All-digital instrument clusters are all the rage these days. High-resolution screens give you nearly unlimited options for displaying vehicle information, so it’s no surprise the all-new 2020 Chevrolet Corvette has one standard. Join us behind the wheel to see what it can show you.
If you ever sat in a seventh-generation Corvette, you’ll be familiar with some of this. The C7 had a combo analog/digital instrument cluster with a customizable screen, and the C8 ditches the needles and dials for an expanded screen. Although it’s super customizable, there are a few digital gauges that don’t move: water temperature and fuel are always on the bottom, and speed is always in or just off the center of the screen. As before, there are different screens for each driving mode, but you can also select your favorite screen and keep it up all the time. Everything’s controlled from the right spoke of the steering wheel, and you get cool animations as the screen changes.
If you leave the screens tied to the driving mode, you’ll become most familiar with the default Tour screen, indicated by a drawing of a road in the bottom center and cool blue tones. It features a dial-style tachometer in the center with speed and gear position in the center. To the left are two customizable tiles (top and bottom), which in these photos are displaying the electronically controlled limited-slip differential’s status on top and tire pressures and temperatures on the bottom. You can choose from those as well as battery, fuel economy, g-force, oil temperature, oil pressure, and transmission fluid. On the right is the Driver Information Center, a multifunction display that scrolls through six pages: the trip computer, stereo, performance, maintenance, options (settings), and “Simplify,” each with its own submenus as you scroll down. In the photos, ours is on the Performance Timer display in the Performance page. “Simplify” makes the tiles on the left side disappear.
You’ll be next-best acquainted with the Sport screen, as the car will restart in Sport mode if you left it in Sport the last time you turned it off (same for Tour, but it won’t work for any other mode). Sport gets angrier red tones and a more stylized tachometer to let you know it means business, and the gear position indicator moves to the center and bumps the speedometer down and to the right. In case you’re unsure, a drawing of a twisty road and a tachometer at the bottom also indicate Sport mode. The customizable displays to the left and right of the tachometer remain the same as Tour mode.
If you’re like us and prefer to set up a car exactly the way you want it, you might skip both Tour and Sport and go straight for Z mode by pressing the Z button on the left spoke of the steering wheel. This is your custom mode, where you can pick and choose engine, transmission, exhaust, and suspension settings, and it gets its own display screen, too. We’ve got ours set up to look like the Sport display screen, but with oil temperature and g-force on the left side of the display. A stylized Z icon at the bottom center indicates Z mode, as does the light-up Z on the steering wheel button.
Your other two displays are dependent on external conditions. You’re likely to use Weather mode more often, so we’ll start there. It looks almost identical to Tour, save a snowflake and raindrop icon in the bottom center. You’ll also notice the limited-slip display has been replaced with the battery voltage in the top left of our display.
Then there’s the fun mode: Track. This is where the big changes happen. All the other modes keep the same layout, but Track tosses most of it out the window. The tachometer is now a strip across the top of the screen, closest to the driver’s line of sight. The gear indicator is big and smack in the center where you can’t miss it, the speed just below that. To the left, there are now four customizable tiles with big, easy-to-read fonts. Ours is set up to show the limited-slip differential status, oil temperature, tire temperatures and pressures, and g-forces. The right side display remains the same as the other modes with its multiple pages and submenus, and the water temperature and fuel gauges stay where they are at the bottom. A drawing of a racetrack at the bottom center reminds you, in case you couldn’t tell, you’re in Track mode.
Lastly, there’s a secret stealth mode. Turn the interior dimmer switch all the way down to its lowest setting, and everything on the instrument cluster screen will disappear except the speedometer.
Check out this video for a closer look.
Video Source: Jeremy Welborn via YouTube
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Source: WORLD NEWS
