Little Red Lines on Speedo

[ywouldi]

Hello all,

On my Mk2 1043cc Polo C I have some little red lines on my speedo, there is a single red line around 30ish, two at about 50is and three at 60ish.

What are they there for?

Also im writing this from memory so the figures may be a little off!

I am thinking they are either max speeds in respective gears or maybe a helpful hint of european speed limits, for instance, if I remember correctly the one with three lines is at about 100km?

Ben

[madmatt]

in 1st gear dont go above the 1 red line
in 2nd gear dont go above the 2 red lines
in 3rd gear dont go above the 3 red lines

it so u dont over rev your little motor and also thats u so called band of power in EACH OF THE GEARS

[carmadaaron]

that is quite cool!

they dont have them on new cars nowadays...

[hardhitter]

Most modern cars have rev counters on them instead.

[LOW PHAT SPREAD]

Thats gud! Just bin out 2 my car 2 av a luk if I av them and I do! (I av a 1043l Mk3 Coupe)

[GroovyCarrot]

Oh, that's what they are.. that's nice to know, I've got something to aim for now

[SpikeyG40]

i no my old mk2 had em, but the mk3, when i have recovered from last nite n braved the orrible weather outside, i may have to go n check my mk3! all i no is on the mk3 (1043cc) that the limiter for the gears in 1st is approx 30mph n second is around the 55mph mark!
not that i was trying or n e thing!

[GroovyCarrot]

Damn, I went and looked at my speedo and I don't have any on mine.. must have been thinking of my sister's corsa, that does.. Ah well. Tempted to draw them on if I can find the actual speeds for them

[ywouldi]

Yeah thats what I thought, there is no way I would go near 25 in 1st! My engine would fall out I sure!

ywi

[mcdinky15]

l have got it to 25 in first and she didn't seem to complain at all

[madmatt]

these old vw engines are near on bullet proof they will rev and rev dont pamper it at all just thrashing them is like ectascy they just go better than ever when vw tested the engine they burided it in snow and left it some time later they went back to it gave it fuel and some volts and it started but they noticed that snow/ice compacted around the cambelt drive so they designed the engine with a scraper blade near the cam belt to scrape of the ice and snow if it was ever to actully get coverd i say thumbs up to the vdubber engineers

[Tahrey1043]

Mine has them too, I'd say they're more like suggestions of max change up points in everyday driving.... from memory mine are like 23, 42, 67mph but the car doesn't hit the limiter til 30, 53, 81... and seems to have little problem with trucking along in the mid 5000s on the motorway (damn that low ratio )
Sure does make a hell of a racket past 4000 though... 6000 makes you think the cars about to implode

Think I once worked out you'd be doing about 5200 revs at each of these speeds - so it's pretty much at the point of peak power (for mine) and so in the lower-middle of the high end power band. You'll get a bit more urge for a particular road speed by going beyond there (say to 27, 49, 73, for random exampling) but it's the marker of the region of diminishing returns (acceleration vs stress on engine and petrol wastage).

(( actually if i check a digi photo of the dash and whip the calculator out - it's 5000 in 1st, 5250 in 2nd, about 5360 in 3rd... really for a car with a power curve shaped like mine you want the higher revs in the lower gears and the change point dropping just a bit as the gap between gears tightens up, very odd that the speedo designer has set it up in this way. P'raps a jack of all trades meant for all possible engines and gearboxes? Then again i've seen photos of 3+E clocks and the ticks were at like 27, 58, 87..! ))