Projects Save The Gauges

I found a tachometer, which has an interesting history & thought I'd add it to what I believe might be the greatest old car/hot rod database in existence. The tach is an AC 8,000 RPM unit, which was made for the 1957 "Air Box" Corvette for that RPO 579E (option) & was nick named the "Black Widow." I was aware of the existence of them, as a friend of mine has a car with that option. When I first saw the tach in the car, I thought it was just an add-on, but I was schooled by the owner that the car left the factory with it mounted on the column. It has a 2:1 ratio & was driven off of the dizzy, unlike the dash tachs in the 58-61 Corvettes, that ran off of the generator. From what I can gather from reading the scattered history, the tach apparently was also used with the 1957 210 sedan Chevys, equipped with fuel injection, that ran at NASCAR, and the three 1956 SRII, (SR2) GM Sebring Race Cars. One other interesting tidbit was that AC made the tach for two years after 1957, to serve as parts replacement and for whoever had the money & hankerin' to add one to their car. This particular one is date coded January 16, 1959.

 

@fleetside66 that is beautiful.
I have a new in box 2500rpm I will trade ya? Lol

 

Yeah, the 2,500 & 4,000 AC tachs are quite plentiful & as well made & good looking as you'd ever want. Why on earth the AC marketing people at the time didn't have it in their heads that higher RPM tachs would have filled an important niche has always been a head scratcher to me. I'd think that producing a 2,500 RPM tach & an 8,000 RPM tach would cost the same.

Here's a picture of one in a Corvette, which I forgot to post. According to what I read, there were 43 1957 Corvettes produced with the RPO 579-E option.


Also, they produced a special mounting bracket to go with it, which are probably rarer than the tachs themselves. . ...looks easy enough to fabricate.

Mine came with this chrome cup, which form fit the tach cup & probably protected the date stamping. Nerdy stuff, but the devil is in the details.

 

Two odd balls in a box of SW gauges I bought today. Anyone know what the one with the square shape is? It has no markings.

 

@dumprat That square one is a boat gauge. Made by Quicksilver in the 70s, used on Mercruiser boats, maybe others. I’d run it. Looks cool.

 

@37hotrod I would love to find the rest of the set. I think it’s cool. It wouldn’t matter if it was off a toaster oven.

 

Here's a matching tach that's on Ebay.

 

Odd ball db gauge i found to match the pressure pump i whipped up