Gauges and where to put them?
 

I'm trying to figure out a good location for the following gauges to go along with my Greddy turbo that will do track days:
1) Lc-1 A/F ratio
2) Boost
3) Digital Temp

Which of these is the most important to be watching while track driving and am I missing any critical gauges? I have a 91 so I have Oil pressure in the dash.

I don't want to put gauges in the vents since it is a street driven car and my wife likes to crank the heat which tends to roast gauges.

I have a DIN spot below the radio and found a triple gauge pod from glowshift but I'm wondering if that will be too low to scan while on the track.

I've only seen A pillar pods for one or two gauges.

Wanted to see what other people run since searching only turns up info on electronic dashes or custom dash replacements which are more expensive and more exream than what I'm looking for.

Why do you have a track car that your wife rides in and needs heat. Kick her ass out.

Or get the gauge panel that mounts center dash, good for 3 gauges.

That's the GlowShift one I mentioned but would put the gauges right in front of the shifter. The radio is in the space above and I thought about switching it down so the gauges could go higher but not sure I could get a CD in around the shifter.

Is boost the only thing you stare at or do you need to be looking at A/F all the time too?

You shouldn't really be looking at either of them much once the car is set up right.
I'd be moreinterested in the oil pressure/temp and water temp on track.
Get an after market pressure gauge too, I wouldn't trust the stock one.

I have a 2000 and switched the stock stereo from the top position to middle in order possition a set of gauges higher. The whole CD into the stereo is a not an issue unless maybe you have installed a floor mount hurst shift lever for some reason in the stock position.

http://img806.imageshack.us/img806/5343/img0199p.jpg

Not tooooooo extreme :D

That sounds like my setup too:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/...f6a49a95_z.jpg

I have oil pressure, oil temp and boost. When I'm at the track they get the occasional glance but as you can imagine time not looking where you are going is limited! If I were to do it again I'd spend a bit more and get gauges that have an alarm/warning function.

I've been thinking about a blank panel too...but for the price of all the instrumentation I'm creeping up on the cost of an AIMDash.

I have oil temp, boost, and AFR in the radio area and the car is fast enough that I'm not really comfortable looking down at the gauges.

Use the 2 center vent holes and the 1 hole closest too the door.

I am putting my water/oil temp gauges in pods on top and to the sides of my gauge cluster so I can see them without taking my eyes off the track.

Either that or warning lights up there to tell you to look at the gauges. Can be done for cheap and pretty easy.

First of all, you shouldn't be tracking a miata with a greddy turbo setup. That's just asking for disaster, best of luck with that. Might i suggest bringing a crapload of extra studs and nuts :p

Attachment 193456

Attachment 193457

Looking down at THESE gauges is almost not an option for me when I'm driving. I take the time between turns to glance at one gauge at a time. Being able to look down tword the shifter is not a possibility once the car gets fast. I struggle to see my AFR gauge in my left vent hole on track, its been bugging me for the past few events not being able to see it easily.

I am still not sold on a digital dash, i really like being able to glance and know where the gauges "should" be rather than reading #s or having to really comprehend what each one I am able to glance over and know approximately where the gauge should stand in an instant.

That's a pretty nice setup, I don't like looking down to the vent area either. I have a similar rig with 3 autometer elite gauges in a molded plastic hood (oil temp, oil pressure, water temp) on the center dash cover. The nice thing about the gauges is they have a memory peak & hold function with user settable warning and alarm points. The entire - very bright - backlighting goes red in warning and strobes red in alarm. It's hard to miss. There's also contact closure outputs if you want to wire the alarm into the ECU.

[http://www.autometer.com/cat_gaugeli...&opid=1&szid=2

The hood is a Subaru fitment that only required a little trimming to match the contour of the Miata dash. My boost & AFR gauges are digital units mounted on a double A pillar pod. All gauges are pretty much line of site, only requiring a slight glance left or right. I'll see if I have any pics and post em up if anyone's interested.http://i944.photobucket.com/albums/a...P1010075-1.jpg

Attachment 193450
This is how I'm gonna try and see if its easy to look at, the eyeball gauges didn't get watched very much cause there so far out of LOS.

Get in the car, put your helmet on, and drive the car around the block. Visualize the lowest thing you can see while you are driving around in a normal position - typically this will be something like the horn button or the eyeball vents.

Never put gauges lower than that line in a track car. You may as well leave them in the trunk or mount them in the glovebox so your passenger can watch them for you. Gauges that are not in your direct line of sight while you are driving will NEVER get checked.

I ran gauges on the hood for a while, but it ends up breaking the hood up. Just too brittle to support the weight. I ended at a 3-gauge a-pillar pod. Ricey, but you cannot beat the functionality of a-pillar gauge. In the race car, I have five 52mm gauges lined up where the tach/speedo normally are (boost/WB/oil pres/water temp/oil temp, in that order). I watch the wideband very closely on straightaways, the wideband gets checked after every shift if I'm not busy sawing at the wheel. Water temp gets checked 2-3x a lap. Boost and oil pressure get checked every 2-3 laps. Oil temps get checked once a session (rx7 cooler = win).

This is how I have my boost gauge in my street car setup:

Attachment 193426

Drop an AFR gauge on the right side of the cluster and both gauges would be easy to read at a quick glance. Honestly though, you really only 'need' to watch your wideband on track, boost is handy as well, the other parameters (oil pressure, oil temp, water temp) can be just as easily serviced by an audible alarm and bright LED on the dash. If any of those exceed their limits, you know you need to back off immediately anyways.. We have 6 non-standard gauges on our time trial Evo and it's more trouble than it's worth to bother reading them every lap.