Help me ID this VDO gauge please?

[Pine]

Found this lovely VDO mechanical tach today, but I have no idea what car it is from? Calibrated to 3500rpm, and the only writing on the side is

03/30/46 10.75 T 1:2 VDO Made in Germany

It has the very unusual size of 60mm, and has a 12V bulb for illumination. No intention of fitting it to a car - but it would make a nice display - I do kinda have a 'gauge-fetish'

[Chris]

That is a rev counter that most likely came off a boat.The U means Umdrehungen(revs)

[Pine]

The U means Umdrehungen(revs)

[renierdev]

it almost looks like a gauge coming out of a AC Cobra or similar, but then again - which V8 can only rev up to 3500r/min?

[brianj]

old merc diesel?

[Dawie]

Maybe its a universal revcounter for diesel engines? As used in trucks,(Mercedes,MAN,Magirus)? Or big generators.
They usually had a special pickup sensor that was driven from the engine.(Diesels dont have ignition impulses).
Some used an adaptor circuit that amplified and sensed pulses from the alternator,(not very accurate,and needs to be calibrated to each engine,also affected by belt slip).
On my Magirus bus-motorhome the sensor was missing. Was quoted over R2000 for a new one. Built a simple circuit with optical pickup,and painted two silver marks on the pully for the sensor. Cost me about R15 for the spares.

[Dawie]

See yours is mechanical,so it is cable driven,no pickup needed.

[Blitzkrieg]

That's a rev counter from a Merc SSKL

[Pine]

Thanks to John from TheSamba, seems like we got a definite answer:

It is not for any particular car/truck/motorcycle/tractor.
It is a generic tach for use on low revving engines. Depending on the application, it was ordered with the drive unit to suit the application.

[Pine]

...and Dawie was spot on!