Best type of Tachometer to use?

Please help me decide...
I need to buy a 8-9k rev-counter with preferably a speedometer and shift light built in, to fit a new carbon fibre dash Im building for our new mk2 Grp4 Escort rallycar currently being built.
There are so many different types on the market ranging from sensible to ridiculous prices.. from the tachy and gimicky accelatometer type http://www.gtechpro.com/egs.html :laugh: to the rather nice but expensive analogue/digital stepper motor driven SPA designs http://www.spa-uk.co.uk/design/design.asp?section=tachometers_53 where the needle changes colour at user defined shift light points.

Should I bother, or keep pure basic functionality and cheap and simple?
What types are the the most accurate and reliable?

Thanks..

Whatever you put in the car won't make you go any faster ! Its up to you if you want bling. I've made do with a cheapish 10.000 rpm rev counter/oil pressure/water temp gauge for years. Obviously I don't need a speedo, although it would be good to find out how fast it goes sometimes !

Use an electrical temp gauge as the capillary tube type tend to break.

Yep, I think your right.. bling should have no place in a rallycar no matter how well it might compliment the lovely CF dash.. and thanks for the tip Re- the temp gauge.

I've used an earlier version of the SPA tach/speedo (http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa171/red21t/cpy.jpg)for while now and the only real inconvenience is when driving on the road at 2500-3500 the needle obscures the speedo display so quick check of road speed is not always possible, but despite this I have found it very reliable clear to read the rpm and shift lights during competition.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa171/red21t/cpy.jpg

Some of the multi purpose LCD things can run at quite a good cost when you consider you are replacing lots of guages with one display, you are only listing 3 purposes, but they are cheaper when you are trying to do say 6 things (especially if you add data logging, not as important for a rally car I concede)

Quality analogue guages can cost a bomb!

I've used an earlier version of the SPA tach/speedo (http://http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa171/red21t/cpy.jpg)for while now and the only real inconvenience is when driving on the road at 2500-3500 the needle obscures the speedo display so quick check of road speed is not always possible, but despite this I have found it very reliable clear to read the rpm and shift lights during competition.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa171/red21t/cpy.jpg


Very nice.. cheers for the pic.

Ive decided to just keep an eye on ebay for a far cheaper one that will do a similar job minus the incoporated speedo, all I need is something that will cover 9k rpm range and a programable 2-stage shift light.

Thinking of either this Defi BF Tacho.. http://www.nippon-seiki.co.jp/defishop/product/bfta/bfta_top.html

Or this Ford Racing http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts/part_details.asp?PartKeyField=4065

I'll keep my eye on Ebay tho..

This is an interesting one:

http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=13584&osCsid=aca4e4b0e225bad1d722c71945795ffa

A tacho, speedo, a couple of sensors, and a computerised digital display for £60.. "Comes with Vapor computer, power wire, RPM sensor, temperature sensor (19mm diameter on a 23" / 590mm wire), speed sensor (on a 4`6" / 1370mm wire) and instructions."

It looks like the sort of thing you'd see on a pushbike actually, but Rallydesign sell it, so they must have tested it on a car, you'd think...

I've been interested in these as well. It looks like they were originally designed for quad bikes but there is a model designed for kit cars as well.