For my CMC car, why do I want a tach?

I can concede a shift lite, but a tach would be somewhat a nuisance or distraction, I am thinking.

I always thought having one of those sequential shiftlights (ala F1 style) would be cool. Gives you some notice before you have to shift but you don't have to look down either.

What I did Mitch was put a raptor shiftlight on the top of my a-pillar (level with my eyes) and aim it at my face when I'm sitting in the car. Doing this I can look straight ahead off into the distance and know when to shift without focusing my attention elsewhere. I don't know why people mount it so low (drag racers).

It's basically an improved version of Harlans.

I think you would want the tach.....

You will use it very little when you are used to the car, but it is an invaluable tool to help in improving your driving/tuning the car. For example, your normal line puts you at 5800 at the exit of the turn and 6200 at the end of the straight.....you alter your line, and you now exit at 5900 and are pushing the rev limiter at the end of the straight....

I use the tach as a tool to evaluate these type of things...

I would like to get a programmable, sequential shift light such as the one Lou G sells. I've even seen one designed to mount on the helmet so you just see the colors in peripheral vision. Like Rob said, I'd want to mount it higher than the tach.

I suppose you could hack apart 3 Harlan shift lights to make a sequential light pattern like you are all talking about. You could take 3 different colors, remove the LEDs and line them up how you liked, then just set the 3 different modules to activate at increasing RPM points. Say 5,500, 5,700, 5,900.

That is probably a ghetto and terrible idea, but that is the only way I am able to think for some reason.

Project "Ghetto-maro" has started to have an effect on him.....

I second Randy's reasoning. A shift light is helpful too. After you run your dyno you can determine where the light is going to come on. In my '84 TA CMC car I have a big Autometer tach in the dash, nice and easy to read.

I like a tach for the same reasons that Randy listed however I also like a shift light.

I'm VERY bad at looking at guages. VERY VERY bad. In the old #45 CMC car (R.I.P.) I ran a shift light and a warning light for oil pressure and water temp. In the #45 AI car I have two warning lights, a blue one for water temp and a red one for oil pressure. I have a shift light but did not get a chance to get it hooked up this year and I did miss it a bit.

I do like the idea of a sequential shift light thought. If time permits I'll look at adding one for '05.

-N

LG Motorsports sells a squential one.

Yeah, that tach is more useful than you think. Not so much for knowing when to shift, but like others have said for helping you improve your line/driving/setup. I use mine all the time and I plan to upgrade to one that's easier to read at speed.