Tex Mex

Ive gotta 85 Berlinetta 305 automatic and I love it but it I'm just wondering if it's true

'89 IROC Vert

I'm saying this predicated only on the fact that I grew up in the '80s.

The Berlinetta was the lower line of camaros; they came stock with v-6s and I'd imagine that the 305 was the biggest they'd go.

Mirsiro427

Actually the Berlinetta wasn't the lower line Camaro. It was the luxury-techno gee whiz model. It actually cost about the same as a Z28. The Sport Coupe was the base model in the years that the Berlinetta was available. As far as a 350 in a Berlinetta, it didn't happen at Norwood or Van Nuys. The 350 came back to the Camaro after the Berlinetta was dropped from the lineup.

Guest

Seeing as how there was no 350 in any Berlinetta, and there was no 350 with a manual trans in any thirdgen at all, I am gonna say... No.

raptoryfm660r

Tex Mex,

Does yours have that swivel pod in the middle?

If it does whats behind it where the radio goes in most Camaro's?

Chet

86 sports coupe

Wasnt the berlinetta the fastest 3rd gen?

robertg

iTrader: (2)

Chet:

The Berlinetta os 82 and 83 had the standard dash panel.
In 84, when they went to the digital cluster with the radio pod, the dash panel where the a/c and radio typically were located in the sport coupes and z28's was molded to have a ridge like the rest of the berlinetta dash.

From 84-86, the berlinetta called for a specific dash panel with "camaro" molded into the plastic on the far right-hand side.

91Zman

and as robertg has said the side of the gauges pod,the rest of the dash continued all of the way down to where the center console meets

robertg

iTrader: (2)

here's another question.

are the mounting points of the standard dash and the 84-86 berlinetta dashes the same?

reason i ask is my local yard has an 84 in, and i like the dash for a custom interior idea i'm thinking of.

i have a sport coupe, standard cluster interior

raptoryfm660r

I have got to see one of these dashes in the flesh.

Having a pod sounds like it has been planted and its in the sprouting stage.

I bet if you water the pod that comes in the berlinetta it could grow. Its just that no one has ever thought about doing it.

Water at your own RISK.

Chet

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

As previously mentioned - the 350 returned to the Camaro after the Berlinetta was cut from production in 1986.

The V8 Berlinetta was only lucky enough to recieve the 5 Speed in the 1983 Model year. The LG4 that chevy stuffed under the 84-85-86 Berlinetta hood was only allowed to be mated with the 700R4 Automatic. The V6 models had a T5 as standard equipment.

The "pods" on the berlinetta dash are "teloscoping" ,....... they are mounted on tracks so all the controls in the car are at the drivers finger-tips. (unless you are like me and like option buttons everywhere !)

As for what is mounted behind the berlinetta radio - It's the cruise control switch (on most Berlinettas anyway.) Chevy also decided to mount that option button on the console from time to time.

The Dash Housing mount locations are the same. As a matter of fact the firewall electrical connector is Very similar to that of a Carbed Z28 car (only the wipers & "low coolant" needed rewiring) I swapped the entire analog interior from an 86 Z28 and installed in into an 85 Berlintta. There is a LOT involved with that swap and you better have a complete doner car if you want to make that idea work !!

P.S. The "watering" trick doesn't work ! I had a Gray, V6, hardtop car that I converted to a Red, T-top, V8 and then sold it to a buddy a few years later. He submerged the car a week after buying it - The only thing that grew was a pain in his head !

robertg

iTrader: (2)

John,
I'm simply inquiring about physically bolting the dash panel in place. by dash panel, I mean the dash as it spans from door to door.

raptoryfm660r

John in RI,

That really looks good in the picture how you have it set up.

Thanks for letting us view that area.

I just wonder where the person is right now who drew the first rough drawing of the dash or pod area.

Chet

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

The Dash "pad" is exactly the same as the camaro....... The dash "housing" has the same mounting points as the regular camaro dash housing. (2 screws under each side-2 nuts on the top corners, and the 7mm screws that are lined along the top of the firewall.)

The guys name that first designed the berlinetta dash is Nelly Toledo. The Digital Camaro project began in 1980 and was going "full blast" by 1981.

Pat Furey also helped push GM into allowing the re-design of the Berlinetta's famous Pod Radio.

robertg

iTrader: (2)

So, the berlinetta dash panel from door to door would bolt into place of the existing sport coupe dash panel from door to door.


awesome.

give me a couple months, i have some ideas brewing in my head.

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

When it was digital,...........

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

Here it is after being converted to "analog".

The crack inthe windshield should be proof enough that it's the same car !! It was an 85 Berlinetta and the interior was from an 86 Z28.

EjBaL

why wouldnt GM put that dash in other camaros. I mean it seems like the iroc is alot higher model then the berlinetta, it seems like they would put the more luxorious features in that. And why did they quit making the digital dash?

Matt427

To enthusiasts like us, the IROC is a more desirable model than a Berlinetta, but when they were new, they both were high-line Camaro models. The IROC was, of course, the performance model and the Berlinetta was the luxury model. Chevrolet probably didn't use the digital display in the Z28 or IROC because the Corvette had a digital display, and we know how Chevrolet likes to keep the Vette in a class by itself.


They quit making the digital dash because they quit making Berlinetta's.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

I think it had to do with how much the gearheads hated the corvette dash too. The atari dash is nice for a non-performance car, but the digital crap is way too vauge and slow to react for a high performance car. Digital tachs are worthless, and gearheads hate them. With the corvette, there were enough bald 50 year-olds buying them that the dash was quite popular, but with the Camaro, the berlinetta & IROC were able to appease separate demographics. The Berlinetta was the old-man & luxury guy car, and the IROC was the gearhead car. This is why I think the IROC never got the digital dash.

Matt427

Jim, I agree with everything you said except for this one insignificant point...


I always thought of the Berlinetta as the "chick's Camaro".

raptoryfm660r

Jim85IROC,

So that's why I like that old Corvette digital dash so well now and I didn't back in the eighties. At 45 and a receding hair line the flat panels when you sit there in the Corvette make you feel right at home with a hairless head. It must be the angle at which the light enters the corvette and reflects back to the dash requiring an older:hail: balding guy to be able to fully understand the dashes potential.

Chet

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (2)

That's gotta be it.

But just to clarify without offending any more bald people, my point was that a very large percentage of Corvette buyers are not speed-freak gearheads. They're people that want a Corvette, not a sports car per-se. For them, the atari dash was yet another technological gizmo that was "cool". But for somebody that's performance oriented, the digital dash sucks. In the vette, the numbers respond too slow, so there's a lag between the display and actual engine rpm, and the sweeping bar is not terribly precise. That's why I hate the digital tach in the GTA too. Each bar is a 250 rpm incriment, which doesn't offer the precision that I'd like. I could be perfectly happy with digtal readouts of oil pressure, water temp, fuel level, etc, and the digital speedo is the cat's ***, but having a digital tach in a car that you plan to drive agressively absolutely sucks.

raptoryfm660r

Having a bald head absolutely sucks too.

I do like the early 90's vette dash better.

I think I am going to bust up one of those viagra tablets and rub it into my head and see if anything would grow up there or at least stand up the remaining hairs I have.

Chet

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

The Berlinetta Digital Tachometer Readout updates in 10 or 20 RPM increments,...... I can't recall exactly. The "bar graph" tach reads out at about 110RPM incriments. (64 segaments from 0-7000 PRPM)

The real limitation of the Berlinetta Digital Dash is the Flashing 85MPH top speed !! ( I think the vette was too due to federal regulations) Tim Burgess has come up with a plan to "fix" a Berlinetta dash to read over 85MPH - But I have not seen it yet !!