Product Review MSD Ignition Dashhawk

The DashHawk has 11 different customizable displays that can be toggled between at any time. As many as seven parameters can be digitally displayed on the screen at once or two in bar graph form. The "1" in the top, right corner represents the display screen being viewed and the "O" in the bottom, right corner tells us we're in open loop mode.

MSD DashhawkIf you enjoy challenging your car interior's space constraints with the number of gauges you can cram into your dashboard, MSD Ignition's DashHawk probably isn't for you. Or if you're content with the near-useless instrumentation your OEM provides you with, you likely won't be thrilled with what the DashHawk does. But if you're concerned with what your car's trying to tell you, and you want this information accurately without your interior resembling more like the inside of a submarine or jet cockpit and less like a Toyota, you should care about the latest DashHawk incarnation.

Most electronic devices nowadays claim to be multi-taskers. Most multitaskers can do lots of things but are never really great at just one of them. Not the case with the DashHawk. Other multi-taskers do important things, the things you bought them for, and also do a bunch of stupid things, things you really don't need or care about. Not the case with the DashHawk. The DashHawk has its share of features, but in the short time we used the small info display on Project Yaris we found nearly all of them useful.

The Yaris' interior is simple, as is its gauge cluster. The DashHawk lets us tap into information that Toyota won't let us, important stuff like water temperature and engine speed

The DashHawk is many things: a real-time information display, a tuning device, an OBDII code scanner, even a performance meter. The DashHawk is limited to use on OBDII vehicles that feature CAN (controller area network). This narrows the field of vehicles compatible with the device since CAN hasn't made its way into all new OBDII cars yet. Luckily we have Project Yaris, the only OBDII CAN vehicle here at Turbo. If you aren't familiar with the Yaris' dashboard, its gauge cluster is fairly stark. A speedometer, fuel level indicator and clock are all Toyota deemed necessary for those driving the little hatchback. No water temperature or oil pressure gauges - just idiot lights that flash once damage has already occurred. The DashHawk works well here since it monitors vitals like water temperature, vehicle speed, engine speed, throttle position or really anything else the Yaris' ECM reads. We just plugged the DashHawk's supplied cable into the car's OBDII diagnostic port and it was up and running - no set up, no calibration required.

CAN is a relatively new on-board communications protocol used by almost all automakers. In short, CAN is an engineering standard, or a language, by which computers and modules communicate with one another within a vehicle. It's the most reliable and high-speed automotive communications protocol to date. By 2008, all new cars sold in the U.S. will have it. While the electronics and wiring inherent with CAN vehicles can be more complicated, diagnosing CAN vehicles for problems is easy. CAN vehicles provide more information, and faster, through the vehicle's diagnostic port in comparison to older OBDII cars. All that's needed to retrieve the information is a CAN-compliant code scanner. CAN-compliant scanners have hardware and software that take advantage of the faster communication rates. The DashHawk has all of this. Not sure if your vehicle is CAN-equipped? Finding out is easy, just locate the diagnostic port and see if pins 6 and 14 are occupied. If they are, your car has CAN.

We like the Blitz Mirror Drive meters but two things limit them: how many we can fit in the car and what Blitz offers. We want to monitor things like throttle position, spark advance and intake air temperature; we need something else for that.

Valet mode is most useful. It records peak data like engine speed, vehicle speed and various temperatures so we know what's going on with the Yaris, even when we aren't there. The data can be locked with a secret PIN code.

Audio and/or visual alerts can be programmed in for just about any reason including a shift light, coolant temperature, vehicle speed, manifold pressure, and more. Set maximum values for engine load and throttle position to help promote fuel-conscious driving habits.