[T3] Gauges...more

[FE Meek]

>> It's also important to keep in mind that VW sold the exact same cars for use in northern africa...


Hi there
When I was surfing in North Africa in the late sixties, (did I just admit this?), there were many air-cooleds on the roads.  Today, even in these maintenance-intense third world areas, (Cuba comes to mind in keeping old iron moving), Morocco and Algeria have few, if any VW air-cooleds still running there and it is not, to be sure, because of a dearth of pieces and parts.  But, I am not implying that a lack of gauges was the culprit either.  It is simply a harsh, hot environment where even WW2 German transports, (some Ur-VW's), lie in sand-swept graves on the outskirts of towns and cities, stripped of usable panels for home improvements.
But, Dave P is quite correct that VW, the "people's car" was modestly appointed for reasons both of cost and simplicity.  My experience outside the insular worlds of car collection is that most folks don't look at much on the dashboards in any case...one of the reasons, no doubt, that modern cars have to put an audio reminder on the gas gauge when the tank is low...really?
This experience was reinforced in my college days when I made fair bucks, (for the times), doing simple, routine maintenance on Bugs and Busses for those unwilling or unwitting to do so themselves.  "What are those red and green lights for anyway(s)?"  was not an uncommon question in the day.  So gauges?  
Remember, too, that even Porsche after 1956 took the numbers off of the oil temperature gauge scales, (even on the Carreras whose 4-cam race design redlined at 7+K), and today on the eponymous web sites there is continuing controversy as to the interpretation of this now seemingly amorphous green-into-red scale.  And, these cars were built for the discriminating driver who presumably actually looked at the gauges.

>> You never really know where the danger zone is....


I have to take issue with this in theory.  Whether we do so by "sense," intuition or comparative readings on gauges, (or better, all of these), it is clear that "we" can know the zones, variable and broad reaching as they often appear.  Our cars are better maintained, more assiduously researched by those with an abiding interest in their longevity.  But, as some posters over the years have noted, no matter how careful and observant we are, bad machining happens, bad judgment happens and the entropic arrow of time always happens.  And, this last element of human existence is what we end up fighting endlessly...and losing.  
But, I know that when I climb a pass that my oil might do well at plus 250*F, or my cylinder heads might survive in excess of 400*F, but I'm going to be increasingly observant of my senses, my intuition and my gauges and to try, in the short term, to avoid the arrow...
Best regards,
FE Meek






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