Tachometer and why I cannot drive w/o one!
I have no idea when they started putting tachometers in cars coming off the American assembly lines, do you? I know the German and Italian built cars of the 50's and 60's, all had tachs in them.
I will work backwards on my cars with tachometers and why they meant so much at time. I am a performance geek of sort and someone who wants to wrench the last mile out of a gallon of gas, now that it is close to $2.00/gal. I have an older car I inherited from my mother with almost 100k on it but worth more to me than I could sell it for. I keep it for 2, no 3, big reasons. No car payment would be first. The 2nd and 3rd reason is 25/26 mpg in town and 33/36 mpg on the interstate. It is an Oldsmobile Cutlass (3300 V6) with supposedly a 4 speed automatic, the 4th being over-drive. The tach shifts down about 500 revs at about 50 mph, indicating a high speed torque "multiplier" that gives the car virtually "5" forwards. That said, the faster you can get into the that virtual 5th gear with the fewest rpms, the more miles per gallon you get. WoW! Physics 101. At 70 MPH in drive, it takes 2,450 RPM. When it shifts into overdrive, the RPMs drop to 2,100. Then there is that "torque mulitpler" and you don't feel anything, just a drop in RPMs to 1,750. Now you are "maxing" out that high priced gasoline. I don't know if I would know all this without the tachometer, do you?
Karen's Honda also has a tach and we each have learn the optimum revs to let the engine and transmission shift at the most economical time. She gets about 28 mpg here in town and have gotten 40 mpg on the interstate without the A/C. Her's is only a little 1800 4 banger and the A/C is a real drag on this engine when engaged. On both our current cars, it cost us about 3 mpg if we are using the A/C. Again the tach helps her opt out those last drops high priced petrol.
The other GM cars I owned with tachometers were not necessarily there for economy. The 3rd or 4th car back was a 442 Oldsmobile, with a 455 cubic inch engine, 4 barrel Holly carburerator, and 4 speed manual transmission with Hurst shifter. It had 60 wide Goodyear lettered tires and could out-drag just about anything around at that time. Mine 442 did not have the racing stripes down the hood and trunk, only the SX emblem on the side under the Cutlass logo. So this Olds "appeared" to be a sleeper, as some, or I should say many, thought it was the garden variety Cutlass until they saw my tail lights in their windshield. A sweet car, and believe it or not, if driven at a reasonable speed without putting your foot in the carburator, it got 15 mpg in town and 18 on the highway. Gas then was maybe 4oc a gallon, so economy was not my primary concern. And I was a lot younger then. The tach then was to get optimum performance, and not to red line any of my shifts.
My first performance car was a "goat" to the unlearned. Gas, Tires, and Oil, or Pontiac GTO. This I had in 1965, 389 cu. inch engine, 4 forwards, Holly carb, and positive traction rear end just as I had in the Olds some 7 years later. It too, was a honey, just a dream drive that put your back on the seat in a heart beat and loved to fly. I up graded the tires as I did on the Olds to Goodyear 60 Wide, with white lettering. I only had it 4 years as Nursing school made it necessary to get a car with some economy. I bought a Volkswagen, brand new, paid cash, but what a let down from the GTO to a 4 banger with no room at all. But that is life! We do what we gotta do! The tach was so necessary for this car as it jumped into the high revs so fast, you could red line (over rev) without realizing it. Tires, about 10-12 K on the rear...at best.
Hope you enjoyed my car stories, and would enjoy to hear your and your love. I guess they are a married man's mistress! Enjoy!.....Jeff Nutter
"We do what we gotta do." INDEED!
I'm guessing that the 4 banger VW was a Beatle, though I suppose it could have been a Variant, or something of the sort. The first gear in the Beatle was set the way it was (and lots of engines were blown downshifting into it) because of the emergency brake. Sounds crazy, right? The engineers balanced the car so that someone going flat-out in 4th with the pedal kept to the floor could engage the emergency brake and come (slowly) to a complete stop. Then, with the brake still on, and the car restarted, you could shift into 1st and move the car to a safer place. Ah, German engineering!
The other side of this coin was Aston-Martin. They published 0-100-0 times. How fast could you push the car to 100 mph, and then slam it to a complete stop. A lot more interesting than 0-60. For an Englishman, anyway.
As for the tachometer, I had a '53 MG in my youth. The rest of the family was in Buicks. I got to watch the tach bounce back and forth, and that was the thrill of a lifetime for a kid with the top down.
Love the new look of your blog. Keep up the great stories.
