Being fairly new to it all, the more simple the better, so I don't think I'll be building anything from scratch
The more I think about it, I really don't need a full dash as such, as the car still has it's original dash and is registered and driven on the road frequently at this stage. However, I would like a display that incorporates, some shift lights, lap timing (maybe predictive as well), displays oil pressure, oil temp and water temp, and has well lit alarms for those three.
On that basis something like the Race Technology Dash 4 and a DL1 might do the trick. I also like that you can integrate GoPro video as well, as I already own a heap of GoPro gear.