Beyond the Mercury's steering wheel with its standard air bag, digital gauges dominate the instrument pod.

The rub rail, pivots, and boarding handling were yellow, and the instrument pod and handle pole cover were black.

The Escort has a version of the Taurus's elliptical instrument pod, which contains the audio and climate controls.

These instrument pods or nodes, filled with computer equipment, look like pyramids with five-foot-high stainless steel shells protecting them from curious fish.

The dash has been revised this year, but the designers have retained the neat shelf at the right of the instrument pod.

Large, analog gauges live in the instrument pod, and temperature and radio controls trail down into the console between the bucket seats.

Twin cup holders slide out of the newly designed dash, which now has a larger instrument pod and a hugely optimistic 140-m.p.h. speedometer.

The car also has an instrument pod in the dashboard that moves as the steering wheel is adjusted.

From the tangled hull of the flower-ship, an instrument pod of some kind uncoiled on a graceful pseudopod.

They were fitted with cameras in the nose to take pictures of cloud formations, and carried a special meteorological instrument pod in the bomb bay.