2017 Ford GT’s Digital Instrument Display
10-Inch Display Changes Information Readout to Suit Ford Supercar’s Five Different Drive Modes
We’re still waiting (impatiently) for the final horsepower and torque figures of the 2017 Ford GT. In the meantime, Ford has released other numbers: 10 and 5.
No, 10 isn’t the number of radiators the blue oval beast will have. It’s not the number of times a person will snap their head back to get a look at the GT (although we could believe it if it was because it’s a striking design). No, 10 is how big the GT’s digital instrument display will be in inches. According to Ford, “Designers and engineers worked closely with Pektron (for electronic design, development, implementation and manufacture) and Conjure (for graphical design) to create forward-looking renderings that are painstakingly animated, include highlighted font, color and responsiveness, and avoid driver distraction and eye strain.”
Okay, so what does the number five have to do with the GT? That’s how many different drive modes it’ll have: Normal, Wet, Sport, Track, and V-Max. The readout of the 10-inch display will change according to which of those modes the GT is in.
In normal mode, the display will prominently show the speedometer in the middle, the gear selection on the right, and the fuel level and temperature up on the left. The 3,000-to-7,000-rpm range of the tachometer will get more visible real estate than the lower rpms, which will be quickly revved past in most occasions (if the GT is being driven the way it’s meant to be driven).
The Wet mode is very similar to the Normal setting. The key difference is that Wet mode displays some of the graphics in a way that reminds the driver of wet asphalt.
Sport mode puts the gear selection front and center. The speedometer gets relocated over to the right.
In Track mode, information is relayed through an easy-to-see red theme. The most important info – gear selection and engine speed – is the most prominently shown. Coolant temp, oil pressure, oil temp, and fuel level (in percent instead of miles to empty) are placed bottom right.
Top speed is the main focus of the V-Max setting, so it directs the eyes toward the speedo above all else. The tach is shown, but in the form of a slim line instead of a bar to keep it from distracting the driver from that all-important three-digit number they’re trying to hit. That’s flanked by the fuel level on the left and the coolant temperature, oil pressure, oil temperature, and turbocharger boost readouts on the right.
This new display tech will come standard in the 2017 GT, but Ford has no intention to limit it to just that low-volume halo vehicle. The full digital instrument display tech will make its way to other Ford vehicles in the future.
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via [Ford]
