1997 Chevrolet Corvette - Car and Driver
Some Corvette partisans will see surrender in the new instruments, a cluster of simple black dials swept majestically by long, graceful needles. Beyond the pure delight these new instruments provide to the eye, they also signal a change in attitude at Corvette headquarters. In its quest to be different, it at first shunned the simple, round gauges that drivers around the world like in favor of Atari displays for speed and revs. When the critics protested, Corvette designers took a grudging step backward to needles and numbers by installing a halfhearted analog arrangement. In a complete about-face, this new car embraces what we might call the "car idiom"—the accepted way of doing things—and then improves on it. Look at the dash cluster: simple black dials like those of every Toyota and Honda, yet far more... Good ideas weren't rejected in this car just because the Japanese had them first. The end result of all this unprecedented open-mindedness is a high-performance two-seater that is easy to love, not something we ever said about the previous-generation Corvette. With this new edition, the Corvette has become a sports car with great latitude. Corvette partisans will read that as a watering down, the dreaded. Source: www.caranddriver.com
