GTRPower

Hey Jason-

I noticed in your signature you have the GEEZ system. Give us the full scoop!

Jason Saini

I love it.. the sytem is as follows: There is an accelerometer that measures in two axes. One is fore/aft for acceleration and braking and the other in right/left for cornering. The accelerometer gets mounted in the car, and the data can be captured on either a laptop or a Palm Pilot. That data can then be analyzed by their software package. It allows you to combine and compare runs, but it also does so much more.

It maps out your entire run by calculating 'where' your car was by the acceleration numbers. It then displays the map on your laptop. The map's default view simply shows where you were accelerating (green) or when you were coasting or braking (red). At any one point on the map you can see where you are on the friction circle, how many G's in each direction you are pulling, what speed you were going etc. Then, you can also view 'utilization, smoothness and aggressiveness.' These three parameters are the coolest feature of this package.

The software calculates off your peak for that particular run. If you peaked at 1.1g, then at any one instant on the map it tells you what percentage of that 1.1g you are utilizing. That tells you if you are using all available grip. It's smart enough to differentiate cornering from acceleration. If you are in a straight, it calculates off your acceleration peak, not your cornering peak. The smootheness calculates how well you 'keep' the car at the peak. This means if you are up and down on utlization you'll get a bad smoothness rating. Then aggressiveness is how fast you pass through the friction circle... If you are turning left and need to transition right, you have to pass through the middle of the friciton circle. The aggressiveness rating shows how quick you are making this transition. All three of these 'ratings' are calculated instantaneously and on an average for your entire run. That way you can look at your overall usage for a run, and if you did 99% you know you drove up to your potential. I say your potential because it averages from that particular run's peaks. So a run that's 2 seconds slower might have a better utilization. So it's really a tool to help you become smooth and consistent. Also, with 3 drivers it will allow us see who it doing what differently and which was working better... here is a screenshot:



For more information visit http://www.extremegeez.com

I'll post pictures of the installation in my car tonight.

cdelena

That is really cool! What has been your experience with it so far? And a decent price too! I would like to hear your opinion of it and how valuable it is to you.

Jason Saini

It's pretty cool stuff, Chris... I can't specifically say whether or not it has directly helped me, because this will be the first year I use it, but I'll be glad to share experiences as they unfold. Another great benefit of this is you can share files with fellow S2K owners that get this package and compare performance, especially for people that are at the same event. For example, after Nationals, everyone who was there can compare their files and learn from it.

The little bit of fiddling with it I have been doing is with some 'example' runs that came with the software, and that is way cool. It's very easy to see how higher entry speed usually translates to lower exit speed... and we're talking 1-2 mph swings. I saw corners where 2mph less entry speed translated into 5mph more at the end of the following straight. Slow-in, Fast-out!

Here are some shots of the installation:

The Power/interface box and Palm in the glovebox... the G-Cube (accelerometer) resides under the center console, and we drilled a hole in the bottom of the glovebox to route the cable. Then, there is a serial-to-Palm interface cable. After runs, we connect the serial end to the laptop and download the run (IndyCar Style! ) Then we can view the run in the software.


Here's a shot of the Palm and in the background our Simpson harness. It's merely wrapped around the roll hoops, sufficient for Autocross where we are mainly interested in keeping in place rather than safety. Although I still feel much safer in these than with the regular belt!


I'll be reporting more when we do our testing on the 14th and 15th... We'll be doing a ton of runs in those two days, so I should have some good experiences to report with the GEEZ, shocks, bar, Hoosiers, etc! Stay tuned.

GTRPower

Hey Jason-

That's what I thought it was, although that's the first time I've seen someone actually use it.

I'm planning on something somewhat similar in the GT-R, but it involves using the STACK dash, since I need a more functional, accurate and complete gauge cluster.

Out of curiosity, does the GEEZ cube system software differentiate altitude changes too?

robj

Sounds great Jason. I wonder if they would do a group buy?

solo2racer

Since the cube is actually mine and I've used it for the last couple of years, I guess I should say something about it.

First off, it was of limited use to me by myself at an autocross. Since we only got 3 runs in a run group, I never had a chance to analyze my runs to find a better way to do things. So for anyone considering using it alone for autox, I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

For track use, that's a different story. Since you'll be making the same laps repeatedly (especially on a lapping day), it should give you lots of chances to review your runs and figure out what makes you go faster. And since the track doesn't change like an autox, what you learn will be useful the next time you come back. Since the new release (coming any day) will support 20+ minutes sessions, this will really help track use.

Secondly, with another driver the usefulness of the cube goes way up. Even though you still don't have a chance to make realtime reviews of the data, you can compare your runs with your co-driver(s). I did this a few times, and I could see where each of us was going faster or slower. We both had times within 1/10th of a sec, yet were doing things very differently. If we could have each taken the best elements of the each other's runs, we could have gone significantly faster.

This will be even more useful at ProSolo where we will have a night to compare runs before the final run session Sun morning.

Third, to be really useful, you have to take tons of notes about your runs. ie Run 1, got late in the slalom had to back off, over drove corner #3, etc. This way when you review the data, you can compare it with your actual run. It's quite a bit of work, but can payoff if you make the effort.

Fourth, the cube is a simple electronic device. It only has x & y accelerometers. There is no z axis (so no it can't detect elevation changes), and no pitch or yaw sensors. It also doesn't tie in with the car's sensors (rpm, speed, TPS, etc). That's why it only costs $400.

But as a result, it can get confused quite easily when the car is sliding. For example, the car is driving straight ahead. You yank the wheel 90 degrees and floor it and spin the car 180 degrees. The car continues in the same direction of travel, but is now moving backwards. As far as the cube is concerned, you're now moving in the opposite direction, even though the actual direction of travel hasn't changed.

I also gets confused by the car pitching, squatting, or rolling. This can be minimized, but not eliminated by mounting the cube on the centerline of the car as low as possible.

Don't get me wrong - I think it will be extremely useful to the three of us this year. You just need to be aware of it's limitations.

solo2racer

[QUOTE]Originally posted by robj
[B]Sounds great Jason.