Can Telemetry help the average driving enthusiast?
 

You bet it does.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/999...otuseh9.th.jpg VS http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/767...sbiglz9.th.jpg

My 8th lap of the MSR Houston track had me putting in a frantic 2:06s lap in the Caterham Superlight. Off line, off speed and a little confused as to how on earth one can go quicker - even with a very capable car.

By my 30th lap and after analysing my first, second and 3rd sessions I am now able to click off 1m55s and can tell how good or bad the lap is going to be even before I glance over at the lap timer.

I should also give some credit having been shown the ideal line and had a couple drive alongs - but the main thing is I was able to compare my performance at various points on the track against other drivers of the same car - and observe their line, speed, braking and acceleration performance.

Is this an unfair advantage for a newbie to a particular track? You bet it is... on Saturday I was able chase down and pass a GT3 and an F430 that were not sure of the track - while the Superlight is a great match for those 2 on the MSR layout, the sections of track they should have dominated on, they didn't.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1...gt32pn2.th.jpg http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6...4302dn7.th.jpg

This is why todays race car drivers seem to get up to speed faster than the racing heroes of the days gone by.

New drivers simply look at previous champions data and know whats possible in certain areas and then go out and have an advantage the first champs never had.

:)

I am looking forward to using telemetry to beat up on more exotics in the future.

Stay tuned.

Pretty cool!!! :D

Which system were they using??

They? You mean me?

And the system is the TraqMate GPS based system

http://www.traqmate.com

very nice 8)

makes you feel like a 22 yo dosnt it :P

I am not sure why it should make me feel like a 22 year old?

It's not like I wan't a good driver when I was 22 anyway :P

hot damn, 11 seconds faster in the same car! its incredible really, how close you've gotten to steve, and James :)

i have to say, its interesting that you are sometimes pulliing higher G numbers, while going slower through a bend or few then the other guys.... which must mean that their speed comes from being extremely smooth, and 10,000 laps on the track

Good to see the improvement. Telemetry can certainly help one improve as you have undoubtedly shown.

Comparing the 8th and 30th lap, the main difference seems to be that you are braking harder and presumably later and are carrying more speed (g forces) thru the corner. Your driving line looked pretty good in the 8th lap but you seemed to have widened the arc into some of the corners in the 30th lap - this should have contributed to some of the time improvement as well.

I think telemetry at this level is awesome but then it must get mindboggling at the professional sports level like F1 where you are simultaneously evaluating car setup changes, tire degradation, wing settings, changing track grip and weather conditions... Was it a third turn of the front wing to give more downforce up front that made the lap slower by 0.1sec or was it any of the factors mentioned above. There is sometimes too much data to crunch in which case you go with the driver's gut feel and hope and pray that it works out.

BTW the fastest line graph - is it for the Caterham or is it a generic ideal line? The reason I ask is that in Turns 1 and 2 it looks like James is already hitting 1.5gs but the ideal line is a lot tighter - meaning more gs if the same speed is maintained or perhaps slower speeds at equivalent gs. Will the Caterham be able to do it?

The ideal line is closer to what the Indy Car's, Carts and even other down-force full-body cars run.

As with any track, once you have the line down, it just takes someway to know what limits are appropriate for different sections - but the old fashoined way would be to go till you crash, then back off 1%.. ;)

This affords a away to know what is possible, what is unbelieveable (when you see and experience other drivers times) and what you were doing without having to test equipment limits first.

I now need to try chase the Superlight times and line with the Z06 ;)

i was about to say that :P ...
how much power do you have under the hood ?

Hey whose car is that RC? BTW congrats on taking off a shit load of time!

:) The good ol telemetry, I just know how to use teh goold ol MOTEC though and you know why hehe :lol:

There's a rear wheel drive Corolla out there somewhere that begs to differ :wink:

z - hahaha

So you saying you weren't a good driver at 22? :P

which driving record we talking about here? :mrgreen: