Honda - Auto Meter Monster Tach - Honda Tuning Magazine

There's Always Been A Bold Line Drawn Between The Detroit-Built, powerful American muscle of years past and today's more efficient, technology-driven imports. But many of the theories and aftermarket go-fast parts of the early days have, in one way or another, transcended into the arms of the import world. As Hondas searched for their identities during the racing community's early days, some relied on the tricks and staples that muscle car fans had long embraced.

Picture it: Southern California, sometime during the mid-'90s. You'd be hard pressed to find a modified Honda without an Auto Meter Sport-Comp Monster tach perched menacingly upon its dashboard. The huge flat face with its oversized numbers and bright red needle dwarfed what the factory gave us. Highly accurate and easy to read, the 5-inch 10,000-rpm tach was well equipped with vibration resistance as well as Auto Meter's high-tech air-core movement system, which guaranteed precision at any engine speed. Each kit included the infamous shift light, a turn-dial redline selector, as well as an adjustable pedestal mounting bracket so you could be sure it was mounted exactly where you wanted it.

But the Monster Tach's most important element as far as street racers and drag racers were concerned was its shift light. The little device produced more than enough luminosity to inform the pilot that he's reached his preset shift point and that he better do something about it...now. The ultra-bright flash warning meant that the driver's eyes could stay on the road instead of hunting for a shift point by means of the factory gauge cluster, thus offering both safety and efficiency, which are both nice things, but we all know why everybody had one. For show cars and street cars that would never find their way to a dragstrip, the Monster tach still became a must-have item for those wanting to keep up with the times and inherit some of the race parts that trickled down from the track. Auto Meter's Monster tach is still available but in more colors and with more user-friendly options, and it can still be found in some of the fastest cars in the world.