STEPHEN BAYLEY
‘Dashboard’ is a hangover from the carriage trade, like ‘limousine’ and ‘berline’. Originally a protective barrier, often upholstered, it survived the evolution in propulsion from external horses to internal combustions, and was a dominant feature of the early automobile: the very first massproduced car was known as the ‘curved dash’ Oldsmobile.
Quickly, the dashboard became a place where the car’s instruments and secondary controls were housed, a sense contained in the German and the Italian . And the design of dashboards – in the latest Minis.
