If I drove my car at 4-6k RPM exclusively, my neighbours would launch some kind of campaign to get the law involved. These cars are fairly loud and coupled with the sound of the cooling fan (which I love), I get static all the time (even from friends) about my speedy driving in the Porsche and if the truth be known, around here I drive my LandCruiser just as fast ( usually a couple of miles above the the limit)....with no complaints. These cars love the high RPM range but since they're so torquey, you can cruise frequently at lower RPM's as long as it's effortless for the motor (ie. light pressure on the accelerator).Cheers

Back in the 80s the DOT mandated that all cars have some fuel saving indicator. Most cars had a vacuum gauge that showed your "economy" by not pressing on the go pedal. Porsche did not really have room in the instrument cluster for another gauge so it went with a shift light. Another gauge would have cost a lot more and make the ROW cars have a different instrument cluster.

I bought a used tach and shipped it out to have a voltmeter put in the bottom half where the shift light was. I still have my OEM tach in the closet.

Great thread. I just picked up an 87 Targa and it's sitting next to it's distant cousin a 66 VW Bug (still 6V) in my garage. I searched this forum for "shift indicator" and quickly found this useful discussion. I was pretty sure the CASIS indicator light was a lame attempt to encourage US citizens to drive more fuel efficiently. Probably Porsche's attempt to gain some CAFE street cred with the government. My Bug lugs when I shift at those RPMs for crying out loud. The next time out with my new to me 911 with 160K on the odo and it's nice and warm I think it will be time for an "Italian tune up". Who came up with that one? Perfecto.

craze??!! how about a feds requirement? For CAFE reasons

I always thought that the reason Porsche installed the CASIS light was when they realized how insanly anal owners were about keeping their revs so high that they felt they had to do something to bring them back down to earth with some encouragement from the Feds, no doubt.


Cheers,

Joe