At least imo. Why the need to change it from FH4? edit - I am referring to the tachometer / rev counter needle!
Given all the character customisation and dress-up options, how about letting us customise our HUD a bit? Choose which type of speedometer we have for example? Some other games going back years used to allow this, like Juiced. For people who play using auto gears it isn’t an issue but for others it helps to change gear more optimally if you can see it clearly.
Comparison:
“Why would you need to see a needle for the speedometer, and doesn’t it show speed as a number anyway?” is what I wondered when I saw the title, before I realized you meant the tachometer. In any case, though I don’t often drive manual I, too, would appreciate a bit more visibility on that when I do. Some HUD options would be great regardless.
Oops you’re right, I haven’t had enough coffee yet 
Have to remember that’s still an early dev build, it will probably be changed upon release
I bet it isn’t changed. But I hope you’re right.
Game is released, it’s still the same.
Expected outcome … 
Most of players will play automatic, players using manual are just out of targeted audience.
You know you can change your rev counter from analogue dial to digital bar in the options ?
I didn’t know that. However, I still want an analogue dial and needle which I find much superior, same reason I’d never buy a car IRL with a digital one. (I wanted a Honda Civic Type-R mk2 but I hate the digital dashboard so much I couldn’t do it.)
Hiding most of the needle and only showing the tip is a very strange design decision. I am curious if they think they ‘need’ to ‘change’ things just for the sake of it because it’s a newer game, even if the change isn’t for the better? They could code an option in five minutes to allow people to opt for which type of needle they prefer. Default to the ‘new’ one if you wish, but let us choose the full needle in the options.
Forza has various accessibility options after all. This is arguably a similar principle: showing only the tip of the needle makes it harder to see and mentally visualise what the engine is doing without having to actually focus on the dial directly, ie. with a full needle you can more easily see it out of the corner of your eye.
I have hard enough time eyeballing it down in the corner as it is; every glance/half-glance risks losing precious hundreths/thousanths of a second that would otherwise get applied to my ever-growing FN-deficits. Angel recently got me trying to just shift by sound but I can’t help but looklooklook when I shouldn’t.
And +1 to the accessibility point; seems a contradictory move…
I shift by sound generally but as you and I know, in rivals where every tenth or even thousandth of a second count, sometimes the exact precise point at where you shift can gain or lose you that time.
It’s the same reason I find it annoying that the rev-counter does not appear for the first second of the race, so if you are trying to time your 1st-2nd shift perfectly, it can be difficult on a car with very short gearing and rapid acceleration like the A class drag Roadster where short-shifting into 2nd is slightly better etc.
Please devs… give us back our beloved needle 
I shift by sound as well. Luckily I can make a mental note of where the tip top RPM is directly before the rev limiter jump, but I understand others aren’t so lucky. Even for tuning, I don’t use the tach, I pull up the telemetry menu and run from there. However, that being said, I don’t understand why the UI always has to change massively with every game. I don’t know about anyone else, but the menus in FH3 scrolled just fine. In FH4… I don’t know what was doing it but the pause menu was L A G G Y A S H E C K, dude, like oh. Your. God. I expect FH5 pause menu to transition tabs even slower, why would I expect anything else?
But back to tach: yeah, just go back to normal like FH3. I’d actually argue for a tach like FM6 or FM7. Either that, or add in the tachs from every prior Forza title and the ability to switch between them, that way those of us, like myself, with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality can just continue using a tach from a previous game. 
In recent videos it hasn’t changed. Does anyone have a line of communication to the devs to ask about this?
I guess not 
I assume we’re stuck with it. You would think someone would ask them ‘why have you hidden most of the rev counter needle’ at least. It would be interesting to know the answer wouldn’t it? And ask them how it chimes with their previous statements on accessibility, which this clearly runs counter to.
Community manager?
People in the gaming media?
Streamers / influencers?
I remember FM7 had some HUD design issues in the beginning. Devs listened the criticism and made changes, so there is hope that PG does the same.
I agree that tiny needle imo just looks ugly. Nevermind it’s harder to read. But do you know there is the alternative “digital” tachometer that is more legible?
Yes, see WindsweptDragon’s post above and my reply to it.
“If it ain’t broke, change it” infects more than just video games as well, unfortunately. Car manufacturers like to ‘change’ things too, for no reason whatsoever. So a previous model may have had a perfectly functional headlight switch for example, but in the new model it’s been completely revamped and you can no longer just see what it’s set to at a glance unless you look really closely, which is just a bad design. I guess ‘designers’ need to keep ‘designing’ ‘new’ things to justify their jobs? Who knows.
And yeah, FH3 menus were better. I can already see some of the menus in FH5 look worse than FH4 as well, with additional steps introduced.
Oh and the Windows operating system is notorious for this too. Just stop it please… (I know they aren’t listening).
Re the tach again, the sound isn’t a solution for everyone anyway because of course some people cannot hear, hence it is an accessibility issue. My message to PG, not that they read this or probably care, is consider the effect on your hearing impaired players and fix this tachometer please. It should be considered broken in its current state.
Well well well… FH5 has won an award for accessibility!
Innovative!
Not really true though is it.
In regards to the old posts on here with just shifting with sound and shifting at peak RPM, you really need to check the telemetry and use it on the highway to create a sort of dyno graph in your head. So many cars at redline are waaaaaaay off their peak HP and when you shift you start the next gear just at or below peak HP. The worst offenders are any of the diesel engines and most Subarus which will have redlines of 8000rpm with an actual peak HP of around 6000.
And about the digital tach, it doesn’t show what actual RPM you are at making it completely useless.
