60's GM S/W With Speedometer That Changed Color ??

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When i was a kid in the 70's a friend had an old Station Wagon either a Buick or an Oldsmobile with a speedometer that was just a line that appeared and every so many MPH it would change color.. Does anyone know what vehicle this was in?
 
Buick ribbon speedo. My mother had two Electra 225's in the 1960's and both had the ribbon speedometers that changed color as the speed increased.
 
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All Oldsmobiles featured the "speed bar" speedometer. Introduced in 1959, the speedometer used a rolling black cylinder with sections painted brilliant green, yellow and bright red. As the car went from a standing stop forward in speed, the cylinder rolled, first exposing the green in a window that matched the numeric speed on stationary speed dial for low speeds, yellow at moderate speeds, and finally red at highway speeds. Drivers who topped the car over 100 mph moved the cylinder into an area where only the black base color was visible. For 1963, Oldsmobile would revert to a standard speed needle sweeping over a calibrated set of speeds instead.

1961-1964 Oldsmobile 88
 
Originally Posted By: jhs914
Buick ribbon speedo. My mother had two Electra 225's in the 1960's and both had the ribbon speedometers that changed color as the speed increased.
The Buick deuce and a quarters were wonderful cars.
 
I did a Google search and couldn't find any pictures of this speedo.
frown.gif
 
I could not find it in the google search either.. I always thought that was so cool when i was a kid and even now...
 
Originally Posted By: double vanos
That was back when the gear shift was: P-N-D-L-R. It made doing reverse change ups a breeze, which made for tons of bias ply tire smoke! Ah, the good old days....


whoa that would take a bit to get used to! were other old cars like that?
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
All Oldsmobiles featured the "speed bar" speedometer. Introduced in 1959, the speedometer used a rolling black cylinder with sections painted brilliant green, yellow and bright red.


When I was a kid, we had a '59 Oldsmobile with that speedometer. I always tried to talk dad into driving the car "in the red".
 
These are the only color changing speedos I remember. Forget the orange 55, aim for 145!

145kph2.jpg
 
''whoa that would take a bit to get used to! were other old cars like that?"

Lots of late 50s and early 60s GM cars had reverse all the way down like that! Trying to think when they went to the P-R-N-D-L set up. Our next door neighbors' 63 Impala had the later set up, but growing up a lot of my friends drove old Oldmobiles and Buicks that had reverse all the way down. Back then Buicks had tons of torque ( and 8 mpg ) and tire smoke shows were the norm!
 
My grandfather had a 1959 or 1969 Mercedes Benz with a color changing speedo. I think at mid speeds it was red and yellow stripes, then red over a certain speed. Also had 4 on the tree, a steering column manual shifter for a 4 speed transmission.
 
Originally Posted By: abycat
Originally Posted By: double vanos
That was back when the gear shift was: P-N-D-L-R. It made doing reverse change ups a breeze, which made for tons of bias ply tire smoke! Ah, the good old days....


whoa that would take a bit to get used to! were other old cars like that?


That's why PRNDL was turned into law, and why Chrysler had to give up their pushbutton transmission. And why in some old TV shows they show someone driving through their garage--I don't think "all" automatics were PNDLR, so when buying a new car one could get "bit" by that change.
 
Originally Posted By: double vanos
''whoa that would take a bit to get used to! were other old cars like that?"

Lots of late 50s and early 60s GM cars had reverse all the way down like that! Trying to think when they went to the P-R-N-D-L set up. Our next door neighbors' 63 Impala had the later set up, but growing up a lot of my friends drove old Oldmobiles and Buicks that had reverse all the way down. Back then Buicks had tons of torque ( and 8 mpg ) and tire smoke shows were the norm!


By about '63-'64 the last of the Hydramatic "315" were produced....It was the last with Reverse all the way down. Chevys never had "315's"...Only the luxury brands Olds/Cadillac/Pontiac got them.

The Powerglide (What would be in a '63 Impala) started using the now standard PRNDL in 1958, '50-'57 used PNDLR.

The first GM auto to use PRNDL was the Turboglide in 1957.

The Original Hydramatic had no Park quadrant, It locked down in Reverse with the engine off, You had to put it in Neutral before starting the engine....Or start the engine in Reverse on high idle & quickly figure out why you need to shift it to Neutral....
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
These are the only color changing speedos I remember. Forget the orange 55, aim for 145!

145kph2.jpg




That's an aftermarket silk screened overlay for a Buick turbo Regal.I've got the same on my 87 Buick grand national as it was a popular upgrade. The factory speedo had 55 in orange but only went to 85.
 
Originally Posted By: double vanos
''whoa that would take a bit to get used to! were other old cars like that?"

Lots of late 50s and early 60s GM cars had reverse all the way down like that! Trying to think when they went to the P-R-N-D-L set up. Our next door neighbors' 63 Impala had the later set up, but growing up a lot of my friends drove old Oldmobiles and Buicks that had reverse all the way down. Back then Buicks had tons of torque ( and 8 mpg ) and tire smoke shows were the norm!

Pretty sure my dad's '58 Impala had PRNDL. I never drove it, but I was always fascinated with anything to do with cars. When I learned on my fiancee's '75 Ford Maverick, I recall asking, "Where's the PRNDL?", because its shifter read PRND21.
 
Originally Posted By: ledslinger
My grandfather had a 1959 or 1969 Mercedes Benz with a color changing speedo. I think at mid speeds it was red and yellow stripes, then red over a certain speed. Also had 4 on the tree, a steering column manual shifter for a 4 speed transmission.

1959 would have been the Ponton model, I think?
 
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