Now, before your blood starts boiling and you prepare an angry tirade for the comments section, just hear me out...
I had to drag my tools out of my daily driver for some motorcycle repairs at home. It just so happens that my plastic Craftsman toolbox fits perfectly in the pit of the Z06' trunk. I mean PERFECTLY!
Did I get you? Did you think I was implying something about The Corvette demographic? No? Okay fine, I now return you to your regularly scheduled Long-Term post.
2002 Corvette Z06: Heads Up!
I've always been a fan of head-up displays, but I get the feeling that I'm in the minority on this. Every time I hop in our Corvette, the HUD is turned off. I think that these displays should be more widespread, keeping drivers' eyes on the road. Well, that, and I always wanted to be a fighter pilot and HUDs are cool. Now if only I could get some sort of targeting reticle for the guy that just cut me off.
The Corvette's HUD isn't perfect. The display seems outdated, even for 2002. And, as you can see from the shot above, the dash-top panels can cause some distracting reflections in certain lighting conditions. All things considered, I'm still a fan, and good for Chevy for sticking with it all these years.
Lt. Cdr. Mark Takahashi, Associate Editor @ 50,730 miles
bimmerjay says:
09:57 AM, 09/ 2/10
It looks like the dig dash from the Mercury Sable my parents had back in 1986.
felonious says:
10:03 AM, 09/ 2/10
A targeting reticle in the HUD that tracked my eye movements would give me a nerdgasm.
inlinesix says:
10:38 AM, 09/ 2/10
"...you prepare an angry tirade for the comments section"
oh come on now, that NEVER happens :)
maxedoutmax says:
11:02 AM, 09/ 2/10
Not a huge fan of the HUD. It works great as a show off device, but besides that... meh its almost useless during a bright sunny day which is every day in cali (in the summer).
formerhpb says:
11:45 AM, 09/ 2/10
I do miss the HUD on my old Grand Prix GTP Comp G. However, everything else about my current G8 GT is so much better. The HUD was definitely the coolest thing to show people though. They'd all be amazed that this magical image all of a sudden appeared on the windshield when they sat in the drivers seat.
hybris says:
11:48 AM, 09/ 2/10
That HUD is way way too small.*
*Unless that is just because of the choice of camera settings/lenses.
stingray454 says:
12:24 PM, 09/ 2/10
If you guys ever take this car to the track (where it belongs), you'll appreciate the HUD even more. It really works great when turns are coming at you fast on a road course, and you want to note your turn entry speed, apex speed, and top speed. The shift light on the HUD is also a nice feature, as is the "Check Gauges" which appears on the HUD if any dash gauge is in the red zone.
BTW, and interesting factoid about the Z06's HUD: it was designed and built by Hughes Aircraft, which GM happened to own at the time. Hughes Aircraft makes the HUD's for most of the U.S.'s fighter aircraft.
@hybris - it's the camera angle - the HUD display is plenty big. You can also adjust its brightness, up-down position, and amount of information to display. I find the digital tachometer bar graph kind of hard to read and somewhat useless, but other than that, it's great.
tmanz says:
12:32 PM, 09/ 2/10
"It looks like the dig dash from the Mercury Sable my parents had back in 1986."
they had a HUD?
carguy622 says:
12:48 PM, 09/ 2/10
@tmanz: No, they did not, however you could get a set of digital gauges in place of the analog gauges. The digital gauges looked very similar to the Corvette's HUD.
fuhteng says:
01:21 PM, 09/ 2/10
I will admit, I have HUD envy. I think it would be cool to have in my car, but only so long as I can shut it off (obviously not an issue in the Corvette however).
c5z06er says:
03:17 PM, 09/ 2/10
I like the HUD in my Z06. I agree with Stringray454 once again: The tach is the most useless feature displayed. I've definitely been watching my revs on the HUD and banged off the rev-limiter. When drag racing, be sure to use the analog tach and not the HUD.
mptlptr says:
04:52 PM, 09/ 2/10
Mark - good (correct) job on calling it a HEAD UP display and not a HEADS UP display.
HUD is very useful, especially on the track. And it adjusts bright enough so that it can easily be seen on the brightest of days and the brightest of road surfaces.
Great feature. I wouldn't buy a Vette without one. Good thing it's standard on the Z06.
mtakahashi says:
05:26 PM, 09/ 2/10
Funny, the track component of the HUD didn't even cross my mind. I drove some C5 Corvettes at the Bondurant School in Arizona and I thought the HUD provided a marginal amount of information.
The speedometer was really the most useful -- as I tried to incrementally increase my speed coming out of turns and at the end of the very short straights. The tachometer bar was pretty useless, as it lagged behind a bit and was hard to read. The temp gauge helped a bit, since the weather in June had the thermometer hitting 114 degrees...in the shade. If the coolant temp was too high, I'd give the car an extra cool-down lap so the radiator wouldn't puke its guts out (it happened to me once that week).
csubowtie says:
10:59 AM, 09/ 3/10
All I can say is that I wish I had one in my WRX. And if I ever get a Corvette or CTS-V, I want it to have one. Does the CTS-V have one?
kevm14 says:
11:25 AM, 09/ 4/10
My 05 CTS-V does not. None of the first generation did (04-07). I can't speak about the second (current) generation (09+).
stovt001 says:
12:36 PM, 09/ 4/10
I've only experienced a HUD on a C6 Corvette in an autocross event. It wasn't very helpful in an autocross setting, but I can imagine it would be nice on a full track.