Don’t you ever wish you could get more information out of the onboard computer? Well thanks to a new product, this is now possible and with no permanent modification necessary. For the install and testing of this product, we had the sincere pleasure of sourcing a 60th Anniversary edition car. For those that don’t know, the 60th Anniversary edition Corvettes were built in 2013, and were built as convertibles with a signature set of stripes running most the length of the car. These cars were equipped with the same 427 ci LS7 motor put into the C6 Z06, and belts out an attention grabbing 505 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque.

Our “triple black” example had a six-speed manual transmission as well as the heads-up display which increased the effectiveness and functionality of our DashLogic. This car looked as if it had just rolled off the showroom floor, and considering the dealer plates and odometer count, this wasn’t far from the case. Needless to say, we were more then content with our vehicle for the Palmer Performance Engineering product test.

The DashLogic

The Dash Logic, built by Palmer Performance Engineering (PPE) is a small device that interfaces with the Driver Information Center (DIC). Specific items were selected to be displayed on the DIC by GM such as engine oil life, air tire pressures, and the like. As many of us know, our cars’ computers are monitoring a heck of a lot more data then just what is capable of being displayed to us from the factory.

So why not tap into this onboard telemetry and be that much more conscious of not only the health of your vehicle, but some useful performance data as well? This was what the guys at PPE were wondering, and thanks to their drive and ingenuity, we now have the DashLogic.

Brian Palmer, the President of PPE, said, “DashLogic was created because the last thing we wanted to do was cut up our nice Corvette to install gauges. DashLogic was designed to be small and hidden in the OBD-II port, and allows customers to view user chosen data (e.g. boost, knock, torque, etc.) on their factory display and scroll through many display layouts while driving using the factory interior buttons. DashLogic is simple to use, easy to install, and the cleanest way to get gauge data to date.”

The Install

This section is normally a picture rich section with lots of descriptions, tips, and tricks in hopes to make your installation process smoother should you attempt to install the featured product on your own. In this case, if you can plug your mobile phone in for charging, you can install the DashLogic and be up and running in minutes!

The device does protrude slightly from under the dash once plugged in. If you pull your feet rearward for some reason you could conceivably catch your foot on it, however under normal driving and entering / exiting the vehicle, we found no issue of obstruction.

One of the great things about the device is should you want to revert back to normal functionality, or only want the advanced monitoring present when you are engaging in performance driving, you simply unplug the device and can store it in your center console or glovebox for safe keeping. There are no batteries to keep charged or cables to maintain.

Functionality

You now have eight new pages available for onboard telemetry, of which you use the driver-side door lock button to cycle through. You can only scan through the pages in ascending order using the lock button, the unlock button will not allow you to move in descending order. While you do have to cycle through all the pages in order to get to a previous page, we support the foresight of being safety conscious by not unlocking the doors when the vehicle is in motion.

On certain pages, the information displayed in the dash cluster is a preview of what will be present on the heads-up-display (HUD) on some following pages, and some of it is completely original. We were unable to test the product on a C6 not equipped with the HUD but it does function fully on each platform.

Another nice feature of the DashLogic is the ability to plug it into your personal computer to tune, or adjust to your likings. As you’ll notice, there are three different profiles selectable by a mechanical switch on the DashLogic, which enables you to have several different go-to pages. For example, you could have the default full set of eight pages, one with just the performance details, and one with just the temperatures and pressures that you’d want to monitor during performance driving.

The DashLogic does have the ability to record performance statistics, which you can later download to your computer with the included USB cable. This is a great option if you are trying to develop a baseline for tuning your car, check out the gains from a tune or other performance modifications, or simply use it for fun. It could also come in handy should you lend your car to a family or friend, just to get an idea of what they were up to!

As mentioned previously, the DashLogic comes with the default setting of eight differently configured pages. Below are the DIC and corresponding HUD pages listed in order, one through eight as they appear out of the box. Again you cycle through these with the driver’s side door lock button, and all pages are configurable should you want to rearrange or delete certain items.

Impressions

We have to say that we really did enjoy driving with the PPE DashLogic installed in the C6. As those of you know that have owned or have driven one these cars, they really are amazing pieces of machinery and do a number of things in the car world quite well.

Having the heads-up-display probably contributed to our enjoyment of the device, but we would still love to have it even without. We can’t say that Johnny Law or our insurance companies would agree, but having an onboard 0-60 mph timer, a quarter-mile timer, and a lateral G-force measurement readout can lend itself to some pretty fun driving with hours just vanishing behind the wheel.

For some of us, we are fortunate enough to be able to drive our Corvettes almost year round thank to mild climates, but for those who have their beloved Vettes currently in storage, we think the DashLogic from Palmer Performance Engineering would make a great first addition when the roads dry up and the car covers come off!