I don't have one and shift by ear. The car seems fairly consistent this way. I recall an interview with Herb McCandless where he said he was too busy to look at a tach back in the day!

I use a shift light

I look at the tach once in a while. Installed an air shifter this year....

IMO its a distraction, but it is a good reference for training your ear for accuracy.

What do i know, I seldom win anyway.

Drag car -
Pretty much in my line of sight, and I know the needle position without directly looking.
Plus a shift light in its face for further idiot-proofing.
I'll peek in the water (6000 max).
I rarely bother at the stripe, though, unless T&T.
Shutdown I'll glance at temp & oil PSI, but have another idiot light for oil PSI.

Road course car -
I'll glance on the straights at a gear change or two, along with temp & oil PSI, rest of the time it's the Zen method.

But yeah, with seat time you do learn to judge the sound.

I'm GY3's neighbor and can hear the car well over a mile away - I'm confident he has no problem hearing it red line

LMAO! Rev limiter is at 6400 for a reason....

Test and tune on Kellogg Avenue.

I run a true footbrake class mostly, and I use the tach to stage the car. Also, I use it in the traps when I'm not too busy driving the finish line. I do use a air shifter that shifts low to second at a different RPM than second to high.

Brian

I tried looking at the tach in my car, but just put in a shift light and called it good.

I used to race a drag bike with no tach or shift light.

Naw, I just shift at valve float! Side note......Anyone have some good springs for sale???

I do use it to stage when foot braking.

I use the tach in the water box. The one time I tried using a launch limiter and line loc didn't work well (let's just say user error!) so ever since I've always staged off the tach, shift on the shift light and watch the tach over the stripe for reference.

5 times per pass. Burnout, staging, 1-2, 2-3 and stripe. Can't imagine creating a .020 or tighter package without one, or a rpm shifter or a shift light.

Staging, shifting, crossing the stripe. My tach actually reads a little higher than my EFI does(which drives the tach). So by the time I see 7000 on the tach and it goes through the low speed computer in my head to my hand it actually shifts at 7000RPM on the nose. I used to think I was mr awesome for hitting my shift points so fast when in fact my tach was leading me so I could make them on time lol.

Same here. I do rotate the tach where the shift RPM pointer is basically straight up. I also put a tape mark (like a second shift RPM pointer) at the RPM where I stage.

I could not race without it.....Margins are too close these days to miss the launch rpm or a shift.....We are not allowed to use air to shift in our class.

I always shifted with a tach. Going to a shift light took a little getting used to. Still use the tach in the water. Defiantly use it to stage on the foot brake. Also nice to catch if the light malfunctions. I'd say every shift and starting line is usually within 50 rpm. For those of you that go "by ear". Maybe you shift early and you run a high torque motor that doesn't care. Or you miss it late slowing it down. I doubt it its very consistent. How do you stage? Bet it doesn't run back to back .00X second
Doug

I use a shift light and look at the tach after the gear change to see if I'm driving through the clutch down track. I always watch it in the water and the stripe. When I had the 5-speed (3.27 low gear) in the car and 4.56 gears I shifted so fast into second it was hard to avert my eyes to the tach

Gus

I'm just a "baby" when it comes to the 1/4 mile stuff...seriously, probably at most 10-15 passes TOTAL...so the shift-light is a life-saver...seriously, when you do track as rarey as I do it just gets too busy when you're finally there, a shift-light lets me focus on feeling the car move off the starting line, engine revving and when the light goes off I bump the ratches shifter into the next gear.

Now from a street point of view I use the tach all the time..somehow it seems to be 2nd nature there...probably b/c we all spend so much time on the road as is, maybe it helps that my daily driver is a 5-spd car anyways and I always catch the tach there.

I never shift with the tach. I even tell myself to look at it and I just never do as I shift by the sound and feel of how the eng is pulling. I feel that I can tell when its peaking and when to shift. I will look at it going through the traps sometimes and sometimes on the starting line I look at it. But I basically have never shifted with the tach even when I bracket raced a 4-speed car and I was and still am very consisdent. Ron