Miguel Sánchez
Cubic centimeters, cylinders, power, brakes, aerodynamic coefficient ... Almost always when we talk about cars we like to look at those data that impress, those that make the difference between one and the other. However, in a mechanism as complex as a modern car ... Even the smallest detail is essential. In fact, on the dashboard there are some of those little details, totally necessary to know if things are going well or not: we are talking about the fault witnesses.
"Sneaks","those lights that are there", the "little symbols”… We have heard them call them in many ways, but the truth is that without them we would be quite lost when it comes to knowing what happens under the hood of our car. Now that cars are increasingly digital and touchscreens offer more information than ever, it will seem to many of the Pleistocene to talk about some curious failure witnesses mounted on some 30-year-old FIATs. But, anyway ... This is a classic motor magazine. Do not? 😉
THE STRAIGHT LINES OF THE 80S
During the 80s there was a line that defined the design of the bodies: the straight line. Inspired by futuristic prototypes and rectilinear developed in the 70s -like the Lancia Stratos HF Zero Bertone- Italian designers bet on the development of cars with an aesthetic similar to what you can achieve playing with LEGO blocks. An aesthetic of which the FIAT Pace, tourism launched by the Italian house in 1978 and which came to have a sports version developed by Abarth and another convertible from Bertone.
But today, what interests us about this aesthetic is how it is embodied in the interior. Specifically in some curious luminous elements housed in the panel -rectilinear obviously- of this popular model. And it is that, You have to see the inventiveness FIAT designers threw into the matter at a time when touchscreens were just an illusion of the future.
Some profiles appear to the right of the panel: one responds to the image of the car itself, while the other responds to the more specific part of the gearbox. They take up not little space, but they have a very well-intentioned role: place the fault witnesses in a real context. What jumps a witness relative to the brakes? Well, it lights up just at the point that coincides with the wheels inside the rudimentary "dibujo”Of the car that appears on the panel. And so with the oil, the ventilation… Isn't it irrationally delicious? Look at the seconds that go from minute three. That "check-control»With an Italian accent ...
THE SHORT LIFE OF A VERY VISUAL IDEA
Although ideas similar to this can be seen in other panels of a FIAT that in the 80 seemed to be in full swing futuristic maelstrom -retro-futuristic we would say today-, the truth is that this place the snitches in a specific visual context thanks to strange and huge diagrams ... It was not very successful, disappearing after a few years.
At the end of the day, it is not so difficult to learn what the multiple fault indicators that we can find on any panel refer to and to which specific parts of the car refer. However, although this idea incorporated into the FIAT Ritmo did not survive ... There are two things about that nice model that did transcend time.
The first is the straight lines of its bodywork, perpetuated in the Type, a model that succeeded it in 1988. And the second is that, after more than 30 years ... many current auxiliary screens show fault indicators incorporated into visual representations of the car . So, Although these lights of the FIAT of the 80 may seem somewhat ridiculous ... The truth is that the past always returns. Although it is covered with a digital fur.
* News Via Jalopnik
