Silly Camaro Gauges

Photos of the production version of the 2010 Camaro are out, and it looks like GM has retained the silly retro muscle car gauges they had on the concept vehicle. In front of the shifter, and down low away from the driver's forward line of sight, are four analog pods showing engine torque, battery voltage, coolant temperature, and oil pressure.

Photo borrowed from Autoblog

This is a strange idea. If the information is important, it should be at eye level. Many high performance cars have important or interesting information (turbo boost) shown on pods mounted to the A-pillar. If the information isn't that important, then use the space for something that is, like a slot for your cool retro Ray-Ban sunglasses. Who really tracks battery voltage? Either you have enough to crank or you don't. And torque, who needs a torque meter when you have a tachometer and a throttle to give you the same basic information?

A better idea would have been to integrate an accelerometer display into the IP, so the driver could lay down some rubber and then see how many g's they managed to pull.