An OEM can equip cars to display thousands of different parameters. Since most of these are of no value during operation or even more frequently subject to misinterpretation by the driver, there's little point in having them other than for 'bling'.

Jags and most other modern cars have dumbed-down coolant temp gauges that sit at the middle of the 'normal' range until something really goes wrong. This feature is an evolution of gauges that once indicated actual temps. The problem was that very few drivers understood what the variations in temp meant and when to react.

Have a lurk at any of the classic car discussion boards and you'll see lots of people panicking when they see a rise in temp of 20*F coolant temp when sitting in traffic.

Oil temps fall into the 'of little value' as well as 'easily misinterpreted' categories.

 

For most transportation vehicles I agree. For a high performance car, I couldn't disagree more. With a highly tuned sports car, a significant number of drivers will be pushing it to its limits. If they don't understand what the operating parameters mean, they shouldn't have one. I don't want to be pushing a car to the point of triggering the idiot lights before I back off. Particularly with a supercharged engine, the oil temp and water temps operate more independently of each other. Monitoring the oil temp protects the rod and main bearings, where doing so with the water temp protects the piston and valves. I would have thought with all the electronics on the F-type, those measurements could be easily displayed on the screen (the sensors are all in place so why not?). I personally would want to see oil temp, oil pressure, water temp, boost, diff. temp, and either an ammeter and/or voltmeter (either interprets the info I would like, both would offer better on-board diagnostics). I've never seen a production car with the differential gauge, but I've installed one on every track car I've had with an LSD. (and yes, the R's are overheating their differentials on the track).

 

It won't be long until someone who tracks their car on a regular basis creates an F-Type A-Pillar pod gauge mod.

 

This class of driver probably represents less than 1% of the total. The only time any fluid or component will reach the limit will be on the track, not while being driven legally on the street.

 

+1

 

I've always wondered how safe that is in the event the airbag in that pillar goes off. I'd certainly be up for some old fashioned Prince of Darkness (Lucas) gauges.

 

The entirety of that 1 percentile must be on this forum, then.
You're making a huge assumption. People aren't ponying up an extra $40k for the R because they plan on behaving themselves. "It's good to be bad".

 

Well, if created properly, I assume you could keep the air bag, but I'd imagine getting hit in the head by oil temp, water temp, and boost gauges might really suck in a high speed accident!

 

Nah, they're ponying up the extra $40K because they can, not because they're good enough or able to actually use it. 99% will never see a track, but more often valet-parked out in front of the latest hot spot.

 

I don't know what I fear most... having the car Valeted in front of a hot spot, or tracking it. I just haven't got the cajones to track a $100k car yet...

 

That's a sad indictment regarding the number of posers spending $40k for a letter in the alphabet, but I fear it may be true.

 

That's always been the case ... allowing for inflation.

However, poseurs aside, it should not be a reason as posted earlier to cater to
the lowest common denominator.

Doing so does nothing to advance automotive technology, or the human race.

People who can't cope should walk, take transit, or drive an econobox.

Maybe Apple will create a car that can cope with the current level of "expertise".
After all, they had an operating system code named Darwin.

 

But not unique to an F-type or Jaguar. Probably the same percentage applies to any brand of performance or exotic car.

Having enough money or sufficiently creative financing to afford one of these cars is not connected in any way to driving abilities, technical knowledge or even common sense that would allow the car to be operated safely at it's limits.

General Motors and most other giant OEMs learned in the '60s that the average driver doesn't know what to do with even the most basic info of oil pressure and coolant temp info, so deleted the gauges and replaced them with idiot lights. Apparently the general public expressed a demand for gauges vs. lights, so today we have a few gauges -but they are constructed to display a constant 'normal' reading unless things are actually wrong.

Don't blame Jaguar- something Pogo said about finding the enemy applies to this situation

 

Nice reference - Walt Kelly cleverly changed "We have met the enemy and they are ours" to