How did Dodge/Plymouth come up with that light bar thing for the Rallye Gauges?

[1970 RT Challenger 1970]

Is that better or Brighter than having light bulbs in the gauge itself? Or Dimmer? Cheaper?

[4Cruizn]

Not sure how they came up with it or who's idea it was but once I cleaned mine and installed good bulbs, it works well!     I was surprised how much brighter it was afterwards!   

[polarbear123]

Not sure how they came up with it or who's idea it was but once I cleaned mine and installed good bulbs, it works well!     I was surprised how much brighter it was afterwards!   

Great tip thanks

[MEK-Dangerfield]

One nice advantage of the light bar is it's easy to replace a bulb. If the lights were somehow placed in each gauge itself, then that would mean removing the gauges to replace a bulb. 5 minutes with the light bar versus maybe 60 minutes to remove and replace the gauges. 

[burdar]

Low cost designs always get the go ahead.   It was cheap and "some" light would hit the gauges.  That was good enough back then.

Someone should repop the blue/green lenses.  I'm sure there's a modern material that will let more light pass through it.

[Locke]

I'm upgrading my standard cluster to a rallye but haven't gotten the rallye light bar, will I be driving in the dark at night?

[MEK-Dangerfield]

I'm upgrading my standard cluster to a rallye but haven't gotten the rallye light bar, will I be driving in the dark at night?

The only difference is the Rally light bar has 4 bulbs instead of three.  The standard 3 light configuration won't shed much light on the Rally gauges. The lights don't meet up with the gauges quite nice...But no, you won't be left in the dark.