Anyone know what month and year 85 MPH gauges were installed?

I believe it was Federal mandate for cars 81-83.

 

I followed Corvettes at the time when they were changing over. I bought a new corvette in Apr.'79, it had the 140 mph gauge but a friends car that was delivered in aug. also a '79 had the 85mph unit. If I remember correctly all 1980 cars were required to have the 85mph units. They lasted until 1985 in US cars not totally sure about Ferraris my '86 328 brochure shows 180 mph gauge. Regards, Vern

 

Joan Claybrook was the person heading the Federal Highway Safety mandate which brought about that silly regulations forcing all (maybe most) except imported cars from getting a speedo faster than 85. If you search google for her tenure and her mandates then you should be able to get the right answer. Good luck. Believe 1980-1983 is accurate.

 

It was a reg. for all, including imported cars. Even my 1982 honda V45 motorcycle had a 85mph head. I am fairly sure it was thru 1985 I checked some car brochures that I have from that era they show in '85 but not in '86. Good ol' Joan what a moron. LOL. Regards, Vern

 

My 1980 gtsi was update to 180mph some time before me, so its a pretty sure thing it was @ 85 from the factory

 

I'm gonna say thru '85 too. My '84 truck has the 85mph speedo.

 

They were gone on QVs. My 83 didn't come with an 85 mph speedo stock.

 

80-82 is the best guess and even then it was hit and miss with Ferrari. I own an 82 Alfa Spider and 2 1980 VW Sciroccos. All three have 85 speedo's. It was a US thing that was intended to slow drivers on the highway by not giving us big numbers to look at while driving. Didn't work.

The 308 180 has always puzzled me. I have seen and still have the pictures I took of NEW 82 308's with 180. My little photo album of 308 pictures that I took over the years starts in 1981. Early on (between 81 and the summer of 83) about half had the 85 and half had the 180. All of these were 2V cars. This is something I have been paying attention to since also. I collect serial #'s on the 2V 308 (don't ask) and I always check and note which speedometer it has. I have not been able to find any pattern to it. It's all over the board.
I have no memory of any QV ever having the 85. If any did it was very early in the series and was soon changed across the board to 180. My 84 has the 180 (it was built Jan 30th 1984).

 

My old 1981 308 GTSi which was made in December 1980 had the 85 MPH speedo head in it.

 

It started in 1980 for sure. I had a 1982 280ZX with the 85 mph speedometer and when I looked at "fixing" it, only the 1979 280ZX was available with the 100+ mph unit.

I think it lasted at least through 1985 because my Corvette had the digital dash wherein the digital number would read any actual speed but the bar graph (which was considered the speedometer for federal purposes) stopped at 85 mph.

 

I may be wrong but I think the Federal Mandate ( or whatever you call it ) was lifted in 83. It just took manufacturers a while to use up the stock they still had (why put a new 150 in when you still have thousands of 85's on the shelf). Ferrari didn't seem to care either way during the whole period.

 

ditto here

 

According to "the original Ferrari v8" by Keith Bluemel.

page 46, second colum, 3rd paragraph.

Legislation introduced in 1979. rescinded in mid-82

 

Like the others, my '83 308 (June 83 production) doesn't.

My Mondial 8 (October 81 production) does.

* both my V8s are USA spec cars.

 

cool. thank you.