How important is a tach?

[Boston GN]

I mean, once you have the tranny shifting where it should, and once you know when you go through the traps, how important is a tach to you? How many actually use one?
Just curious

 

[Grumpy]

been using them since 86 ...have them in all my cars

 

[Chris Taylor]

I use one along with a shift light. This is with a manual shift valve body trans.

 

[Crazi]

A tach along with other gauges are diagnostic tools to me. If something feels funny, I can make myself feel better by looking at my tach. If I am wondering about oil pressure, water temp, fuel pres. etc, all it takes is a quick glance. Now if you have a scanmaster, you don't NEED a tach but I think every performance car should have one. Rice Burners included.

 

[KEVINS]

I never used one excpet for tuning. I raced/shifted by feel..

 

[Turbojorge]

The scanmaster tells me the RPM's, but the shift light tells me when to shift. (or it will now that I have installed one).

I think a shift light will be more important than just a tach, but thats just me. I bumped the Rev-limiter once because the launch threw my ass almost to the back seat.

I can't go by "the feel" anymore, I get too nervous and can't really hear my car threw the helmet and with the noise from the car next to me.

 

[Joe Tiano]

no tach here..but my SES light flashes @5400 rpm kinda kewl..its a red armstrong 106 chip...with shift light option

 

[jojo]

Just the Scanmaster

 

[Russ Merritt]

My factory tach is a full 1500/2000 rpm too high! Really sucks when you think the engine is off the meter and it isn't even at 5000 yet. I just went with the auto meter 5" with the shift light. It was on sale in 1999 for like 99$. Can't drive without it now.

 

[750H.P.V6]

Don't need no stinking tach

Guys,

I figure the only reason for a tach is if you're going to manually shift the car. A shift light is better in my opinion since it catches your attention if your otherwise occupied.

The stock tach is just about useless and most don't read accurately. Personally I get the trans to shift WOT at the RPM I want it to with some valvebody and governor mods, put the car in D and hold on.

Neal