Here is another twist to the mystery of 444. This is a TH400 automatic car. Other than it is a cool aesthetic appearance, what purpose does a tach really serve on an automatic car?
I use mine all the time.
Not sure what the breakdown is on manual vs. auto cars with a hood tach, but you definitely use the hood tach on an automatic car to get the right shift points at the track. The factory shift governors were set for around 4800 upshifts. I modified my governor to get 5500 rpm upshifts under WOT, but I sometimes manually shift at 5800-6000 rpm.
What's REALLY strange is seeing a manual trans car without a tach. I've seen a few GTO and Firebirds with 4-speeds, even optional Ram Air engines, yet the owner felt they didn't need a tach. They may have decided to use an aftermarket tach when they ordered their car, I'm not sure.
Hood tachs were cool, but they did get some negative press on occasion. They had a tendency to fog up (which Pontiac corrected later with a separate hose to the heater box), they were hard to read at night, and if you have the sun behind you at a certain time of day, the reflection off the glass was like having someone shining a flashlight in your face.
