At 09:24 AM 9/6/96 -0500, you wrote:
>to stay pretty focused on driving. He gets the 87 up to cruising speed
>65-70mph and after about 10 minutes as the traffic kind of spreads out he
>glances down at his tach and sees that the tach needle is WAY BEYOND RED
>LINE!!!--its like the tip of the tach needle is about even with the red

Must be a bad tach readout;  my '87 will redline @~ 68 in third, stock
tires, gearing etc.  Actually the engine will start cutting out (by design)
just at redline - you'd swear the motor mounts all broke at once.  I
regularly make the run from the Bay Area (that's the  *San Jose* Bay Area!)
up to Truckee (Lake Tahoe); there are 4 +steep+ grades that I have to plan
ahead for - run 'er up to 75+ in 4th, maintain full throttle until the
speedo is down to 50; downshift & run back up to 65, do it all again as
often as necessary to crest the hill.

Austin