Gaspode

Just reading a recommended "track day book" read.

Recommendation is... if there is any sort of accident on the track - even if it has nothing to do with you. Hide all evidence of lap recording.

It could invalidate the organisers insurance.
eg - Insurance companies will clutch at any straw whatsoever to avoid paying out.

Scary Huh....

jimboturbo

All superbikes use GPS based systems on the datalogging for the track.. very good...

RichUK

We use the Performance Box on our race cars for practise and qualifying and then analyse the data to help finalise driver strategy. For actual races the Performance Box is no good as it cannot transmit live data back to the pits.

At Silverstone on Wednesday next week we are testing some GPS data logging that will be fed back to us live. As we found out, live data transmission is very expensive indeed!

PTL32

Cheers lads... I had a look at the G-Tech RR. Neat. Uses accelerometers, and is accurate enough from what I can tell by reading up on it.

But, I did have in mind to get a sat-nav mapping function: I'm not a sat-nav freak (never owned one) but I was in a taxi the other day, and the 3D view on the screen struck me as maybe being useful for seeing what was coming up in terms of junctions and bends and stuff - seemingly useful for when punting hard across country - taking some of the unknowns out of what's coming up on unknown roads, so you can keep your pace up...

Then again, maybe that sounds like dangerous practice - taking the 'anticipation' out of driving might take the skill and edge off high-speed driving. (Naturally, a TomTom isn't going to tell you about a bad surface, adverse camber or horserider!!) Reliance on technology like that perhaps a bit foolhardy...!

Has anyone found a sat-nav system as a useful real-time 'rally-stage' prompt in that way?

JG

This sounds like a pretty good recommendation for the performance box for the Track Day enthusiast, as live data back to the pits wouldn't be a requirement.

I quite like the idea of doing a track day and then looking at the data after the event to see what my "performance" was like around the track. Surely this is something PJL needs to add to his car

I recently stuck TomTom on a Smartphone having never bothered with SatNav previously. Interestingly there's been a couple of time where I thought the graphics might help show a possible overtaking straight on a country road I didn't know. However, I watched this a couple of time and the graphics simple aren't reliable enough to give a good indication of the road ahead to make it a "safe" practice.

PTL32

Cheers for that advice - saves me spending out needlessly on a sat-nav system. Compared to a sat-nav you can't beat an AA Road Atlas for value can you!

Reckon its a G-Tech RR Performance Meter for me then.....

Dembo

I can't imagine any of these things are purely GPS. Accelerometers don't cost a lot and are a lot more accurate, and can give a lot more useful information. The GPS is probably used to work out where you are on the lap, and the accelerometer for all other readings.

JG

I think it's a little more than that. The reviews mention accelerometers, but compared to the G-Tech RR there doesn't appear to be a need for any calibration of the device (e.g. input of car weight).

Check out:
http://www.racelogic.co.uk/?show=VBOX-Accuracy

The performance box is based on the Racelogic VBOX technology.

If RichUK is using the performance box on race cars, then this little device should be more than ample for the average track day

If I have

Dembo

Putting in the weight can only be about guestimating the bhp.

RichUK

We use the performance box, because their other stuff is a bit pricey and my budgets won't stretch to the full monty