Just wondering if a lot of you guys just use a good stop watch for some good lapping around a track or do you go ahead and buy the expensive lap timers out there?
The reason im asking is b/c i dont want to spend the big bucks on a pro lap timer when a good stop watch might do almost as good. I know it wont be the MOST accurate but do you think it will work good for what i want to do.

Any good input is welcomed, thanks

 

Do you have a smart phone? Try "trackmaster" for the android or "harry's lap timer" for the iphone. Both can be purchased for less than $10 and have telemetry and gps tracking as well.

 

If you rely on stop watches, your lap times will have a standard error of about 1 second. To put that into perspective, people spend thousands of dollars to shave 1 second off their laptime, and consistent drivers have a standard error of 0.05 to 0.1 second. If you are just starting out and you're curious how fast you're lapping, then a stopwatch will do. Anything more than that, a stopwatch is worthless.

 

You get so much more information from the gps based loggers. Lap times are ok, but the gps based devices will reveal areas of the track in most need of improvement.

The price of the pbox or AiM solo isn't bad at all for what you get.

Harry's is ok, but IMO crippled by the 1Hz sampling. I believe there are add on's that increase the sampling rate of the Harry's which would make it much more useful.

 

FYI, I bought my G2X Datalogger on Craigslist for $450. The deals are out there. Aside from my bucket seat, best money I ever spent on the car.

 

thanks for the good points guys, i think i might start out with a stop watch and get the data logger for christmas
Does anyone know what goes into installing a gtech etc.. do i have to connect something up to my ecu or tap into it. I dont want to do that.

 

Gtech uses accelerometers not GPS. It's outdated.

You don't have to "tap into" anything to get lap times.

 

thanks for the info

 

06estukay has a cool little GPS datalogger he found for $150 and does everything the other ones do. Ill get the link for it or you could ask him yourself. Stopwatch has so much room for error.

 

link please^

if he just wants time why not get the $5 trackmaster app?