of a car’s exterior.

For the 1967 GTO, newly available with a V8 bored out to 6549cc and 355bhp, Pontiac had other ideas. By then the ‘Goat’ was a fast-selling hit. A machine cleverly marketed as a drag-strip warrior, it celebrated partnerships with popular suppliers such as Hurst (for the floor-mounted four-speed shifter) and championed ram-air intakes, a wide track, big displacement and as little weight as was reasonably possible. 

Advertisement - Article continues below

Pontiac, nevertheless, hadn’t conquered the rev counter. Where to house it without sacrificing aesthetics or the clock with which it competed for dashboard real estate? Back then the ability to observe and act upon the number of times your crankshaft revolved every minute was regarded in the same way as monitoring boost pressure is today. Nice – and fashionable to some – but non-essential. On early GTO models, where a tach was optional, the driver was even obliged to set their own red line using a central stud! It was, simply, an afterthought. A trinket.

Skip advert
Advertisement
Advertisement - Article continues below

> Track-only 838bhp Pagani Huayra R revealed with naturally-aspirated V12

Pontiac initially opted for the far right binnacle of a traditional cluster, which was a mistake. ‘The instruments are all well-placed and legible, except for the tachometer, which is terrible,’ was the verdict from Car and Driver in 1964. ‘It’s too far to the right to be glanced at during a hard run.’

One solution was to bolt a pod onto the steering column – a common aftermarket addition – but this would tarnish the handsomely pared-back interior while forcing the driver to look down too far (not a very good idea in something so shockingly potent but appallingly under-tyred). 

Pontiac’s idiosyncratic and arguably even less practical answer was part no. 6468453, which was a hood-mounted tach costing $63.19. Pop-riveted on and standing approximately three inches tall, its backlit dial showed a red line starting at 5200rpm – the torque of Pontiac’s High Output engine was absurd – and optimistically running to 8000rpm.

A prototypal head-up display predating digital examples by decades, this tach was flamboyant and flawed, chiefly because it was susceptible to being knocked out of calibration if the hood was slammed shut. To other drivers it appeared merely as an alien lump a few inches from the GTO’s either twin (non-functional) or single (genuine) air intake. But to the owners who squinted so hard to read them? A masterpiece.

Skip advert
Advertisement
Skip advert
Advertisement

Most Popular

Porsche's EV U-turn means more new petrol cars and hybrids are coming
2025 Porsche 911 GT3
News

Porsche's EV U-turn means more new petrol cars and hybrids are coming

The 911 will get even more exclusive and desirable variants with increased customisability going forward
12 Mar 2025
New Mercedes CLA revealed – BMW 2-series rival packs EV and hybrid power
2025 Mercedes CLA front
News

New Mercedes CLA revealed – BMW 2-series rival packs EV and hybrid power

Mercedes’ junior four-door saloon will reappear in its third iteration in 2025, with electric and AMG guises to follow
13 Mar 2025
​Best hot hatchbacks 2025 – from grassroots greats to supercar slayers
Best hot hatchbacks 2025
Best cars

​Best hot hatchbacks 2025 – from grassroots greats to supercar slayers

Contracted though the hot hatch market may be, there are still some great models out there, from the electric Alpine A290 to the five-cylinder Audi RS…
10 Mar 2025