D.R.E Shift Light and Drainage Holes

Having loved my track day at Brands I decided to get a simple track mod, a shift light.

Research pointed me to the Digital Race Electronics SLD5 unit, or DRE shift light as it's more commonly referred to.

Most shift lights rely on the rev counter to program the shift points whilst revving the engine. However, the SLD5 features a built in digital display to enable simple, accurate programming without starting the engine, eliminating the inherent inaccuracy associated with rev counters.
Tested and approved by the multi-championship winning Bennett Silk Formula Ford team, the SLD5 has been developed to include all the features the drivers found useful whilst racing.

The SLD5 is made up of 5 lamps and a digital programmable disply on top of the unit. The lamps are programmable across your desired rev range. For example I have mine set from 6k - 8.5k revs. The lights consist of 3 colours that are grouped together in pairs for the first 4 and the 5th light is always red (it's also the largest). I had specced mine to show orange blue and red, so the lights as they sequentially lit up would be:

Orange, Orange | Blue, Blue | Red

Yes I know this is showing Green, Green | Blue, Blue | Red

By noting how many lights are illuminated at the entry and exit of any turn, you should get an indication of where you have gained or lost time well before knowing your lap time. for those of you who track your car, you will know that timing equipment is banned and only permitted for competition use so this is pretty handy.

Once I had taken delivery, I was off to TGM to get it fitted as I'm not one for soldering anything on to my ECU. As luck would have it, the motorsport electician that Tom uses for his own race cars was there and so he installed it there and then in under 5 minutes!

DRE shift light mounted on top of the steering column. Excuse the winter mats and seat cover!

Below is a rather poor video (bit of an understatement!) where you can just about see the shift light lighting up on start up. Don't ask me why I held my camera so low...



Whilst I was there I also asked Tom to drill some small drainage holes in my rear light units. A common problem with facelift Tegs is that after a while, the rear lights take in water and end up looking like mini fish tanks. Drainage and re-sealing is an option, but the permanent solution is to drill a couple of small unobtrusive holes in the bottom of the units. You would only notice them if you were looking for them or polishing your rear lights closely so the visual impact is minimal to non-existant.

Therefore if you're ever buying a facelift Teg, don't be alarmed if you see a couple of tiny holes in the rear lights!