No shift light on my car. I've driven it plenty at night, and that's something you'd notice in the dark. Rest assured, there's no annoying light coming to the US. Unless you're special...

Not a very clean or elegant solution.

I don't have any light like that, just the redline buzzer.

Also, I CAN tell when I'm approaching redline, or at least time to think about switching gears. I can feel the third port opening up ~6200 RPM. It's nowhere near as jerky as a VTEC, but if you feel carefully you can notice.

I have never seen it come on, and I regularly go to 7k rpm. I believe it comes on sometime after the 7k.

The "imminent redline" buzzer is triggered at 8500 rpm, not 9500 or 9000.

If it were a fuel economy light, wouldn't it come on waaaaay before 7 grand? It sure feels like I can watch the gas gauge go down when I open it up - not much sense having a light that late...

so.... THERE'S NO LIGHT.

I just noticed his location. Could this be a Canadian thing?

If its a fuel economy light, I would have seen it. After three tanks of gas, I am averaging barely 16 miles to the gallon. Must be a Canadian thing, eah.

Didn't mean to jump on anyone, I guess it makes sense if it's an international option. Chalk it up to the list of things we can't get our hands on - no wait, this is a good thing...

So... cut the blue wire... NO!!! wait... it's the red... yeah, always stick with red...

Yeah, I've never noticed this shift light and the manual doesn't say anything about a shift light.

Shifting: As smooth as the rotary is, you'll know when you're approaching 7000rpm's. It isn't THAT quiet. The engine noise cuts through the stereo and I listen to my stereo real loud. It still feels smooth, but you can definitely hear the engine.

Just to confirm, Canadian models do not have a shift light.

Well I just got finished installing a blue LED. I wired it to the Redline Buzzer, mounted it above the steering column, and faced it towards the dash (so it doesn’t blind me). The plastic that covers the gauges magnifies the light too. It also lights up with other warnings like lights on or key in ignition.

Picture of it on
http://www.z1n.com/public-files/rx8/.../Shift_LED.jpg

My Ride
http://www.z1n.com/public-files/rx8/images/My_ride.jpg

Z1, That's very similar to what I was considering doing, but rather than just a solid LED, I was looking at putting a flat smoked plastic piece on the face of the dash with a colored LED at each of the 4 poles. Then when I hit the red-line buzzer, the entire face of the dash would change colors. I thought it would be neat.

For 6 months, never see any shift light, I need one gear display because the car so smooth and I drove on 4th gear once without realizing I am still in 4th! passing everyone on highway home (he.he.). Any other car in wrong gear the engine and transmission will scream at you to shift....

Ajax, that sounds like a good idea. When I connected the wires to the buzzer (located behind the gauges on the circuit board) I noticed the LED's that light up the gauges blue when the headlights are on at night. From what I remember, it wouldn't be hard to add another light next to it or change it out to a multi color LED. I’m going to check it out sometime and see if I can do your idea although I’m not sure what the "flat smoked plastic piece" would be for. Let me know if you ever do this mod of yours so I can maybe check it out since I'm in the area.

the plastic itself is to give the light a medium to pass through and contain it. The idea is to color the entire face with light and only the face, not to illuminate everything so the face of the tach appears to change color or glow.

It doesnt really have to be smoked but that would definitely give you more color.

MY rx7 can seffinately be driven by ear and feel. AND HELL YES does that thing get loud when u stomp on it, I dont know what ur talking about. And yes I have driven several rx8's, and u can deffinately drive them by feel and ear.

I have never seen a shift-up arrow illuminate on my dash. I struggle to see why it's such an issue. Frankly, a lot of folks might appreciate an indicator that leads them to better gas mileage.

This is the first manual i've owned and I drive by feel and every so often by tach. I just think it'd be neat for the entire tach face to light up(change colors, whatever) when the RPM warning tone went off.

That's just me and I'm kinda weird.

There was some car I saw, forget which one, but the dash lighting would change from blue at idle to red at redline, which is a neat idea.

Anyways I have taken it above 9k and never noticed the shift arrow.

About the upshift arrow that lights up in the dash, this may be a feature for the automatic version only. Im not sure if the auto has a manual mode for shifting, but I have seen other vehicles that have the auto with man mode and they usally have indicators for shiftting. Dunno about the RX8 though.