Revcounters - who uses them?

[jhonn]

Driving the Mrs's car (Fiat 500) to work yesterday it struck me that the revcounter is something that is fitted as standard, that I never use. Same with the other current cars, a Landcruiser and a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Makes me wonder why the manufacturers even bother to fit them to these kind of cars?

(Even cars that I've owned that could be considered 'sporty' - TT 3.2; Impreza Turbo - I can't recall ever referring to the revcounter, even when driving in a spirited fashion).

So.. do you use yours? Would you miss it if it wasn't fitted - would you specify one for your current road car if it was an optional extra?

And just for interest - anything else that is fitted to your car as standard that you never use and don't see the point of?

Cheers,

John

[jhonn]

topless360 said:

Not sure if serious

Deadly mate, deadly.

topless360 said:

I regularly look at the rev counter, how else do you know when to shift if driving on track/spiritedly?

Well, I don't drive on a track, and if I'm pressing on when on the road I tend just to listen to the engine and concentrate on the road; I wouldn't want to take my eyes off the road to glance at the revcounter.

I ride my bikes more spiritedly than drive my cars - neither of the bikes (KTM & Ducati)have a revcounter fitted - can't say that I've ever missed having one.

[jhonn]

165gt said:

Yes, frequently look at mine. Find with a diesel it's less obvious from engine noise what revs you're doing.

You say you don't use yours but put it another way; if it was an option from new that you could 'delete' the rev counter, would you?

Aye - I probably would. (save a few quid - as a Scotsman, that's important.)

From new - meaning a modern car, I don't have the need, and I think most modern engines have revlimiters fitted anyway - so even if it was a particularly free revving unit, damage from inadvertent overrevving wouldn't be an issue.

[jhonn]

Urban Sports said:

Is this some kind of joke thread?

I've religiously used the rev counter in every car I've driven that has one whether it has a 9000 rpm red line or a 5000.

No.. just interested if people use them in regular driving - when do you use yours?

[jhonn]

Triumph Man said:

I've never owned a car without a rev counter.

I had one once - a clapped-out original Beetle - it didn't need a revcounter - it just wouldn't rev!

I wonder if there is a modern car on the market that doesn't have one as standard? I suspect that manufacturers fit them to the cooking, mundane models of their cars to give a sporty image.

[jhonn]

Urban Sports said:

In "regular driving"....

Oh well.. your regular driving must differ considerably from mine.

Out of interest, what kind of car?

[jhonn]

luckystrike said:

It's a useful diagnostic tool more than anything - gives me an idea of when the modern car is off the warm-up circuit when idling, and helps diagnose bad running or carb setup on the old one.

I agree - it's useful to know revs when setting up an engine or in diagnosis - the disadvantage is that the guage is in the car - if I had the choice I would fit it in the engine bay.

[jhonn]

Urban Sports said:

Most of my cars are listed in my profile, I've used the rev counter every trip in every car, I'm not sure why you wouldn't?

I've never felt the need - if I'm accelerating hard I can feel when the power starts to drop, if I'm decelerating I know when to change down to avoid overrevving - I don't need the revcounter to tell me when to change gear.

[jhonn]

Urban Sports said:

I used to watch the one on my wife's old 1.6 Astra to see how ridiculously slow it moved round the dial!

They can be entertaining, and tell you a lot about a cars engine characteristics, particularly if it's a car that you don't normally drive; or if you're a passenger.

[jhonn]

Poopipe said:

I use mine a lot cos I have a big shouty miltek exhaust which ruins the sound of the engine so much I have no frigging idea how fast its spinning round.

Bloody horrible noise

I can see how you chose your username.

[jhonn]

luckystrike said:

... non-rev counter golfs even had a little red dot on the speedo showing the 'safe' shift point for each gear:

Good post - that little red dot was the analogue version of the digital shift light.

[jhonn]

Conscript said:

...what's so outrageous about people not using them? I wouldn't say they are essential for day to day driving.

Quite. Maybe it's partly pyschological.. in this forum (in particular), it's maybe a wee bit non-PH to admit to not needing streams of data verifying that you're in the zone and in perfect synchronicity with your machine.

[jhonn]

Murray1986 said:

.. still more power at that point than changing up..

Don't quite understand what point you're making there - if you want to keep max acceleration, once peak power starts tailing off there's no point in staying in that gear - time to change-up. It's not always fastest taking it to the limiter. (Well, at least that's my experience anyway)

[jhonn]

J4CKO said:

For some it lets them know, in quiet cars, that the engine is running but I really dont think we should be looking at it all the time.

I've never owned a car that quiet - one day Id like to. I wonder if people with electric cars miss them?

Any Tesla owners here?

[jhonn]

GetCarter said:

Almost never look at the speedo, ALWAYS look at the rev counter. Can't believe people don't.

And I can't believe the number of people on this thread that feel the need for a gauge to tell them how they're driving, or how their engine is performing.

We're all different I guess.

[jhonn]

GetCarter said:

As mentioned... F1 drivers.

And are you an F1 driver? LOL

Look... I take your point, revcounters absolutely have their uses on competition vehicles, vehicles that have fragile engines, or particular engine characteristics. However this thread is about using revcounters, when driving on the road in a road legal vehicle. Regular driving (commuting, etc), driving for fun/having a blast - not trackdays/circuits/hillclimbs/sprints/drag-racing/autotests, etc.

It's not that I don't believe in revcounters - I once retrofitted one to a tuned Landrover V8 - however that was being used in competition (trials). It never had a revlimiter as standard and I didn't want to overrev the engine on muddy hillclimbs - never really got the chance to heed it, generally there was too much else going on when the welly was down.

[jhonn]

GetCarter said:

jhonn said:

GetCarter said:

As mentioned... F1 drivers.

And are you an F1 driver? LOL

No, but some of them I consider my friends.

You may not like rev counters for whatever reason, but many of us here use them for many different reasons. You need to understand that your vision of their use is not that of all of us.

We use them in a different way to you.

That's Ok - as I said earlier 'We're all different..'

Have a nice evening.

[jhonn]

Riley Blue said:

I question the need for one in a 05 1.4L Fiesta diesel but it has one - why?

Good question! and kind of the point I was making when starting the thread.

If anything, the responses have shown me that we all have different needs from our instrumentation - some Fiesta diesel owners will swear by the need for a revcounter, others not so much.

I suspect that the manufacturer fits it as standard to 'lift' the image, make it appear as a more premium or sporty product; for all of the cost of the gauge it may cost them more to engineer it out for lesser models, than leave it in.